Zlata Ribica, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Zlata Ribica - old style, old fashioned gostilna - food OK, service so-so. Surviving because of exclusive location at the crossing of heavy tourist currents in old town Ljubljana. When you've tried everything else you can also try this. But no sooner, 'cause wooden steaks do appear from time to time.


(Aleš) Ales Leskosek (Leskošek) - managing director of Comparex in Slovenia. Born and raised in Celje, graduated at FRI, worked for IGEA and IBM, before he co-created Comparex office in Ljubljana. Aikido practicioner, will one day also try Capoeira and sometimes in the future also take the whole golf game a little more serious. Reading Lee Iacocca's autobiography and loads of money would buy him time to reflect and think about what to do next.


Robert Bozic (Božič) - Information Management salesman at IBM office in Ljubljana. Raised in town called Golek pri Krškem, FRI graduate, worked for S&T and recently joined IBM. Polar watch on his wrist gives a hint about sports activities, but the type was not revealed during conversation. Added later.


Tourists swarming Ljubljana old town ... I guess we need them.

Stara Mačka, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Stara Mačka - recently opened restaurant on top location at Ljubljana "beach". Shisha place and during EURO2008 also football place. As every other. Recommended.


(Aleš) Ales Pernecky - IBM Tivoli Netcool Sales Manager in CEMAAS region. His family roots are in Germany, Hungary and Slovakia, lives in a village called Hlasna Treban, worked for Czech Telecom (now Telefonica O2), was in the first team when Eurotel (now also Telefonica O2) was founded, worked for Phillips, Cisco and at Micromuse - which was acquired by IBM. Avid footballer proud of his wine and beer cellar at home and a member of local gardening society. His wife is a professional gardener and their garden was rated #1 for 2008. Passionate about ancient history (Greek, Egyptian), likes traveling and reading historical books - currently about Mayan History. One day he might turn into an archaeologist.


Petr Styblo - IBM Tivoli Netcool specialist, born and raised in Ostrava, used to work for Nokia and now works for IBM in Prague. Has glider airplane license and used to fly Blanik. We were sitting outside Stara Mačka (Old Cat), but he is currently reading William Burrough's The Cat Inside. Plays guitar - mostly blues - and is looking for a band to play with.


Yes, they won. But at the end they did not. It's all history now anyway.

Kratochwill BTC, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Kratochwill BTC - one from the Kratochwill chain of restaurants, located in BTC shopping center. Good beer, good pizzas, big terrace. As the temperature is rising, the shopping is intensified. Summer is almost here.


Aleš Cerin (Čerin) - founder of Edusatis, a company specialized in helping generic pharmaceutical companies comply with regulation in drug production quality and also find better ways to communicate, capture knowledge and share ideas - also via Eduwikis and Open Space (Odprti Prostor) workshops. Before starting on his own he worked for Lek, is very engaged in scouting scene - member of ISGF, ran a couple of marathons (one time also 144km in 24 hours) and is currently reading Covey's The 8th Habit - From Effectiveness To Greatness. He also does wiki gardening - a very good phrase for facilitating wiki collaboration and maintaining order. Preparing the ground, taking out the weeds ...

Belfast Irish Pub, Kiev, Ukraine

Belfast Irish Pub - a classical Irish Pub, sponsored by Staropramen, which is also what they were serving us. It went well with watching Czechs beating Swiss at EURO2008.


Igor Sichkar - Tivoli specialist at SI BIS, an IBM business partner company in Ukraine. With Sichkar family having Cossack origin, he was born and raised in Kiev, graduated at Taras Shevchenko University, as a student did some Perl programming at Antonov - the famous aircraft maker and worked for KP VTI and SIS before recently coming to SI BIS. Avid football player and pretty good at Russian Billiards - which is way more difficult than English/American one. Enthusiastically reading books about important historical figures, such as Peter The Great and Napoleon. People one can learn a big deal from.


Russian Billiards - bigger balls, tighter holes. Not sure how that sounds ... :)


Disco Party Boats on Dnypro - comes Friday, young Kiev citizens hop on boats and have a good time. Good times rolling up and down the river. Lots of them.

Pervak, Kiev, Ukraine

Pervak - a very nice restaurant in downtown Kiev, with pretty interesting interior decoration. Serving business lunches during weekdays, moderately priced, considering the top location near one of the poshest streets in Kiev. A definitive recommendation.


Sergey Belous - Tivoli Tech Sales Specialist at IBM Ukraine. Belous means "white mustache" and he is originally from Zaporizhia. Before joining IBM, he worked for Baltic Beverages Holding (recently acquired by Carlsberg Group) and IBM partner company S&T Ukraine. Has a two years old child and is perceived as a calm person with high aspirations.


