Cosa Nostra, Ohrid, Macedonia

Cosa Nostra pizzeria - nice place, great location - old town Ohrid.

Marko Marković - AT Kearney consultant turning into CIO at Banca Intesa in Serbia. Growing up in Sremska Mitrovica, Strumica and Belgrade - following family following father following army job. Used to work for GDS, cherishes his son and friends, is not answering phone over weekends, just finishing Cotrugli EMBA and is reading The Bank Credit Analysis Handbook. One day he will develop his writting talent to its full potential, read tons of books and maybe tolerate authority.

Balkanski špijun - legendary Yugoslav movie. Featured on TV in Macedonia. Today.

Trpejca, Ohrid, Macedonia

Trpejca, pleasant fish-village on Ohrid lake. With the right company, comes the real warm Balkan feeling.

Diana Dimitrova - Finance and Admin manager at Melexis, automotive electronics system producer. used to work for Elite (now Strauss), PWC and AIG. Only recently jumped into LinkedIn, Facebook and Skype, has two kids and her 11 years old daughter has a new boyfriend. She loves mountain climbing, just finishing Cotrugli EMBA and is reading One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey. One day she might climb Mt.Everest. And relax.

Humble, domestic cheerleader and fish-snatcher.

Hotel Istra, Sv.Andrija, Rovinj, Croatia

Beautiful Sv.Andrija (St.Andrew) island near Rovinj, hosting nice Hotel Istra, one of the pearls on Maistra necklace in Istria, Croatia.

Zoran Puljić - Director at Mozaik community development foundation in Bosnia. Born and raised in Sarajevo, where he also lives now with his Catalan wife and 3 kids. Serbian father, Croatian mother, he fought and was wounded in Bosnian war, moves to Germany, worked and lived in Schwarzwald. Upon return worked for OSCE and USAID, was educated at London Metropolitan and is now finishing Cotrugli EMBA. He's a DIY master, travels a lot and is reading Edwards' Future Positive. Passion is my foundation and foundation is my passion. Great person to be around.

At TEDxLjubljana one week after. "If you don't plan to do sports, consult your doctor or pharmacist!" Great provocation by Urban Praprotnik.

Staropramen Potrefena Husa, Prague, Czech Republic

A tasty alien served in Staropramen Potrefena Husa. The place is very famous, very good and very crowded. All sorts of species.

Jamie Knowles - Rational Cloud Market Manager at IBM. Originally from Warwick, but spending a lot of time in Prague lately. Studied at Imperial College in London where he was president of Jazz and Rock Society, where also Brian May and Freddy Mercury played. Still plays guitar, used to work for Popkin Software and Telelogic before acquired into IBM. Reading The Mountain is Young and will one day go back to female body sculpting. Full time. Full stop.

ČMSS is a good deal. For some. All You Can Eat.

U Prince, Prague, Czech Republic

Hotel with a superb view terrace on top. U Prince. UNESCO heritage protection.

Milcho Angelov - Tivoli Automation Sales Leader for IBM CEE. Born and raised in Sofia, currently based in Prague and used to live/work in Dubai. CIS - Commonwealth of (In?)dependent States, Middle East and Central-Asia-stan used to be his work sandbox. He was in Marriot hotel in Islamabad when there was a terrorist bomb blast in 2007. Worked for ASI Company and Aircom with Matthew Walker. Big on skiing and fishing - used to have a fishing boat - and is reading a book about Toilet lid war. One day he's gonna spend a lot of time on his even bigger fishing boat - oh, thee fish behold and beware the Bulgarian "Forrest Gump".

Death row? The Green mile? Given up without a fight? Definitely not protected by UNESCO.

Staromestske namesti, Prague, Czech Republic

THE Staromestske square. Tourists, tourists, tourists. And you don't even need to find a place to sit down to have a drink.

