This is going to be rather a short post, as you can guess, I have not done many flights since the last post.

The official restrictions in Switzerland are maybe not as strict as they should. Theoretically, I can go hike&fly, or for a ski tour, but alone, as activities should not be organized in groups. But almost everyone who I know sacrificed their mountain sports to limit the probability of injuries and blocking the hospitals. Same did I, so I have time to catch up on my backlog, like writing this post. I would like to say there will be more reading, but I have in mind just this one ;).

My second winter in Switzerland. While I planned to do many snowshoeing and ski touring trips already the first one, I hit the wall of not having proper training. Over the year, I got more confidence and nice skis, so mountains, here I am!

On Friday, Jan 31, I finished my paragliding license. Winter is not that breathtaking period for photos, so for the best pictures, see this post. Photos here will be just recent updates.

In October (8-14), Marta was visiting me, which meant having some hiking plans. It was raining/snowing quite a lot during the first week of October, but for the visit, we were very lucky (yet restricted to go only to Wallis).

Photos in this blog post are broken at the moment. I hope to fix it in the future.

September 28 - 29, I was supposed to fly in Zermatt. However, the wind forecast was not favorable, so the plans were postponed. I did not like the change of plans, as it gave me one free weekend and collision of plans next weekend, especially when the forecast did not look that bad. But when I experienced the wind from tropical storm hitting Europe, I was glad not to fly.

On August 1, Switzerland celebrates the Swiss national day. Where else to celebrate it, then in the Swiss mountains? Thus I went to Italy.. border.

During July 26 to 31, I had a visitors Berta, Jára, Kuba, and Marles. We stayed for three night in Zurich and then we drove to Innsbruck for an additional three nights.

I have been silent for more than two months. The main reason was the end of the semester when I was busy with teaching. And given the bad weather, I was rather working, studying for paragliding theory exam (I passed!), and doing home tasks, than going for some fancy trips.

Following paragliding taster day experience, I used Easters with one day off to make the whole course.

During March, the weather in Switzerland went from winter directly to summer. That was my feeling from weekend 30-31st March.

I dedicated March 23-24 to trying new sports.

This post is about two snow hiking trips during weekend 16th to 17th March.

The weather in Switzerland is getting quickly warm, so in lower altitudes is the snow gone. But at the beginning of March, it was snowing in higher locations, which increased avalanche danger and would require to plan a trip with others. But as I wanted to go somewhere alone, I decided to stay in lower altitudes.

From Feb 16 to 24, Vlasta and Víťa visited Zurich for cybersecurity training SANS. Fortunately, they had also some free time!

From Feb 15 to 17, there was a great weather forecast so I could not resist joining a trip organized by Flo. Who could resist when there was promised to build and sleep in an igloo!

At the beginning of February (7-11), I hosted Vláďa on a visit. Hosted is a strong word, as we spend half of the nights in the countryside.

On February 2, I joined meetup ski tour. Planning with the avalanche danger is a matter of having several plans and select the proper one in the day of the trip. So due to avalanche danger 3+, we changed to the easiest option (to my comfort).

Last Sunday (January 20) I went with Honza cross-country skiing in Flumserberg area.

At the end of November (23rd - 28th), I took my holidays and traveled to Aachen to visit my friends. Domča and Heňo are spending their Erasmus there, and Thomas - my flatmate from Norway, lives there.

Finally a multi-day hike. The weather in fall is fantastic, northern mountains are still snow-free even above 2000 masl. So we used the opportunity to go to an extremely touristy area - Alpstein.

I am still eager to meet some same-minded people for hiking. So I signed for a MeetUp trip.

Another weekend with an ideal weather forecast, so I could not stay home. This time, I searched for companions for my multi-day hike ideas, but I found no one, so I split my plans into two separate hikes.

There were two welcoming activities for doctoral students. The first was general for all ETH students, while the second was faculty specific. I want to share some interesting statistics, I learned there.

Tom is leaving next week, so the last trip with him. He also invited Juraj - a friend from FI MU who now also works at Google.

I have been asked about the economic situation in Switzerland. It is known Swiss are wealthy, and prices are higher, but how about actual numbers?

Finally, I found a room in a shared flat! My new address is (I like postcards :)):

I wanted to go on a two-day hike from 6-7th October, but it ended up in two separated trips.

I spent the last weekend of September on shopping, cooking, studying/working (still did not get used to the change in the point of view) and visiting an earthquake simulator.

The plan for moving abroad started to take shape during the Erasmus. I tried several internships and full-time positions by companies and universities. I will try to list everything :D, assuming it will be useful for someone. I leave the success story about ETH to the end of the post.

In my second post, I complained about having a car in Switzerland. Within last week, I have got fined, so the arguments against car are even stronger.

The first autumn weekend gave us clear weather and hiking opportunity. So I went with tom for two single day hikes to Großen Mythen and Klausen pass.

I expected the moving to be harder. I spend only three hours of a single day with the general tasks for foreigners. Unfortunately, the same does not apply to university tasks.

