This isn't the direct translation of the Czech version, my friends, since many of the Czech insider jokes wouldn't make any sense to anyone who has never visited the Festival.





The convention itself was great but the Nature decided to turn against us. The heat was insufferable, we were bathing in sweat and trying to stay barely hydrated.

For those of you that know very little about the Festival of Fantasy – it's not just a sci-fi/fantasy convention, it's sci-fi, fantasy, and science convention, with many interesting lectures, fan made plays and contests. Look here.

Czech conventions are very different from the American system, they are made by fans for fans, with very little merchandising compared to the other countries. This is a small country, with small fanbase community but our conventions rock.


On Friday, I visited the “BattleStar Tardis” programme (BattleStar Galactica and the Doctor Who joint programme), watched the Doctor Who 04x07 episode with Agatha Christie (I must show it to my mother, she loves Agatha Christie!) and attended a lecture about the famous historical characters that the Doctor has met in his travels. In the evening, I went to the “Doctor's Star Trekking” play, basically a crossover between the Doctor Who and Star Trek. I enjoyed the play immensely but the air in the room was horrible … the heat gave me a terrible headache so I went to bed early and missed several interesting lectures.


On Saturday, I spent most of the time in the cinema – all the recent movies are available at a very reasonable price (about one dollar) so I always take the opportunity to watch the movies I missed. In the morning, I watched WALL-E (okay, that's not a very recent movie, but I haven't seen it yet), in the afternoon I watched the new Clash of the Titans, and in the evening, I had wonderful time watching the new Iron Man 2.

Iron Man 2 was full of awkward scenes, we were laughing all the time and I had a really great time. If I watched the movie in regular cinema, I'd be extremely annoyed but this way I had a really, really great time.

At night, I watched the Shutter Island … at first I was quite bored and sleepy but at the end I was pleasantly surprised, it's a very interesting piece though the fist half could have been much better.


On Sunday, I visited the lecture about the New Zealand and shooting locations of the Lord of the Rings in there … just wow, I'm not hardcore LOTR fan thus I learned many interesting things there, Peter Jackson is a really incredible guy, there are no words to describe him.

I attended the meeting with a Czech composer and musician, Petr Hapka, though I'm not his fan either, he's a really great guy. I absolutely loved the lecture, he was talking about the composing music in general, about the show-biz world etc … The audience was great as well, with many intriguing questions and comments … I'm really glad that I attended the meeting.


The Monday was the best day of all, mostly thanks to the scientific lectures that day – I attended great lectures about the Genetics, the Evolution, the Hormones, the Medical Technology, and the Immune System, and I presented my lecture about the Leukaemia. Ahh, I love the scientific lectures at conventions! Sci-fi and fantasy are interesting, but you can easily obtain the information everywhere, obtaining valuable scientific information is much more difficult.

In the afternoon, I went to the lecture about Mary Sue stories, uwaaaaaa, that was terrible … the lecture itself was great but the Mary Sues … AUCH! DIE, MARY SUE, DIE! My brain still hurts … though I admit that reading the Mary Sue stories at conventions is extremely funny.

In the evening, I went to the cinema to watch Kick-Ass, and then I attended the lecture about the lesbian fanfiction – it consisted of reading some fics, and it was so extremely funny that I literally CRIED laughing.

Indeed, Monday was the best day of all.


On Tuesday, I attended more Mary Sue lectures (there are so many horrible MS stories that one lecture is not enough), and then two great lectures in the science dept. about the Nazi Germany regime – one about the Nazi technology, the other about the Nazi propaganda.

In the evening, I tortured my brain cells with more Mary Sue stories, and finally with not so much better Robin Hood movie in the cinema.


On Wednesday, in the morning I finally learned how to pronounce the English “TH” in the English Phonetics lecture (I love linguistic lectures, there can be never enough of them!), and in the afternoon I went to the meeting with the Czech-Canadian actor David Nykl, known for the role of Dr. Zelenka in the Star Gate Atlantis. He's just wonderful, I loved every minute. Thank you, David!

In the evening, I attended a law lecture and a lecture about the hentai sci-fi genre.


On Thursday, I murdered the few remaining brain cells with My Immortal reading session, the worst fanfiction ever written (even Google agrees!). UWAAA, oh God, have mercy with me! That was so terrible … Everyone, just read it if you ever feel your writing is poor. This should certainly improve your mood.

I went to another meeting with David Nykl, and in the evening I watched the cosplay contest (I did not participate, no costume).


And finally on Friday, I attended the lecture about the bad, extremely bad, movie adaptations of the Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas … Can you imagine d'Artagnan doing kung-fu? Fighting with ninjas? No, I'm not kidding … UWAA … How could they do this to my childhood heroes?

And the last lecture I attended was about the Craziest Japanese Commercials … HOW COULD YOU, ARNIE???