Grand Tetons

Finally I have a few minutes free at work. It's Monday morning, people didn't get to the office yet so they are not bothering us. No worries, it will soon start but not yet so I can write about my great trip to the US.

Travelling was nice, without any problems. I got to Pittsburgh late Sunday evening after almost 24 hour trip, I took a shower and went to bed. And woke up at 4 am. Rolled over on my side - nothing. Rolled again on my back - nothing. I just couldn't fall back asleep. So I read till 6, do some ironing and went to work. Ariba building is huuge - over 30 floors, although we occupy only 3 of them. I finally met all the people I notmally communicate by email or phone. It was nice and a bit funny: when you know somebody for half a year but never saw him and finally you meet him. Our manager is nice but she was ignoring us for most of the time. The girl who was doing most of the training took care of us during work and in the evenings. We went shopping twice, went for mexican dinner (real, not Prague mexican) and I had one of the best cheese cake in the world. Almost as good as my mum's. We also went to the baseball game which was a lot of fun. You can't see it in Europe.
Pittsburgh is a nice city, not too big, not too small. It has very nice downtown. I enjoyed it a lot. But then came the best part: Grand Tetons!
The mountains are amazing! It's not like our mountains, which always have hills in front of them. There was a valley and sudenlly huuuuge mountains. Very impressive (I'll try to post some pictures some day but we have so many of them it will be hard choice.) I think they were the best mountins I've ever been in. And we saw a lot of wild life: mooses, bizons (or buffalos), bears, chipmonks, eagles, coyote, deers... probably I missed something. We also went cannoing which was a lot of fun. And to rodeo. But the views were the best. Amazing... I lack words to describe it so it have to be enough.
After a 5 days in Grand Teton National Park we went to Yellowstone which was nice but I prefer Grand Tetons. We didn't really hike in Yellowstone, so we spend most of the time in the car, just stopping to see some gazer (which were pretty impressive but I still prefer the mountains). We saw Old Faithfull and all the famous places there. But hiking in Grand Tetons was better. Here we drove and had a short walks on prepared paths (I know it's because you cannot walk on the ground - it's too dangerous - it's all on a huge volcano) so it didn't feel like nature too much. On the other hand in Grand Tetons we hiked a lot, sometimes there were many people, but sometimes there were nobody except for us. And the mountains...amazing. You all should go there, it's the best place ever.

OK, I have to go back to work. I have a few stories to tell you, i.e. about meeting the wild life, but it have to wait. Work first.

Hungary

"Mr Gyurcsany (prime minister) said the protests, in which dozens of people were hurt, were Hungary's "longest and darkest night" since the end of communism in 1989.

The violence erupted at the state TV building following a largely peaceful rally calling on Mr Gyurcsany to quit.

In a leaked tape, Mr Gyurcsany admitted his government had lied to the public.

His comments, which were recorded just after a general election in April, have prompted calls for his resignation from opposition parties. ... " (the whole article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5359250.stm)

I'm shocked. It's not mocking or anything. I'm very suprised that riots like this broke out in the middle of the Europe (although it's not that different from France a few months ago). But Hungaary is much more similar to Poland. As post-communist country, most of the civil activity should be dead by now, I would think. Apparently things were so bad, that people woke up.
But probably the most important reason why I'm shocked is that during the proccess of joining EU, we would compare Poland to Czech Rep. and Hungary. The latter always seemed to be so much more developed, with much stronger economy. And now what do I hear....

I think it not only shocked me. I am afraid. That there will be a similar situation in Poland, which economy is not growing fast enough and too many people are without jobs. The country ruled by twin brothers, the Ducks, very controversial: very religious, traditional, yearning for "strong" government.
And they are one of the reasons I don't want to go back to Poland.

Jestem z powrotem.

Mialam nadzieje, ze znajde czas na napisanie paru slow, ale jednak nie. Musicie poczekac, az naszemu klientowi zacznie sie nowy rok fiskalny.
W kazdym razie wrocilam szczesliwie.
Buziaki dla wszystkich.