Arden Agopyan - WebSphere Application Infrastructure Tech lead for IBM's CEEMEA region. Armenian origin, bred in Istanbul, French high school, French college, Turkish Tech Blog ardenagopyan.com. Does aggressive inline skating (yes, that's the expression), reads Michael Crichton and used to be Techno DJ. Still going out a lot and will one day have a big boat and travel the world. Tech(no) style.

iNerd alert! One of them is Arden's.

PlaNinata SPA Hotel, Ribaritsa, Bulgaria

PlaNinata SPA Hotel is a great place in Ribaritsa near Teteven, Bulgaria. Check more photos on their website, where also this one was taken. Kudos to Nina.

Ivo Penev - Software Architect at IBM Bulgaria. Used to work for Latona and Prepay Services. Finishing his MBA at City University of Seattle in Sofia. Swimmer, used to do a lot of programming (also in competition), has 2 year old son. Ivo, not Ivaylo.

Colorful program at PlaNinata. Young singer leading the group.

Barbakan, Warsaw, Poland

Barbakan restaurant in Warsaw. Barbakan is actually barbican which is "a semicircular fortified outpost" in Warsaw. Good food, great beer, excellent company. And an appalling picture - rushing to get back inside.

Randolph Moorer - Newly assigned WebSphere Manager for CEEMEA region at IBM. His father was in navy, so he was growing up all over the world. Atlanta college, living in Florida now, not golfer anymore (What free time?), Used to work for CSX and then 25 years of IBM. He's in the Canon side of digital photographers divide with his 40D, travels a lot with his family (14 years old son) and were recently in Peru. Does running and will one day fly to space as a tourist like Dennis Tito, while building orphanages on back on the earth. Quite a vertical span.

Daily servings of Sushi, delivered fresh to IBM Warsaw office. 20 zloti for cold fish delight.

Žabec, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Žabec - (= male frog), a quick business lunch place, well hidden in the cellar of Bežigrajski Dvor. Yes, I did not make this photo(s) - I borrowed it from their web site.

Urška Škraba - Undersecretary at Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning. Vodice offspring, Ljubljana raised, Gorenjska-Dolenjska mix. M.A in Social Science/Ethnic studies at FDV, used to teach English in elementary school, before she learned really well to navigate through EU presidency and EU bureaucracy organized chaos. Reading Dan Brown's Lost Symbol, excellent amateur bowler (5 strikes in a row - beat that) and has 12 years of serious dancing behind her. One day she will have a tutoring company, private kinder garden and care service for elderly. Care-o-rama.

Some companies have on-site massage places. IBM in Poland is one of them. Meeting rooms meets Thai pressure pleasures.

Klub Preserne Zdravljice, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Klub Prešerne Zdravljice. Odd ambient, weird name, great food. Home-hom-om-nom-nom.

Gregor Rome - Advisor of director at Eco Fund. Ljubljana bred, worked for ACH, IBM, Electrolux and S&T, innovative carnival mask maker-wearer, avid urban cyclist, blogger, sifting through Vale Novak Montignac book, getting second child in June, works with bikes, pimping them up (see below), learning proper jazz guitar, has recording studio and manga drawing experience.

Pre-pimp-up hot rod as-is.

Post-pimp-up hot rod to-be. Photoshop concept.

Tukan, Sofia, Bulgaria

Tukan. The pizza place. According to Alexander, the best pizza in Bulgaria. Aha. Peshterska is not very recommended. Go for Burgas 63. TheRakiaSite.com agrees. :)

Nedko Petar Kolev - WebSphere sales specialist at IBM in Bulgaria. Sofia native, roots in Haskovo where they make Astika beer, Bocconi graduate and IBMer since. Known as joke dispenser, is reading a book about Bulgarian diplomats eating ducks from Hyde Park in London, is getting info from bg-mamma.com - like millions of Bulgarians. Will have lots of kids, travel and produce movies.

