Art Chaikhona, Moscow, Russia

Moscow Fire Department Porsche Cayenne. If Taxi drivers can have not one, but two (see below), then so can Fire fighters. They do need to be at the scene fairly quickly.

Art Chaikhona (Art Teahouse), a very nice Uzbek/Kazakh/Central Asian restaurant. Authentic. Reservation usually required. Passing forward the recommendation that I received from Oleg. Glad.


Oleg Yusupov, Software Channel Sales person at IBM in Moscow. Born and raised in Almaty in Kazakhstan, studied aerospace engineering in Kharkiv University in Ukraine. Name Oleg - possible Scandinavian origin, prince of Kiev (Oleg of Novgorod?), Russian adoption. Worked for Nuclear Research Institute, StarForce and Informatica before recently joining IBM. On daily Metro commutes he reads RBC on his HTC TyTN and when the peak of his Moscow enterprise career will be behind him, he might end up somewhere in Kazakhstan, enjoying the beauty and vastness of his home country. I might stop by for a short visit.


Manti. Giant pelemeni = dumplings. They also serve horse meat dishes, which is pretty common in places where horses are a-plenty, such as Central Asia. And Slovenia :)


Fancy a pair of Porsche Cayennes for your next Taxi ride? I guess it can happen only in Moscow :)

Wild West Saloon, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Wild West Saloon, looks better from the outside than the feeling you get when at the table inside. Not very sophisticated, lot of stuff from the menu not available. When you actually get served, the situation improves somewhat - food is actually pretty good. No web site.


Peter Kos, Channel Sales Manager at CA in Slovenia, born and raised in Maribor, now dwelling in Ljubljana. Worked for IBM in Bratislava, where he was - with a little help from Sašo - introduced to the girl he is now married to and has a daughter with. Sweet. Writes for Mobinet and reads John Dickie's Cosa Nostra. When he is done with US corporations, he will have a house somewhere in Dalmatia with at least five kids running around it. I second that. Big time.


The music is over, where have all the cowboys gone?

Kaval club, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Kaval club - very nice place and very popular, despite not so convenient location. Popularity goes through the roof in spring/summer time when they start serving outside on the terrace. Thumbs up. Several times.


Aleks Jakulin, AI guru with a Ph.D. in Machine Learning and co-founder of Surphone.net Originally from Sežana, but moved around a lot ever since he was young. Recent move brought him back to Slovenia from Columbia University in New York. Among tons of stuff he has done is also coauthoring of PNG - the lossless data compression image format. Parallel book reader, recently finished The Symbolic Species and recommends The Selfish Gene. To mitigate the risk of forgetting something really important, one tends not to write too much about him - as there would be just too much to write about :) Enjoying every bit of engaging discussion, though. Anytime.


Large, pretty much always full parking place. Kaval club fell victim to their own success. Sweet surrender for the owners, I guess.

Gary Player Country Club, Sun City, South Africa

The Gary Player Country Club Championship Course at Sun City in South Africa. Great weather and fabulous, very well maintained golf course - owned and operated by Sun International. Caddies payed in advance are not to be tipped separately, as such actions could violate Caddy Union agreement. And, yes, as experienced golfers know, an extensive hangover and a smooth game of golf don't go well hand in hand :)


Pawel Sobczak, Regional Software Sales Executive at IBM in Zürich. Born and raised near Polanica - a rather famous resort in Poland - also my observation is that the word "rather" is very often used by Poles when they speak English :) Moved to nearby Wroclaw for study, QAD and IBM, worked in Warsaw, moved to Vienna and now lives in Zürich. Two kids, currently reading Chindia and as a result of a bet with Kevin (who still owes him a dinner) is now also a marathon runner. Later in his life he will probably live in his yet to be build "dacha" on his estate near Polanica - where he is already lowering his carbon footprint by planting trees and he will raise consciousness&awareness of healthy way of living. Noble causes. Fully supported by someone who he helped hire at IBM back in 2001 :)


The lawn at the Gary Player Club House is sometimes being used as a picnic place for groups waiting for departure from Sun City. Leftover catering from numerous events at Sun City is taken home by staff.

Boma, Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa

Boma is a synonym for open-air dinner place for tourist groups in Africa. Visitors of Sun City are usually taken to a Boma dinner-show event in Pilanesberg National Park. Boma is a word in Swahili and several other African languages, meaning an enclosure such as a fort or a livestock pen. We were livestock treated exceptionally well. Great food, great service, great wine and great entertainment. Great employer :)


Borut Tomazic (Tomažič) - Key Account Manager at IBM in Slovenia, responsible for Public Sector. Native from Litija, where he returned after a short period in Bled. Worked most of his life for IBM, while all the time nurturing his passion for bikes - currently driving Honda ST1300. Crazy about his two daughters, and just stopped smoking and is currently reading Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for the fourth time . If he would not work, he would spent even more time with his kids, bikes and even take up golf. I am waiting for you at the tee :)


Too many cooks ... can actually produce really delicious dinner, for many many guests. dZihan&Kamien was the selected background music of choice while several top performers were receiving awards. Corporation at its best.


Baboons. From nice and friendly to annoying and obnoxious. Watch out, they like the smell of leather wallets.

Symphony, Hilton Danube, Vienna, Austria

Symphony, nice restaurant inside Hilton Vienna Danube with a view on Danube river. Mostly famous for good Hilton breakfasts. It would be hard not to recommend a place inside a Hilton.


