A freedom-oriented lifestyle blog

Category: Bitcoin (Page 1 of 2)

A weekend in Budapest

Budapest is just a train ride away from Prague, so when our friends announced a weekend gathering in Budapest, it was just for us to book train tickets.

It was a loosely planned weekend with organized lunches and dinners, but what we did in between was up to us who came for the weekend. We have already been to Budapest once before, so this time we were focused on doing fun things with Othilia.
We had a lovely weekend with lots of play and discussions, the later with both old and new friends. We also meet up with our Hungarian friends and anarcho-capitalists who we first got to know at the Philosophy Europe convention in Prague back in September. Due to the nature of our whole weekend we won’t publish any pictures on our friends, but much more on us and what we were able to see of Budapest.


Budapest är bara en tågresa bort från Prag så när våra vänner tillkännagav en helgträff i Budapest var det bara för oss att boka tågbiljetter dit.

Det var en löst planerad helg med organiserade luncher och middagar, men det vi gjorde emellan var upp till oss som kom till helgen. Vi har redan varit i Budapest en gång tidigare, så den här gången var vi fokuserade på att göra roliga saker med Othilia.
Vi hade en härlig helg med mycket lek och diskussioner, det senare med både gamla och nya vänner. Vi träffade också våra ungerska vänner och anarkokapitalister som vi först lärde känna vid “Philosophy Europe”-konferensen i Prag i september. Eftersom våra möten var av mer privat natur så kommer vi inte att publicera några bilder på våra vänner, men fler bilder på oss och vad vi kunde se av Budapest.

This is our favorite picture of Othilia in Budapest. The Hungarian parliament in the background.
Now how did we get there? The train from Prague to Budapest took 6.5 hours and went via the Slovak capital Bratislava. The two-way tickets for us three (two adults and a child) were around 45 Euro. Othilia had fun during the train trip running between the wagons, here a well-deserved nap in Ulrika’s arms.
This is lovely to see bitcoin Atms and several of them here in Budapest. Not the best conversion rates though.
Our first evening in Budapest and what a welcome we got!
We love to walk around in Budapest due to the impressive architecture.
Our first whole day in Budapest started with Othilia showing her independence. She suddenly didn’t want any help and wanted to walk by herself. Here looking more closely at this purple scooter.
We tried to avoid this part of Budapest the last time we where here, so it was nice to see the tourist part of the city this time around.
We used google maps to find small parks for Othilia to run around in.
We found the Budapest eye, but we didn’t try it out.
Szent István Bazilika had a lovely square where Othilia could run around.
Liberty square had a water installation and Othilia was scared of the water funny enough, she usually loves water.
We just happened to come to Liberty square because we had found a playground that we wanted to take Othilia to. Best of two worlds, her parents could enjoy the surrounding on a macro level and Othilia enjoyed the playground on the micro level.
Othilia made huge developmental leaps while in Budapest. Suddenly, she wanted to push her stroller by herself.
We took several walks along the Danube river, it is a beautiful view from almost any place along both sides of the river. Last time we where here we visited the memorial for the 20 000 Jews that got murdered along the riverside during world war II, a place we really recommend people to visit.
This building in Budapest gave us “Atlas shrugged”-vibes.
New day and a new picture of the Danube river.
We had lovely weather here in Budapest. Othilia in her “Dalarna” dress in the end of October. She got that dress from her paternal granmother (farmor) and we love it. We truly enjoyed the feeling of late summer here even if the leafs had starting to fall down to the ground.
We got to see the Hungarian parliament building after sunset and it was spectacular. Our feeling of Budapest is that it is quite similar to Prague, but that Budapest is more of a large Metropolitan city, and feels bigger than Prague.
The weekend went by so fast and we had to say goodbye to all of our friends and head back to Prague. Thank you Sofia for organizing this weekend. You are welcome to visit Prague some day!
Next up is the end of October and our activities in Prague.


Opt-out – Hacker’s Congress 2019

Hacker’s Congress is always at Paralelni Polis here in Prague around the first weekend in October. This years theme suited us well (Opt-out) and we bought the tickets as soon as they were released. The price was a bit higher this year, but the quality of the conference was higher as well. They had much more sophisticated recording equipment and most of the talks were recorded. Some speakers declined to be filmed for obvious reasons, but the open talks are available here if you are interested.

