Holidays (sort of) ================== I'm now sitting in the CD Lounge at the Praha Hlavni Nadrazi (the main railway station in Prague, Czech Republic). The state railway company (CD) finally made a VIP waiting room (the CD Lounge) here! They needed many years to to make it. It's a shame that in my (much smaller and much unimportant) city this thing is available and working for years. Anyway, it's here so I'm able to sit in a comfortable chair, using free WiFi and drinking free chocolate (and it's not that bad, after all!). I have been returning from a conference in Italy (Riva del Garda). I it a nice place and not only for conferences. It's not hot in September, it's relatively quiet and it's very clean. Lot of GREAT ice cream everywhere. The conference hall staff here is friendly and intelligent here (they know how to use air conditioning properly so it's probably for the first time when I'm returning from a conference in Southern Europe without health issues...). There Garda lake is surrounded by hills and mountains (many great hiking paths and via ferratas, too bat I had very little free time). At least I was able to visit some old Austrian fortresses inside the city (all built between 1095-1915, I think). The start of trip was a bit difficult. I selected a train which was scheduled to be in Prague about 2.5 hour before plane departure. But there was accident in Slovakia (the train was an international one) which caused delay no shorter than 3 hours... Fortunately, there was later but faster train available. It was also delayed but only slightly. I had to get a taxi from the railway station to the airport but I catch the plane! The Italy part of travel was much easier - an actual relax... For the trip back I selected relatively later train because baggage claim and such stuff is usually slow at the Prague airport. And the bus to the railway station is usually late because of traffic jams in Prague. Unusually, everything was smooth. So now I have same time to drink my chocolate and to write this post...