Melissa Miller - Tivoli Channel Manager at IBM, born and raised in Louisiana USA, lived also in Windsor UK and now lives in Austin, Texas. Worked also for Leasing Group, NetBotz and Pervasive and then came back to IBM. Likes to walk her White German Shepherd dog, drive her Honda S2000 and publishes her travel photos at globaltravelphotos.com One day, with her husband, they might open and run a biking related business in Austin - home of Lance Armstrong. That's a good neighbor to have. Especially for Kids on Bikes.


Goulash, fried egg and pickles. A combination that stood the test of time. In Austria, at least.

Inspiracja, Wrocław, Poland

Inspiracja e.g. Inspiration - a very good underground restaurant in Wroclaw old town, with wine cellar arranged into a very nice dinning room. Great food and wine. As can be expected, they also serve Zubrowka and dishes with this Wisent Grass Polish vodka. Delicious. And one can also watch live how Manchester United is beating Roma.


Piotr Uzar - Network Solutions Architect at Netline Group, well certified on Sun Solaris, Tivoli Netcool and Cisco CCNA. Born and raised in Luban, now lives in Wroclaw and carries surname with Hungarian origin. Graduated at PWR, previously worked for Winuel and is also a part time web developer. Sun servers, Linux and IT in general are his passion - as well as photography with his Nikon D70s. Currently reading Programming Perl and Wojciech Cejrowski. Most probably he will remain a geek - in a very positive sense of this word - for a long time. ACK


Very good and very famous Zurek. It can be enjoyed with good wines (as we did in Inspiracja) or with cheap fruit wines such as Sen Soltysa (chieftan'd dream), Bycza Krew (Buffalo's blood) or Czarny Pas (Black Belt).


Some people in Wroclaw walk "through" the pavement. The steel ones.
A lot of useful links in this blog post were provided by Marek Kuchciak - a very good host whenever you visit Wroclaw - adding the "more magic" element.

Da Capo, Vienna, Austria

Da Capo - a very good Italian restaurant and pizzeria. Good atmosphere, good food, good wine. They are probably on the "go-to" list of many people i.e. Faye. Strong recommendation.


Faye Chandler - Tivoli WW Channel Sales Director at IBM. Born in San Antonio, lived in Puerto Rico, Austin, New York, Vienna, London and now again calls Austin her home. Majored in English language and always wanted to be an IBM sales person. Long ago worked for General Data and later had a long and successful career at IBM. Texan lady, used to drive a Harley, is big on diving and golf, but most of all proud of her big family with 6 grandchildren. Currently reading a series of novels by Philippa Gregory and would also recommend The Alexandria Link. A great person to know and have a glass of wine with.


Wolf Dylanovich - accompanying Faye on her travels and inspecting the menu. Restaurants will not get by with just any kind of dishes, 'cause Wolf's certainly seen some places. Been there, done that.

Pizza Bizi, Vienna, Austria

Pizza Bizi on Rotenturmstraße. A quick bite for "bizi" people. Speed vs variety. Very good for those who like it very quick.


Christian Minarovits - System Integrator (SI) Alliances Manager at IBM in Vienna - on a rare day without his typical beard. Originally from Mannersdorf, now living in Vienna, where he also worked for CA and Candle. Drives around with his Harley Davidson and reads Power Games. One day he will renew his glider license, start flying a lot more and also own a couple of planes. Maybe some of them will be made by Pipistrel. Fasten your seat belts!

Taras Bulba Korchma, Moscow, Russia

Taras Bulba Korchma - well known and very good chain of Ukrainian restaurants in Moscow. Strong recommendation - unlike the Oreanda Ukranian wine that is also served here. You better go for Kvass, the bread drink.


Artem Romenskiy - Software Channel Sales Manager at IBM in Moscow. Born and raised in Dushanbe in what is today Tajikistan, moved to Kiev and later to Moscow. Graduated at a military school, used to work for J.D. Edwards implementer and is expecting a child very soon. Likes remodeling his dacha and even though other parts of the world are really nice, he will forever stay in Russia, enjoying its people, beauties, vodka and pickles.


The heaviest menu book I have ever seen. Worth Taras Bulba himself.


Tired of waiting to be served? Press the red button and restaurant manager will be notified. The manager button. Many restaurants would benefit from this.

Courvoisier Cafe, Moscow, Russia

Courvoisier Cafe - a hip café lounge club with a DJ and lots of beautiful people. And a very interesting website for a change. The best way to see the right places, is to know a Moscow person. But that might not necessary guarantee you entrance to amazing Rai where "the crowd is young-rich-gorgeous, and the face control is absolutely totalitarian ..."


Roman Antolovich Yuriev, Tivoli Maximo Sales Manager at IBM in Moscow. Originally from Tver, graduated at Bauman Moscow Tech Uni, worked for Terralink and friends call him Abramovich - like the Chelsea FC owner Roman. Does not dring vodka, has a 3 year old daughter and is otherwise also a core connector - linking people's needs&interests with products&services. For the ones in the know, yes, this photo was not taken in Courvoisier Cafe, but at some other pre-party place, which was just to difficult to write and remember :)


Supposedly a pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes - but can you really believe Maria in the middle of her shift in a sofa at 1AM in Radisson SAS Slavyanskaya.