More and more children attend each year, so this year Othilia had a friend near her age to play with. Older kids also had things to do at the conference so the attendees of the conference is turning into a mix of young hacker’s and families with children.

I will show a few photos from the conference, but I highly recommend you to visit their Youtube page and look at the recordings from the conference.


“Hacker’s Congress” arrangeras alltid på Paralelni Polis i Prag runt första helgen i oktober. Årets tema passade oss bra (Opt-out) och vi köpte biljetter så snart de släpptes. Priset var högre i år, men kvaliteten på konferensen var också högre. De hade mycket mer sofistikerad inspelningsutrustning och de flesta av föreläsningarna spelades in. Vissa av talarna ville dock inte filmas av uppenbara skäl, men de öppna samtalen finns här om du är intresserad.

Fler och fler barn deltar för varje år som går och i år hade Othilia en vän nära hennes egen ålder att leka med. Äldre barn hade också saker att göra på konferensen så deltagarna på denna konferens har förvandlats till en blandning av unga hackare och barnfamiljer.

Jag kommer att visa er några foton från konferensen, men jag rekommenderar dig starkt att besöka deras youtube-sida och titta på inspelningarna från konferensen.

Othilia checking out the Bitcoin ATM. The only accepted currencies at this conference are cryptocurrencies, mainly bitcoin and litecoin.
A summary of the Hacker’s Congress 2019
The history and background of Parelni Polis was presented. Václav Benda was a Czech Roman Catholic intellectual and mathematician, that lead the anti-communist dissident organization Charter 77 when Czechoslovakia was under Communist rule. He wrote the essay Parallel Polis (parallel cities) in 1977 and he is an important person to the crypto-space here in Prague.
Some words of advice.
Some words about Facebook’s cryptocurrency Libra.
Some talks was live on Youtube and more are now available on Youtube.
Ken Schoolland was one of the main speakers at the conference. He is an Associate Professor of Economics at Hawaii Pacific University and the author of The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible.
Othilia chilling in the bean bag at Paralelni Polis. We couldn’t bring Othilia to the lectures so we had to divide the interesting talks between us.
Othilia had her friend Astrid (and her mother Hayley) at the Hacker’s Conference. They already met at last years conference, both just a few month old and in a sling back then. Now they are running around at Paralelni Polis.
We also took Othilia out to playgrounds so she wouldn’t be indoors all day.
Othilia is an expert at stealing other children’s balls (look how happy she looks :)). We bring her own balls to the playgrounds, but she is never interested in her own balls, only those of others.
Back to the conference! We got handed a Venezuelan Bolivar at the conference – this piece of paper is now worth less than 1 satoshi (0.00000001 BTC).
The people who put the conference together – a big thank you for all the work you put in to make this happen!
We will end this blog post with a few pictures from the morning walks Pontus does.
Troja bridge in the dark.
Some boats on the Vltava river is part of the public transportation system, so a regular ticket is enough to go from one side of the river to another. They also start to go quite early as you can see by the morning light.

Othilia ten months, Pontus talking Bitcoin and Swedish midsummer

Today Othilia turned ten months and we have had the joy of seeing her turning into a toddler. Her baby days are gone and she has passed some great milestones along the way. We jokingly said that we will see what will come first: she starts walking or get her first tooth. By the looks of it, we think she will start running before any fangs show up. She took her first steps when she was 9.5 months (three steps to be exact) and now it is more of a confidence thing before she will drop holding our fingers and walk by herself.


Idag blev Othilia tio månader och vi har haft glädjen att se henne bli ett småbarn. Hennes bebisdagar är förbi och hon har gått igenom flera  milstolpar längs vägen. Vi sa skämtsamt att vi ska se vad som kommer först: att hon börjar gå eller att hon får sin första tand. Nu tror vi att hon börjar springa innan några gaddar dyker upp. Hon tog sitt första steg när hon var 9,5 månader (tre steg för att vara exakt) och nu är det mer av en självförtroende-sak innan hon kommer att släppa hålla fingrarna och gå själv.