Tatiana Lubimova, managing relationship with Developer and Academic community for IBM Ukraine. Nicknamed "beloved", born and raised in Kiev (Kyiv), travels a lot and used to hate fish. Before coming to IBM she worked for APC and S&T - and in the beginning also as a primary school teacher. Has two young kids, is reading Sigmund Freud and will one day have a private primary school in Kiev. Good for kids.


Alexander Danko, sales person for Tivoli software at IBM Ukraine in Kiev. Grew up in Lake Synevir (Sea Eye) region in Zakarpattia, where he will one day probably return and help develop tourism. Prior to IBM he worked for InfoPlus and Borland. A little weaker on English, but that much stronger on experience. He is reading Taras Shevchenko - a very important Ukrainian poet, artist and humanist with the same name as today most internationally known Ukrainian: Andriy Shevchenko, the footballer. The old and the new.


The bra lady. Has wide selection of them holders, basking in the sun on one of the many market-busy streets of Kiev. Where is the changing room?

Maček, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Maček (Cat). Top location. Hugely popular. This photo of Maček sign was Google-Flickr-borrowed* from Romana - she moved to Mexico, loves life and is writing about things that make your heart beat faster.
*Google Images Search pointed to Romana's Maček picture on Flickr (owned by Yahoo). Ah.


(Urška) Urska Godec a.k.a. Yuki a.k.a. snow. Got her nickname in primary school from The Snow Queen. Born in Koper, Korean mother (though she thinks of herself to be Japanese as her family lived near Kobe), General Ha descendants. There is another Urška Godec in Slovenia, born on the same day in 1976 (?!). This needs to be explored, they need to meet - does anybody know the other one? This one is a dentist, regularly drives her Kawasaki ER6, sometimes also on Novi Marof race track, does fencing, reads Me Talk Pretty One Day, is letting Debeli teach her skydiving at Paranoia and above all likes to ramble around third world. One day she will build a race track in Slovenia. Given the number of biking nuts, we deserve and need one.


A quick lesson on colors of garbage containers in Ljubljana: brown = bio garbage. This lesson was either too difficult for someone or he was reading too much about bio-computers and took it literally. WTF.

Library under the tree, Tivoli, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Knjižnica pod krošnjami (Library under the tree) is a green initiative of the other kind. Temporary book shelves are set up in Park Tivoli in the middle of Ljubljana. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Sit down, relax and read some. It does you good.


Joe Steel. He didn't say much, so I will not write much about him. Mustache is his green initiative.


I wonder if Joe Steel could ride a wooden bike. Parked in front of Slovenian Museum of Natural History. Waiting to make history.

Cesarsko Mesto, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Cesarsko Mesto (China Town), a decent and quite popular Chinese place. Expanding. Summer terrace about to be open. More eating slots, less parking slots. Recommendation.


Davorin Mikos (Mikoš) a.k.a. Dado, head of high-school-graduate-trip program at CMT travel agency. Grew up in Trbovlje where he also briefly worked for Livarna Trbovlje before joining Mondial Travel. Absolutely passionate about electronic music parties and events - among them most cherished Sensation produced by ID&T. The founders of ID&T (Irfan van Ewijk, Duncan Stutterheim, and Theo Lelie - from whence came I D&T) and Steve Jobs are the only people he would work for if invited - without second thought. Was temporarily addicted to Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Basketball, has no idea why he actually digs WWE shows and is a movie marathoner. One day he will try Stand up comedy to the likes of George Carlin and Pablo Francisco. Not many Dado's on this planet :)


Smart Roadster, successor to the Dado-mobil, which was a Suzuki Swift Cabrio.

Running sushi&wok, Supernova, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Running sushi&wok, located in Supernova shopping center in Ljubljana, is first running sushi place in Slovenia. For that part it is a very welcome addition to calories&taste dissipating set of businesses. Once people actually get accustomed to running tray and sushi, things like French fries will start disappearing from the tray and sushi selection and quality might go up. So far the 9,90 EUR all-you-can-eat will get you a new, but mediocre experience.


Jernej Bozic (Božič), while finishing his study at FE, Used to do a lot of ballroom dancing and is now finding salsa not to be so easy. Was practicing Muay Thai, but never actually stepped into the fighting ring. Reading Zorro and will one day have a big and rich wine cellar - maybe at their home Bozic estate in Krško - and thus really get to know wines. Once his wine cellar is ready, I will go and See The Bottles there.


Supernova - developed by m2 Gruppe from Graz, Austria - is yet another of the ever bigger and numerous shopping centers sprouting all around the country. Inflation, you are invited, open heartedly.

Argentino, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Argentino - a big steak house with amazing vast interior, located in BTC in Ljubljana. Good service, simple self explanatory menus. Giant Certified Argentinian steaks, to regain energy after exhausting shopping in the neighborhood. Recommendation.