This post is not about prices in Switzerland. Yes, it is expensive here, but there will be another post about it.

My contract started in September, but the first two days were a weekend, so I left for Zurich on 2nd of September. But I have to mention the last hectic days before departure.

I spent last year trying to apply to several universities and top companies across Nordic countries and Switzerland. At the beginning of July, after four interviews, I was accepted for PhD at ETH Zurich by supervision of Professor David Basin at Information Security Group. The contract started by the 1st of September.

Velikonoce vrcholí (27. – 28. 3.), ale my (já, Marta, Tom a Sofie) nezahálíme na Moholtu (kdo by dělal úlohy) a vyrážíme na 5. chatu NTNUI – Rindalsløu.

NTNUI spravuje celkem 22 chat. Ačkoliv někteří zvládnou navštívit všechny za měsíc, pokud my chceme vidět alespoň polovinu, budeme občas muset změnit strategii víkendový výlet na jednu chatu. Naštěstí máme velikonoční týden prázdnin a tak můžeme naplánovat puťák po chatách, které jsou seskupeny celkem blízko sebe v oblasti Tydal.

Týden před velikonocemi mají Norové pěkný studentský zvyk – týden prázdnin. Domácí úkoly jsem zvládl zařídit předem (a jiné odložit na později), takže jsem měl přes týden volna. První plánem byl 3 denní pobyt v chatě u Švéda Johana ve Störlienu, který studuje na NTNU a Tomáš se s ním znal ze Studenterhytty (Johan v ní působí).

Konečně zase nejsem organizátor. Ale dokážu si takovou roli užít? Ve velké skupině by se přeci mohl najít někdo, kdo vše připraví beze mne a já bych mohl jen konat, co někdo vymyslel. A jaké zážitky přináší velká skupina v největší (a oficiálně nejlehčí) chatě NTNUI Heinfjordstua?

Několika kamarádům co tráví Erasmus na NTNU se zachtělo zde studovat i po dokončení jejich studií na domovské univerzitě (super příroda, lidi i univerzita). Tomáš podává přihlášku na Mgr obor, Marta se snaží dostat na PhD pozici a já jsem věci nechal plynout. Ale moje aktivita v laboratoři bezpečnosti (NTNU Applied Cryptology Lab (NaCl)) se nějak projevila.

Od asi 6 let jsem nikdy pomlázku nevynechal (minulý, nebo předminulý rok mi nevyšel kvůli nemoci, ale i tak jsem vymrskal alespoň mamku a pomlázka byla připravena vždy). Takže kdo by věřil tomu, že mne vzdálenost 1600 km od Brna může odradit k plnění našich tradic?

K čemu je plánování výletu 3 týdny dopředu, když se vše změní den před odjezdem? To je asi nejvýznamnější překvapení víkendu 20. - 21. 2.

Další výlet. Změnilo se jméno chaty, přístup a zážitek, částečně obsazení, nezměnil se můj opožděný zápis − tentokrát to bude o příběhu z prvního únorového víkendu (tedy z 6. na 7. 2).

Po dlouhé době, kdy už opravdu nemám žádnou výmluvu (měl jsem jich několik, ale postupem času odpadávaly) se vracím ve vzpomínkách k sepsání příspěvku o výletu na první chatu. Příběh tedy bude o posledním lednovém víkendu a aktory budou samí Češi − já, Marta a Tomáš, kterému děkuji za fotky.

Druhý týden se od toho prvního značně lišil. Ve škole jsem téměř nebyl, zato doma jsem ji skrze úkol měl dost. Ale vynahradil to nově napadlý sníh, kterého teď máme fakt dost :).

Jelikož nemám v pátek školu (jako velká část mých kamarádů), většina víkendových akcí bude začínat už v pátek. 15. mi začal víkend až odpoledně ‒ dopoledne jsem se ještě registroval na policii, kam už jsem vyrazil se sbalenou krosnou na chatu. To možná nakonec nebylo třeba, protože bych se pro krosnu stihl vrátit (fronta k přepážce jen 30 minut).

Tak jsem očekával, že jsem předchozím příspěvkem uklidnil dotazy alespoň tak na týden a ono spíš naopak. Takže krátké shrnutí tohoto týdne, který pro mne čtvrtkem končí (jo, alespoň zatím mám 4denní týden, dokonce i s pauzou uprostřed, ale více již níže).

Jak jsem naznačil v předchozím příspěvku, NTNU (tedy jeho sekce pro spolupráci se zahraničím) se o nás celkem pěkně stará a nabízí nám různé informační a seznamovací aktivity. Přesněji ty informační jsou (velmi doporučené) pro všechny, zatímco seznamovací jsou doplňkové, za poplatek asi 750 Kč.

Zdravím všechny čtenáře, kteří se na tento blog dostali. Rozepíšu se zde o svém Erasmu v Norsku, který začal 6. 1. a skončí někdy v průběhu června.