Othilia helping mom pick flowers for her midsummer wreath only supported by a finger.

We have been quite absent, but we have had our reasons. Othilia is taking up most of our time, but for the last half a year Pontus  has been working on a report about blockchain technology from a competition perspective commissioned by the Swedish Competition Authority . He was the sole author for the report and it was published in May this year followed by a conference in Stockholm about digitization, so Pontus having much to do was an understatement.
The report turned out well and his presentation can be viewed below. A presentation about the Swedish e-krona (digital currency issued by the Swedish Central bank) followed Pontus presentation and last part is questions from the audience to all the presenters that day. Worth watching if you can comprehend Swedish or are able to switch on Youtube’s auto-generated translated sub titles.


Vi har varit ganska frånvarande här, men vi har haft våra skäl. Othilia tar upp det mesta av vår tid, men under det senaste halvåret har Pontus arbetat med en rapport om blockkedjeteknik utifrån ett konkurrensperspektiv som beställts av Konkurrensverket. Pontus var den enda författaren till rapporten och den publicerades i maj i år följt av en konferens i Stockholm om digitalisering, så Pontus hade mycket att göra var en underdrift.
Rapporten visade sig bli väldigt bra och hans presentation kan ses nedan. En presentation om den svenska e-kronan (digital valuta utgiven av den svenska centralbanken) följde Pontus presentation och sista delen är frågor från publiken till alla presentatörer den dagen. Värt att titta på om du kan förstå svenska eller kunna sätta på Youtubes automatiskt genererade överssättning.

 

When everything with the report was finished we wanted to spend some time with our families and enjoy Swedish summer a little bit before it was time for us to travel south again.


När allting med rapporten var färdigt så ville vi spendera lite tid med våra familjer och njuta av svenska sommaren lite innan det var dags för oss att resa söderut igen.

Othilia loves the water so she got to try the Swedish lakes from Dalarna up to Umeå, temperatures ranging from 16-18.5 degrees Celsius.

She loves animals so we usually ask pet owners if it is alright for Othilia to engage with their animal.

Children who is a bit older than Othilia is her favorite as well. Here, she is holding hands with Alma – the daughter of Daniel (Pontus’s old classmate from childhood).

The flower Othilia picked in the first picture turned into a midsummer wreath and we were dressed for celebrating Swedish midsummer. The dress Othilia was wearing has been inherited down from mom Ulrika and aunt Rebecca.

Dad was wearing a lovely t-shirt instead.

Midsummer is best spent in Dalarna so that was where we were this year, watching traditional celebrations all weekend long.

And we were not alone 🙂 This is the midsummer maypole in Husby, Dalarna on midsummer day.

We started our travels south again after midsummer and we happened to make a short stop in Linköping for lunch. Linköping is the place in Sweden me and Pontus met almost ten years ago, so it was nostalgic to walk around in trädgårdsföreningen and the city centre with Othilia.

We ate lunch at “Gula huset” (the yellow house) and went back on the road. We will make a longer stop here next time so we can meet up with friends.

 

 

Week 38 pregnancy update and blowing up the Stalin monument

Week 38 of pregnancy and we have installed ourselves here in Prague, it is here that we have decided to welcome our child. We are almost prepared for the coming birth, so we now have to plan small adventures or things to do so we don’t end up spending our days just waiting for the birthing to start.
We love Prague – the nature, the bitcoin-friendly atmosphere and the nice food cultures here, so we try to keep ourselves occupied, but within Ulrika’s energy level. Her energy level has really sunken this week, but more about being week 38 pregnant below. 


Vecka 38 av graviditeten och vi har installerat oss i Prag, det är här som vi har bestämt oss för att välkomna vårt barn. Nästan alla förberedelser inför den kommande födelsen är klara, så vi måste nu planera in små äventyr eller hitta på saker att göra så vi inte spenderar våra dagar med att bara vänta på att födseln ska börja.
Vi älskar Prag – naturen, den bitcoinvänliga atmosfären och de goda matkulturerna här, så vi försöker fylla dagarna, dock inom Ulrikas energinivå. Hennes energinivå har verkligen sjunkit den här veckan, men mer om att vara vecka 38 gravid nedan.