Tadej Dragas (Dragaš), project manager at Smart Com, also responsible for Russian market. Originally from Novo Mesto, moved to Ljubljana to study at FRI and later as an exchange student moved to Jyvaskyla, Finland to graduate at JAMK. Worked for Buildercom and Iskratel, where he met his Russian wife and is in the middle of Cotrugli CBA MBA study. His previous car was full of powerful audio equipment such as Digital Design, belongs to dBastards team and is nowadays still involved in pimping up his new Honda - as much as his one year old son allows him. Reading MBA stuff and recommends Business at the Speed of Thought. With extra time and money he would pimp up old car models with high tech, as they do on Discovery Channel, while his wife would probably still spend a lot of time on Odnoklassniki.ru, the Russian version of Facebook.


Digital Design Z series - the most advanced Digital Design Subwoofer.
"Digital Designs has acquired the rights to use Ned magnetics in non-military acoustic weaponry and the peaceful development of humanistic cohesion through harmonizing wave generation."


IBM Z series - the most advanced IBM mainframe computer.

Verdi, Maribor, Slovenia

LET L-13 Blanik, a multipurpose workhorse. From helping rookies to get first flying hours, to showing off in acrobatic formations.

Pizzeria Verdi - great (very valuable) location, good pizzas and service, no website. Pizzas served with side relish assortment. Pizza forks are prone to bending. Nice anyway. Recommendation.


Martin Cundric (Cundrič), running web design agency LiveDesign, which is among others also responsible for designing NajdiAvto.si. Born, raised, living, working and enjoying it in Maribor, Slovenian Lower Styria capital. Worked in tourism for CMT and Sonchek, before starting his own business. Same age as Roger Federer, he actively played tennis till he was 16 and at 12 he was number one - in penalty points :) Currently hyped up on glider planes and as a rookie at LCM is flying LET L-13 Blanik. One day he will steer his entrepreneurial drive from a big boat, while slowly cruising around the globe. My cousin.


Lent river bank, the best part of Maribor, shining during Lent festival. River Drava on this spot is not for swimming. But some do anyway. Especially during festival. Less drinking, automatically means less weight.

Fliegender Hollander, Vienna, Austria

Fliegender Hollander - a smoky back alley pub with regular clients. Not much to do with Wagner's opera. Beers and sausages. Good for a quick after job drink or two or three or five ... :) You can buy Flying Dutchman also on Amazon. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 edition.


Thomas Koch, sales manager for "system z software" (software on IBM mainframe platform) at IBM in Vienna, covering CEMAAS region. Born and raised in Linz, later moved to Vienna. WU graduate, worked for Raiffeisen before joining IBM. Musician with Fender Stratocaster signed by Eric Clapton. Impressed by his latest 3 week travel/trekking combo in Hawaii - according to colleagues he made some amazing pictures. Reading The Agony and The Ecstasy and some day he might go and help orphans in Kauai, while also enjoy Lomilomi. I guess it is not so difficult to fall for Hawaii.


Natalie Waninger, sales operations lady for Tivoli software at IBM in Vienna, covering CEMAAS region. Grew up in Bernstein in Burgenland, graduated at ITM Semmering, worked for Vöslauer, Steyr-Daimler-Puch and last several years for IBM. Founding member of female karting club Poco Loco, loves skiing, in-line skating and absolutely mad about kitchen and cooking. Reading P.S., I Love You and one day she will move to Cornwall and get involved with surfing and horses. Healthy move - and by that time she will surely stop counting in ATS.


Football euphoria is reigning all over Austria weeks before Euro 2008 ...


... even on the streets. The boy in the center of the picture is pretending to be a goalkeeper in order to grab attention of drivers passing by. Promotional stunt by Bank Austria.

Allegria, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Allegria, a very nice Italian style restaurant in center of Ljubljana. This place used to be a pretty wild party bar Tramontana - now they moved to a place above the city. Allegria is a recommendation as far as lunch environment an food is concerned. Thumbs up.


Aaron Uazeua, graduate philosophy student at FF, tourist guide at Mondial Travel and part time student worker at IBM Slovenia sales department. Namibian origin (father), born and raised in Koper, often baby sited by "aunt" Mateja, googled for his Namibian half-sister and, yes, he did find her recently - preparing for a visit to Windhoek. He helped run Soča Riversplash smoothly, worked at McDonalds, played football for Koper and Ankaran and he knows how to twirl his burning poi. Reads a lot, recent and recommended: A Short History of Nearly Everything, Discipline&Punish and Life of Pi. Political philosophy, diplomacy and owning his own Football Club is how his ideal life is supposed to evolve into. A very interesting and fun person to know and work with.


Vinegar in spray. Last time I've seen one of those was in Cote Soleil in France. Nice.

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 :)