Monthly Archives: August 2017

Various thoughts: Culture overload

Posted on by

In the last few days, I kept myself quite busy. From Wednesday to Sunday, I went for a hike, read two books, went to cinema, visited music festival, wrote two chapters and sorted out my thoughts for several more. I’ll post the book review in the coming days, hopefully.

As for the film I saw, it was Valerian and the City of a thousand planets. Since I have great memories of Fifth element as a great and often quite hilarious Sci-fi by Luc Besson, I decided to go see this. I never saw the comics it was based on, so for me it was just going to have some easy fun with a film that was from trailer very likely to be a lot about shiny graphics and myriad of alien creatures. The intro was touching, the multi-dimensional bazaar chase was interesting and fun. I am not sure if it was just me or if that part was a weak spot, but for some reason I knew who the traitor is when the command room of Alpha was attacked. From there, it was mostly about if/when/how he’ll be dealt with more than about finding out who it is. Still, good one.

I won’t say much about the concert. I will say that my neck and hands are still a bit stiff, something my fellow metal enthusiasts will understand. I was not exactly in the front row all those 10 hours but I was not holding back either. RAISE YOUR HEAVY METAL HANDS!

Anyway, for a person who likes ‘normal’ and quite regular sleep habits, two nights with this disrupted (returned around 23:30 from the cinema and 3:15 the next day after concert) I was quite sleepy the whole Sunday as the sun and heat did not allow me to sleep for long. There was a hint that colder days might be coming – and by colder I mean 22°C down from 30+ but that hope lasted maybe two hours.

Anyway, they were fun days definitely.

Writing thoughts: hiker’s inspiration

Posted on by

This will be a crossover post about how I sometimes get inspiration for my story while walking through the hills. It might not be just the landscape, but anything. The weather could be a factor as well. Reading books can be good inspiration for duels or battles but for the atmosphere, just going out to the hills works better than anything else.

Nature is often magical. It’s good to have some inspiration just from walking around and being able to think, undisturbed. It’s even better when the landscape itself gives you ideas. Here are a few times it happened to me.

Continue reading →

Hiking retrospective: Vel’ký Rozsutec

Posted on by

This is a story about the picture that is header of my blog and a place that became my very favorite. While the significant part happened in 2004, I (or my family) did not have a digital camera yet at that point and so all photos linked here are from the 2016 hike. All photos are taken by me unless stated otherwise.

Magnificent from distance

While Vel’ký Rozsutec is not the largest mountain in Slovakia by more than 1000 meters and with its 1610 meters of elevations is only 5th in the Malá Fatra mountain range, it¨s definitely one of the nicest peaks of Slovakia, if not the one. The dolomite mountain is striking from almost any distance and if the conditions allow, well visible from any nearby mountain ranges.

What’s in the name?

The name ‘Rozsutec’ could be coming either from ‘rozsutý’ meaning ‘torn apart’ or the verb ‘rozsut se’ meaning to fall apart. Both are well possible when considering the landscape where the white dolomite rocks stick out of the terrain, randomly thrown around and the peak itself looks like something tried to break it. Something that this picture shows well. ‘Vel’ký’ meaning only that it’s larger of the two peaks, the smaller one can be seen in the background.

Look north from the peak

Continue reading →