M-Cafe

M-Cafe on Kateřinska Ulice is one of Olomouc's latest crop of cosy little non-smoking cafes. This one shares its space with a bakery, but they're two separate businesses. If you'd like something from the bakery counter you order and pay for it there, but are welcome to take it through to the cafe at the back.

In the cafe there's table service; the menu is only in Czech but the coffees all have their Italian names and the fruit juices and smoothies aren't too difficult to work out (especially karamelova, bananova etc).

The cafe's main room is exceptionally cosy and the small courtyard is nice, but too high-walled to get any direct sunshine. The upholstered chairs are comfortable and the sturdy tables are perfect for catching up on a bit of writing or emailing (there's free wifi, but you'll need to ask for the password).

The only let down is that the cafe can get a bit noisy, especially when it's empty the tiniest noise echoes around. The music quality is a bit hit and miss; varying from pretty cool jazz CDs to the crappiest commercial radio stations imaginable, depending on who is working that day.

In all it's a nice enough little place to pop into if you're passing, but is probably not worth a special trip across town.

M-Cafe

M-Cafe on Kateřinska Ulice is one of Olomouc's latest crop of cosy little non-smoking cafes. This one shares its space with a bakery, but they're two separate businesses. If you'd like something from the bakery counter you order and pay for it there, but are welcome to take it through to the cafe at the back.

In the cafe there's table service; the menu is only in Czech but the coffees all have their Italian names and the fruit juices and smoothies aren't too difficult to work out (especially karamelova, bananova etc).

The cafe's main room is exceptionally cosy and the small courtyard is nice, but too high-walled to get any direct sunshine. The upholstered chairs are comfortable and the sturdy tables are perfect for catching up on a bit of writing or emailing (there's free wifi, but you'll need to ask for the password).

The only let down is that the cafe can get a bit noisy, especially when it's empty the tiniest noise echoes around. The music quality is a bit hit and miss; varying from pretty cool jazz CDs to the crappiest commercial radio stations imaginable, depending on who is working that day.

In all it's a nice enough little place to pop into if you're passing, but is probably not worth a special trip across town.

Metro Chill-out Club

Metro Chill-out Club is a small, comfortable, underground place with lots of sofas and a penchant for electronic music. The bar is kind of hard to find. The entrance is set back from the footpath in a dark archway and the only clues are the illuminated Pilsner beer company sign and the green and orange zebra-striped door if it happens to be swinging open at the time.

Sometimes you’ll have to ring the doorbell to get past the zebra door. There are some clever artistic flourishes in the design of the bar, but they’re obviously from a few years ago and are starting to look a bit worn in places now.

Metro’s relatively small capacity helps to give the place the slightly exclusive feel of a club. The staff are fairly pleasant: just make sure they give you your change and don’t think everything is a ‘tip’. The music is what you might expect from a “chill-out-club”; laid-back groovy electro-trance. During their busier times, they often have DJ’s playing on weekends. The patrons are usually fairly easy going and casually dressed.

The beer on tap is Pilsner; half-litre glasses are 25Kc. It’s supposed to be open until 7am, but don’t be surprised if the sun is well up by the time you walk out.

Sometimes you meet some real dogs there, but on a good night, it’s one of Olomouc’s best bars.

Meex Café/Club

On the corner of the square closest to the Arion fountain, there are two parts to Meex. The Café is on the ground level and the Club is underground. You enter the club via the passage to the right of the café.

The café allows smoking and serves an average array of café items such as

The club is small but usually attracts a good sized crowd of punters in their 20s to mid-30s. There are lots of mirrors for you to make sure that your hair is still frizzed, your boobs are sufficiently bulging and your eye make-up hasn’t faded under the strobe lights.

The club also has a Japanese restaurant that specializes in sushi. You can sample the lunch menu between 12 and 2pm where you’ll receive a miso soup and sushi plate or hot meal for 95 Kc. There’s a late afternoon special, All You Can Eat Sushi for 280Kc from 15-17.00 and then main menu starts again. It’s not so bad either. The lunch menu probably won’t fill you up but it might appease your cravings for sushi.

The music is standard europop fare and is unlikely to inspire masterful dance moments but you can’t be blamed for trying.