Week 38 of pregnancy and here we are in the Letna Park getting a nice view over a few of the bridges of Prague. Ulrika is trying not to fall in to the period of waiting, so we try to do small adventures those days Ulrika is feeling less tired.

There is a metronom, usually swinging from side to side, now standing in the middle of Letna Park after they blew up a 15 meter tall Stalin monument in 1962.

The Stalin monument during Czech Communism’s glory days. This is one of the reasons why we like the Czech Republic so much. A lot of people still remember those days and do not want to go back there. (Picture from Wiki Commons)

So Ulrika entered week 38 of pregnancy and we decided to go skin deep to document this pregnancy. Ulrika feels strong and beautiful, but a special form of fatigue has hit her. The scale says that she has gained 16 kg (35 pounds), but she doesn’t feel heavy yet. Her extremities, mostly her feet, have started to swell, but the blood pressure is good.  Baby’s heartbeat sounded healthy at our week 38 appointment with our midwife and the baby’s head is now in a downward position, but not quite fixated yet. We see our midwife once a week now the last couple of weeks before the calculated date of birth (September 3rd).

We don’t want to end up in a bubble of just waiting for our daughter’s arrival, then it is going to feel like forever before she is here, so we are fortunate to have our friends here, the King family. (Picture by: Caroline King).

Prague doesn’t have a lot of natural lakes, so man-made lakes are the place to go if you want to cool off during hot summer days. The temperature has been insane here in Prague as well, most days reaching temperatures over 35C.

Prague has a big Vietnamese community from the time where communist countries used to force their citizens to expatriate to other communist countries. We really like the Vietnamese cuisine, especially Pho Bo (Vietnamese beef noodle soup), so I’m glad that the Vietnamese community choose to stay in the Czech Republic after the fall of communism here.

Our midwife is located right in the middle of the tourist parts of Prague, so it can be hard to find nice food places, but our midwife told us about a lovely restaurant (Styl&Interier) in her neighborhood, which was hidden away in a back yard, where we could have lunch after a long appointment with her.

But mostly, we cook our meals at home and there are those little things Ulrika appreciates, like when Pontus has decorated our dinner (mashed turnips with fish in oven) with nicely cut out flowers made from a radish. Or that we have an IKEA nearby where we can buy Kalles Kaviar and hard rye bread.

We have done the last shopping needed before the coming birth here in Prague. This is another thing we really like about Prague, it is really a bitcoin-friendly city. There are around 14 two-way bitcoin ATM’s  just in and around the Prague area, so it is easy to get the local currency if you can’t pay directly with bitcoin.

Here is a map showing the location of all btc ATM’s in and around Prague, both one- and two-ways,

And some days Ulrika hasn’t even wanted to step outside, so she has finally finished her crochet project, creating a warm blanket for “det lilla livet”. Ulrika is not in to arts and crafts, and she hasn’t tried to crochet since the days of high school, but it is remarkable how much information you can get out of Youtube. Ulrika had an idea of what she wanted to create and five Youtube videos (and a number of hours crocheting) later “det lilla livet” now has a blanket.

Prague – Křivoklát castle, Libertarians and Bitcoin

We were back in Prague with a busy schedule. It was going to be intensive days with the King family, Křivoklát castle, libertarians, meetings and just enjoying being in a bitcoin-friendly environment
The King family are close friends to us and we enjoy going on adventures with them. This time they showed us the Křivoklát castle located in Křivoklátsko Protected Landscape Area. There is a small bubb.la premium enclave here in Prague so we wanted to meet up with them as well. Our days here in Prague were so busy so Ulrika actually had to make a schedule for our time here so we didn’t double-book anything. 


Vi var tillbaka i Prag med ett ganska fullt schema. Det skulle bli intensiva dagar med Kingfamiljen, slottet Křivoklát, libertarianer, viktiga möten, samt bara njuta av att vara i en bitcoin-vänlig miljö.
Kingfamiljen är nära vänner till oss och vi gillar att komma ut på äventyr med dem. Den här gången visade de oss slottet Křivoklát som ligger i “Křivoklátsko Protected Landscape Area”. Det finns också en liten bubb.la premium-enklav här i Prag så vi ville träffa dem också. Våra dagar här i Prag var faktiskt så intensiva att Ulrika var tvungen att göra ett schema för vår tid här så att vi inte dubbelbokade något.

