Kutná Hora. An old, medieval town about an hour train ride from Prague that would do well as the setting for a videogame. Narrow streets with cobblestones sway between buildings, some of them leading to cozy courtyards you won't find if you'd stick to the main road. Of course, there's St. Barbara's Church. There's...

We're at a fair. A family walks by. Or at least, I think it might be a family. It could be two families, who knows? The adults are all women, and I count three kids: two boys and one girl. The two boys seem fascinated by something at their left, seemingly oblivious to anything else but the scene that plays out there...

Coffee in the morning. I wouldn't know how to start my day without it. It's a ritual. Weighing 14 grams of coffee beans. Then the grinding, using the exact settings for the correct sound and ultimate taste. Foaming the milk for the best possible cappuccino. And finally, trying to get the latte art of my dreams....

Racing in May can be strange. One week you're running 10 kilometres in 12 degrees, a week later you don't know what hit you when you're lining up late at night in 26 degrees for a 5k. No acclimatising, it just flips from one extreme to the other. A few years ago we still had snow in May. That's just how that month...

On a recent training camp trip to Mallorca, one of the other traveling athletes was a photographer. She took her gear with her and I was allowed to use it some days, just to try it out. After a day of taking shots, I was hooked. Hooked in a way of quitting photography again at some point? Maybe. But also hooked...

Recently I fell into the Instagram Reels trap where unknown artists play a snippet of their music and then offer one of their CDs for free. You only pay for shipping. Until now I had ignored these videos, but after seeing the same artists pop up again and again (some of them multiple times) I finally gave in to the...

I wake up slightly later than planned in a strange but incredibly comfortable bed, in a house I slipped into the night before. Well, "slipped into" might be too dramatic. I walked in through the front door, looked the owners straight in the eyes, and they seemed perfectly fine with my presence. I grab an apple and...

This morning started ordinarily enough. Coffee, then a look at the balcony, overdue for its yearly spring cleanup. I've had years where I cursed myself on the first warm day for not sorting out my only outdoor space sooner. Nothing more annoying than wanting to enjoy the sunshine with nowhere good to sit. This year...

Today I read Choosing my own standards by paco. The first sentences of his argument hit home: Music is a passion I've always had, but I slowly let go of it because I kept on comparing myself to others and I couldn't find the point of continuing when I felt that everyone was better than me. I've always had this...

Right in the middle of a set of squats, it happened. A small twinge in my lower back. Not severe, but sensitive enough to quickly put the weights back in the rack. A few minutes' rest and then try again, I thought. But it was too tender. I skipped the last set. After the core section, during which my back actually...

Years ago, a few friends, fellow students and I had a subscription that let you go to the cinema as often as you liked for a fixed monthly fee. And we made good use of it: on weekday evenings, preceded by a regular visit to the local American specialties restaurant. On weekends, when we had time. And even on...

Books are strange things. Whenever I'm reading them, I feel wonderful. It's one of the greatest feelings in the world to immerse yourself in a story. It's a chance to escape the day-to-day life, to get lost in a fantastical world of imagination, a wondrous adventure. After picking up a book and reading through the...