Alexander Madzhirov a.k.a. Sasho - WebSphere BPM Tech Specialist for IBM CEE region. Plovdiv origin, one of the founders of perfumery and cosmetics association in BG, worked also for Center for Democracy studies, Applied research and Communication fund, IDS Scheer and was director of Masters program at New Bulgaria University. Knows the author of the book that Nedko is reading, collects instruments, many sourced from muzikant.org, has 1 year old malek Sashko, shoots rabbits and squirrels with Stoeger X50 air gun, reads Bulgarian chronicles by Tsanev. He will add more fishing, more university and more selective consulting, while watching series like Desperate housewives and movies like Lie to Me. Amen.

Why the long face, Carlos? Hefty.

Žemaičiai, Vilnius, Lithuania

Žemaičiai. The home of Zeppelinos. Old Nom Nom Nom.

Andreas Dax - WebSphere Sales Manager for CEEMEA region. Does not drink beer, Vienna native, his grandmother just turned 95. Up till now IBM-er for life with a brief Telco experience in between. Avid skier, programmed his own bartering exchange Jagooa (svahili origin) and MeetMe.at. Dawkins and Darwin fan, creating and following memes.

Aleksander Oleszkiewicz - WebSphere Technical Sales and Service Manager for IBM in CEE. Likes a little bit of everything, Warsaw born and based, grand-grandfather was from Lithuania, but not from the time of great Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. Had a company, was programmer and also teacher in Palace of Culture in Warsaw. Six years odl son Leon, is on the Canon side of photo enthusiasts divide, sailing with big boats on great Polish lakes, reading Shock Doctrin - The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and he always wanted to be a policeman. To serve and protect.

Read the menu 5 times really fast. Didžwhat?

Imperio Mexicano, City Park, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Imperio Mexicano in the midst of City Park shopping center. "Decent and good value if not award winning Tex-Mex food" as they would put it In Your Pocket. Colorful Cotrugli MBA Alumni gathering.

Jože Perko - Marketing Manager at Schneider Electric in Slovenia. Born, bred'n'tried in Ljubljana, used to be part of Iskratel team before joined Schneider Electric marketing force in Slovenia. Passionate about his family, regular visitor of Sunny Studio sauna sessions. Cotrugli Alumni. What book? Energy isn't free, but learning to save it is. (S.E.)

Dejan Božič - Treasury Department Manager at ACH, originally from Podnanos, his grandfather was in RAF and brought first English words to the village. He used to work for BDO and Energetski Sistemi - on of predecessors of GEN-I, an electricity marketeer.

Listening to IBM SWG SVP Steve Mills' podcast while driving. Is there a law against it?

Hilton, Budapest, Hungary

Buda castle Hilton - best hotel, best view. Top.

Rade Bogdanovic - Soon to be announced new WebSphere Channel leader for IBM in CEE. Belgrade native, used to live and work in South Africa, magnificent Cape and Jo'burg, among others worked for CA and SUN, has 14 year old son - just kicking in adolescence, reading Fowles' Magus, plays guitar in his band The Spanks - they played at Beer Fest - and will one day fully get back to painting, music and writing. (He)art on!

One Big Gentlemen Company. Blue Martini for Blue Ladies.

Gold Center, Budapest, Hungary

Gold Center - Yoga, Squash, Poker and ... a very good Restaurant! Gold.

Viktor Geczy - Software Group Technical Manager at IBM in Hungary. Originally from Miskolc, plays guitar in his band Superfly and reads Szlenblog - the könyv. One day he will have his own music studio, while still developing business, for fun. You've got to move - by Superfly

Jozsef Holderith - Driving Large Software deals for IBM in CEE region. Budapest native, just finished building his house and very soon expecting his second child. Way to go! Reading The Watchman and eating özgerinc = doe = female deer for all you lay people out there :)

Laszlo Boa - WebSphere Sales Specialist at IBM Hungary. Grew up in Nagykanizsa, just about to be blessed by his second child, passionate photographer with his Nikon firmly in his grip and reading one of the Predators. Great guy to work with.

Find the deer in the central letter forest of gold.