Prague is a place that we keep returning to. This time around, the King family took us to Křivoklát Castle – a 13th century castle one hour outside of Prague.

The whole crew inside the castle.

They have a medieval setting in the court yard where we could try shooting with crossbows.

We could choose between different crossbows, even modern ones were available.

We took a look around before we went for a trekking in the surrounding landscape. Křivoklát Castle is located in Křivoklátsko Protected Landscape Area, an area with rich biodiversity.

Caroline snapped a pregnancy photo of Ulrika – here just before entering week 29. (Photo by: Caroline King)

Usually we don’t end up in the same picture, so it was nice to have Caroline take one of us! (Photo by: Caroline King)

Near Křivoklát Castle lies Roztoky, a small city surrounded by forrests, rivers and mountains.

Remnants of the Soviet era are still present and it creates a spectacular contrast to the life-fullness of the surrounding nature.

Our goal was to hike to a waterfall that ended up being really small, but we had a fantastic day anyway with the King family.

There are a lot of blood sucking insects in Czech Republic nature, both ticks and deer flies were trying to get a meal from us. Pontus found this tick on him a few days after our hike even though we carefully checked ourselves after the hike.

It is nice that the older King boys feel comfortable enough with both Pontus and Ulrika, so we can look after them. Pontus spent a couple of hours playing with them while we other grown ups had different missions – Thank you Caroline for helping Ulrika with finding appropriate clothes 🙂

Henry has a special taste in clothes and he loves his suit – we think he looks awesome!

It is also interesting to come visit an unschooling family and see what kind of projects they are working on. Arduino is the focus right now and it seems to be a great education tool for children (and adults). Arduino is an open-source electronic prototyping platform and the purpose is to enable users to create interactive electronic objects – robots in other words.

We had a really busy week in Prague, but we could manage to attend a bubb.la meet up while we where here. We invited our newly found Llbertarian Australian friend to join the Swedish enclave here in Prague. (Photo by: Caroline King)

Our main reason for coming back to Prague is the bitcoin-friendly environment and the cryptoanarchy hub found here. This two-way bitcoin ATM was found in one of the local malls here in Prague, so it is so easy to exchange to the local currency here. There are also places in Prague where you can pay with cryptocurrencies directly.

we found this poster at our favorite place in Prague, Parallelni Polis, which shows the organic growth of the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency communities in the world.

Our time in Prague went really fast so it was a bit sad to say good bye to the King family for this time. Thank you Caroline an Paul for all your help and advice we got from you this week! We are grateful for having you and your children as friends.

We needed to head to Sweden for important family things and celebration of love, so we tried a new way of getting to Sweden. We took the ferry from Rostock to Trelleborg and it was a smooth and cheap way to get from Germany to Sweden. We can really recommend this route!

We found the best slogan ever for an invest company on one of the trucks doing the same journey as us – “Putting capital to work in Southeast Europe”

One day in Helsinki and Bitcoin-related things

We’ve been busy, but we now felt that it was time to update what we’ve been doing after our stay  in Tallinn and our week 20 ultrasound there. First we spent one day in Helsinki. It was the cheapest option for us when we wanted to travel from Tallinn to Sweden. Ulrika has never set her foot in this neighboring country, and Pontus has never been to Helsinki so we took the opportunity to see the Finnish capital on foot. We calculated that we walked about 15 km this day, so we managed to see a big part of Helsinki. Then there were Bitcoin and freedom-minded meetings on our Sweden agenda, and to meet family and friends. 


