Friday, December 19, 2008

Attractions for tourists

Right timing is the secret of success. All magic you do in your life needs to be started at the right time. It is just the same for posting an article. I missed the right time for that post - I am about seven months late. Everything changed meanwhile. But, what I am sure about is the possibility, that in four months that post will be just as actual as it was at the beginning of that year. Because - to be clear - the theme is: how the streets of Bratislava get ready for tourists.

The pictures are best documentation to what I would like to say. Words are pointless here, but let me comment the disorder and untidiness in the streets of the city (I found out in the dictionary that the word "disorder" could be translated as well with the word fuck up - and I found out that 80 percent of the words in the post could be translated with that word too - and I really wonder how strange language the English is, isn't it?).

It is well known fact that just before the summer starts all the streets in the city-center of Bratislava have to be messed, excavated, interwoven with ditches and occupied with the ditchers. That is the main rule you have to learn after you move with intention to stay a few years here. Is that a reality of other cities too? Or is that only our way we show off in front of foreign tourists? Did you ever met that phenomenon somewhere in the world?

I can exclude an idea it is just a problem of the modern city dealing with modern demands. I am pretty sure we are not first generation facing it. During communist time we had a humoristic magazine called Prong-buck. Slovak cartoonists (and there was a really strong generation of cartoonists here) published their cartoons in the magazine. One of them, Viktor Kubal, published that cartoon (March 1977):

viktor kubal

Text: I am just checking, which street we haven't excavated yet...


As you can see, it is not a problem of the city, but a long maintained tradition. That's main idea behind my pictures I made for you. To familiarize you with the tradition which you could easily think to be a conspiracy or sabotage. Hope you enjoy the show. Keep coming.

bratislava streets
bratislava street
Bratislava street
Bratislava street
Bratislava street
Bratislava street
Bratislava street

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Jutta Müller - the coach and the legend

Celebrities and famous people become the target of our interest mostly when they have their fifteen minutes of fame. Then all the world forgets about their existence, spotting new targets. But I am the type of person with questions coming: what happened with that person, what is he doing right now? Sometimes a notice appears on the web, reminding us of their existence. This one is of that sort of news.

Jutta Muller

It perfectly relates to the post I published recently about the former East German figure skater Katarina Witt. Her coach Jutta Müller became an honorary citizen of her home city of Chemnitz on Friday, one day before her 80th birthday.

Müller's skaters won 57 medals at Olympic Games, world and European championships.

Witt won two Olympic gold medals under Müller's guidance. Müller also coached Jan Hoffmann, her daughter Gaby Seyfert and Anett Poetzsch, who won gold at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

Witt, who became an honorary citizen in 1988 when the city was known as Karl-Marx-Stadt during the Communist era, has congratulated Müller on her award.

Despite her age Jutta Müller still goes three times a week to ice stadium in Chemnitz to help young skaters learn to make their jumps.