Foggy Jura

Today I did my first mountain hike. The weather was not perfect, but in the end mountains get a very majestic look when in clouds, so it’s worth hiking even without the sun. I tried hiking the most well-known summit – le Reculet (1717 m).

Higher parts where covered in the soft snow and it was difficult to walk ahead without snow shoes. On top of that, I didn’t see any trail sign (everything was covered in snow) and the fog made the view limited, so in the end, I didn’t reach the cross which stands on the top of the mountain. But that’s fine, I will have plenty of opportunities yet to climb le Reculet. Most probably I’ll have a next trial the next week.

83′ Geneva Auto Salon

Today I visited 83′ Auto Salon in Geneva. That was my first attraction during my stay in Geneva because weather has been preventing me from cycling and hiking. This year it was bit more crowded  then the last time in 2010. But still I was able to see all Geneva premier cars and to sit in all vehicles that I wanted. I was also warmly welcomed by Volvo Diplomatic Dealer. So let’s see all the goodies.

First Geneva beauty shown for the first time was Lamborghini Veneno.  For me it was one of the two most beautiful cars in salon. Too bad that they built only three of them. Second best looking car was Koenigsegg Agera S Hundra:

There was hundreds of cars and everyone looked beautiful with a polished paint and appropriately lit.

After I had asked Volvo hostess about the prices and told her that I was from CERN, I was taken to a very nice Volvo VIP lounge where I waited for a dealer.
During the salon you are surrounded by cars not only on the ground but in the air too:

Most disappointing for me was the new Ferrari – la Ferrari – ordinary name and ordinary look, like for Ferrari 😉

And this infotainment system looks familiar… 🙂

And that’s all. Auto Salon see you next year!

Woman’s Day treats

Today was the International Woman’s Day. It’s an occasion widely celebrated in Poland. You can meet men giving away flowers to women on the streets and tons of ladies strolling around with bouquets (tulips and roses are the most popular).

Since I work in a rather manly environment (all in all there are only ~10% of women in my company), I experienced a lot of signs of good will and friendliness.

So my treats for this day comprised of:
– flowers and chocolates from my work colleagues and family
– photo shoot organised by my employer.

Yep, you got it right! An undeniable advantage of working in a corporation is that it creates a lot of possibilities of various kind. There are budgets for different activities and employees can really benefit from that.
This year we had a marvellous occasion to participate in a video shoot for the Woman’s Day. For those girls who volunteered, an additional keepsake was given. We had a professional photo session organised. I enjoyed both – video and photos.
Have a look at the results.

And the movie… Quoting from YT:
This video shows women in Tieto Poland who work on different levels in
the corporate hierarchy and are responsible for different areas related
to software engineering. We hope to encourage young women to choose
studies and career in the fields of information technology.

This
video is part of an information campaign in Poland, starting 8 March
2013, that is intended to show the diversity of possibilities for career
development for women in the IT industry. 

Foggy Ségny

Today we went for a longer walk around Ségny. As you can see from the photo above, it wasn’t sunny. I bet that Jura mountains would look spectacular, if only we could have seen them through the mist.
Anyway, I liked the walk, so different from the usual city-walks in Szczecin. I really appreciate that it takes only 5 minutes on foot from our place to find ourselves in the middle of nature – with horses, cows, wild birds and who knows what else.

Sunny Ségny

Our first day in France. After settling in we went for a walk round the village we are staying. Ségny is really a dot on a map – it has around 1600 inhabitants and there is not much to see or do except for walking or riding a bike. Of course, there is a fromagerie (cheese shop) and a boulangerie (bakery) which are „the musts” in every French city.

 

Did I mention it  was sunny? Seriously, it was. I just love the weather in this region.
Anyway… The village is super calm and super pretty. The view on Jura mountains is spectacular and unbroken by civilization. It’s a pity we will have to move out from the place. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that other villages in the neighbourhood are equally charming. And even if we find ourselves in a bigger city – it will be still 5 minutes ride from the countryside. The nature is omnipresent here and I love it!

Since the weather was so lovely (did I mention that?), when we reached the end of the village, we decided not to finish our exploring walk and to move to a different place from the neighbourhood. I remembered nice spots from 3 years ago, when I was at CERN so we went to Versoix – a beautiful place on the shore of Geneva lake. But on our way there we saw a sign saying „Chateau Coppet” meaning „Look out for some fancy castle in the village named Coppet”, so we passed by.

As I already said, the villages around are rather petit, even Geneva itself is not a very big city (around 200 000 citizens) so after a moment spent in Coppet we moved to Versoix which is known for chocolate factory „Favarger”. You’ll see many more photos from Versoix soon because in March there will be a chocolate festival that Radek definitely won’t miss. For now just a teaser.

Lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you…

Today we had a marvellous occasion to go an a real sleigh ride with real horses. Such sleigh rides are very popular in south of Poland. In the north – where we live, it’s rather unusual to have such rides with real horses. For us it was the first time and I really liked it. Horses are awesome! The weather was fine – cold enough to keep the snow and not freezing to the bones. A stud farm was situated in the outskirts of Szczecin where snow was pretty much intact. Before we started the ride we had had some time to get acquainted with the animals.

All in all there were 2 horses, 12 people, 1 big sledge and 5 little ones. The best fun was at the back, on the little ones. I liked the sound of bells ringing (they were hung on the horses neck – felt like Christmas!). And the ride was real fun!

We had exceptional fun when someone fell off and had to run fast to catch the others 🙂

After an hour of amusement and laughter we came back to the stud to warm up a bit by the fire, grab a sausage to eat and drink warm tea with a slight addition of rhum or cherry brandy.

Ozeaneum in Stralsund

After a long walk at the seaside (see: Natureum post) we headed to Stralsund – the main destination of our trip. It’s known for the Baltic See museum called Ozeaneum. Inside one can see a lot of underwater marvels – it’s a place I have wanted to travel to for a long time now. We didn’t see so much of the city. It was freezing cold and gloomy so we went straight to the museum

The exhibition started creepily – with a lot of plastic (to-me-lame) specimen or taxidermized animals or, even worse – shellfish in formalin. We rushed through those rooms, not having a lot of interest in non-organic exhibition. Fortunately, it was just a warm up before the real fun – the multitude of aquariums.

At some point we had a close encounter with a sea monster (an octopus of some kind). It was both, scary and amazing. I was taking a photo of a seemingly calm creature, but apparently it didn’t like my camera and leaped on me! (I am not sure if a creature can leap in water, but for the sake of my dramatic description let it stay as „leap”). After a while the octopus came back to it’s withdrawn position at the back of the aquarium. I have to say I was very surprised by this sudden display of power. Bullies are everywhere!

The biggest aquarium was really huge and looked like a cinema screen. One could watch the wildlife in it from 3 different floors. Schools of fish were amazing. The glass was thick for 50 cm!

At the end of our round we visited penguins. Penguins, yay! I love penguins. They are soooo adorable. It’s a pity it was too bloody cold to stay outside and watch them play under water. Their aquarium was situated on an upper level of the building and we could see Stralsund panorama from there. Having said goodbye to penguins we went to the old town of the city, had a cup of coffee and a bite of cake and went back to our warm car.