Metro Chill-out Club

Metro Chill-out Club is a small, comfortable, underground place with lots of sofas and a penchant for electronic music. The bar is kind of hard to find. The entrance is set back from the footpath in a dark archway and the only clues are the illuminated Pilsner beer company sign and the green and orange zebra-striped door if it happens to be swinging open at the time.

Sometimes you’ll have to ring the doorbell to get past the zebra door. There are some clever artistic flourishes in the design of the bar, but they’re obviously from a few years ago and are starting to look a bit worn in places now.

Metro’s relatively small capacity helps to give the place the slightly exclusive feel of a club. The staff are fairly pleasant: just make sure they give you your change and don’t think everything is a ‘tip’. The music is what you might expect from a “chill-out-club”; laid-back groovy electro-trance. During their busier times, they often have DJ’s playing on weekends. The patrons are usually fairly easy going and casually dressed.

The beer on tap is Pilsner; half-litre glasses are 25Kc. It’s supposed to be open until 7am, but don’t be surprised if the sun is well up by the time you walk out.

Sometimes you meet some real dogs there, but on a good night, it’s one of Olomouc’s best bars.

Meex Café/Club

On the corner of the square closest to the Arion fountain, there are two parts to Meex. The Café is on the ground level and the Club is underground. You enter the club via the passage to the right of the café.

The café allows smoking and serves an average array of café items such as

The club is small but usually attracts a good sized crowd of punters in their 20s to mid-30s. There are lots of mirrors for you to make sure that your hair is still frizzed, your boobs are sufficiently bulging and your eye make-up hasn’t faded under the strobe lights.

The club also has a Japanese restaurant that specializes in sushi. You can sample the lunch menu between 12 and 2pm where you’ll receive a miso soup and sushi plate or hot meal for 95 Kc. There’s a late afternoon special, All You Can Eat Sushi for 280Kc from 15-17.00 and then main menu starts again. It’s not so bad either. The lunch menu probably won’t fill you up but it might appease your cravings for sushi.

The music is standard europop fare and is unlikely to inspire masterful dance moments but you can’t be blamed for trying.

Never too busy to save the world!

This is a blog that I wrote for the Earth Day website a couple of weeks ago. I realize that it is quite a deviation from my usual rants and ramblings. But it was for a good cause so I figured 'what the hell' :)

Here goes:

Since you have made your way to this blog, I am certain that you are someone who is passionate about sustainability. Personally, my passion, or rather concern, for the environment started when I joined the Environment club in school and has been with me ever since. This was long before it became fashionable and the thing to do to be eco-friendly (heck, these were the days when the word sustainable wasn’t even used in this context!). But I digress. Fashionable or not, every person who cares for the environment makes me that much more optimistic about our future!

The idea of sustainability may be fantastic and a wonderful one to preach, but what should we do about it? In an ideal world, we would all be able to become Greenpeace activists (kudos to all of you out there) and work together to save the earth, one day at a time. But in reality, for most of us, our work/studies tend to take top priority. We are left with practically no time to dedicate to our passion for the environment owing to this. That said, we must realize that it isn’t the end of the world (no pun intended!).

Each of us in our own small way can help ease the pressure on the earth. The adage ‘Little drops make the mighty ocean’ isn’t just something that was fun to talk about in school. We can all work together and do our bit to give back to the world. I have listed down a few things that we can do to help our planet. Most of these ideas, though glaringly obvious, are seldom practiced.

· Turn off the water while brushing/shaving. You can save close to 8 gallons of water by doing so

· Unplug all appliances and chargers that are not in use to save them from draining energy.

· Instead of throwing away the water that’s been stored for a few days, use it to water the plants at home/in the office.

· Take the public transport/carpool whenever possible.

· Use the stairs instead of the elevator/escalator wherever possible.

· Try and use renewable energy (solar, biodegradable, wind, etc.) wherever possible.

· Recycle, recycle, and recycle!

These ideas, besides being socially beneficial, will also provide you with a financial benefit. So that’s an added bonus! There are tons of other tips to help preserve our environment. Please help me in suggesting a few others and practicing them as well.

On April 22^nd, people all over the world will join together to celebrate not only our planet, but life itself. Let’s make a pledge to start practicing our ideas on sustainability on this day!