Vi har haft fullt upp, men vi känner nu att det var dags att göra en uppdatering om vad vi har sysslat med efter vår tripp till Tallinn och vårt vecka 20 ultraljud där.  Först spenderade vi en dag i Helsingfors. Det var det billigaste alternativet för oss när vi ville åka från Tallinn till Sverige. Ulrika har aldrig satt sin fot i detta grannland och Pontus har heller aldrig varit i just Helsingfors, så vi tog vara på möjligheten att få se den finländska huvudstaden till fots. Vi räknade ut att vi promenerade cirka 15 km denna dag, så vi hann se en hel del av Helsingfors. Därefter var det bitcoin och frihetliga möten på vår Sverigeagenda, samt att träffa familj och vänner.

A bitcoin ATM greeted us when we arrived to Helsinki, so it was easy for us to get the local currency (Euro) here in Finland.  0 confirmations, no need to sign in and give out personal information and we were ready to spend a day in Helsinki. The ATM can be found in the ferry terminal at Västra Hamnen and you can change the language so you don’t have to know Finnish to use it.

The second thing that greeted us in Helsinki was the Bad Bad Boy, the 8.5 meters tall urinating statue.

And a visualization of the mean depth of the Baltic Sea – only 55 meters.

We had taken the morning ferry from Tallinn so the sun was still rising when we came to Helsinki. Ulrika thinks that these sorts of cranes look like dinosaurs.

We found a beach, but it was to cold to jump in.

We took a walk through Kaivopuisto park and found a small hill from where we got a nice view over a few of the islands just outside of Helsinki.

There we also found a memorial for all seafarers and the deceased at sea.

One district in Helsinki is called Ulrikasborg, which translates to Ulrika’s castle in English, so we had to go there. Ullis is a nickname Ulrika and this district have in common.

It was funny that we found Pontus café in Ulrikasborg.

Finland was until 2009 the only country in the world that had Swedish as one of their official languages, since 2009 Swedish is also an official language in Sweden. Therefore, signs etc. in Helsinki have both Swedish and Finnish written on them, like the academic book store in the picture.

Finland has their moomins (by Tove Jansson) and we had to take a picture of one when we where here.

Atlas Obscura got us to see the Pohjola Insurance building – the company that wants to remind their customers that witches, bears, and gnomes are present so you better be insured. The building was built by architect Eliel Saarinen in 1901 and the name “Pohjola” is from the Finnish epic saga called the Kalevala. According to the legend, Pohjola was a Northern region ruled by an evil witch where you could find the roots of the World Tree.

We walked passed Helsinki train station, which has an interesting architecture.

Djurgårdsviken was still covered by ice, when we were here. It looked fragile so we strolled around the lake to get to Berghäll, another district of Helsinki. We used google maps and Atlas Obscura (link to the site can be found in the end) to get around here and we think that we were able to see quite a lot of Helsinki by foot before we had to board the next ferry.

Churches are interesting and we think that the architecture, both exterior and interior, often reflects the culture and the mindset of the people in that country. In Finland, the embellishments and colors are stripped of the church, whereas churches in Central America are much more colorful and full of decorations.

Hanasaari Power Plant is apparently a coal-consuming power plant.

We found a lot of beautiful wooden ships in the Northern harbor. More pictures from Helsinki can be found in the slideshow below.

 

Helsinki Cathedral was one of our last stops on our walk before we left Helsinki.

Skatudden seems like a nice place to chill out during the summer months in Helsinki. Our ferry departed from Skatudden so we had to go to the ferry terminal.

We went with Tallink to Tallinn, but we couldn’t book a ticket back to Sweden at the same time, because we didn’t know how long we needed to stay in Estonia. So when it was time for us to go to Sweden, it was cheaper to take the morning ferry to Helsinki and from there, take the night ferry with Viking Line to Stockholm. This was the reason we had an unexpected, but pleasant, day in Helsinki.

We came to Stockholm the morning after and Gröna Lund, the amusement park, greeted us. Unfortunately, no bitcoin ATM was present here when we came to Stockholm.

Back in Sweden and Pontus had a lecture about Bitcoin and the current economic system at the E-Commerce and Shop Tech fair.

Pontus has been voted in as a member of the board for the Swedish Bitcoin association so that was why he ended up on stage at this kind of fair. Link to the Swedish Bitcoin Association can be found in the end.

We also ended up meeting up with our old Bitcoin meet up group in Linköping.

We were able to attend this years Freedomfest in Stockholm arranged by the Swedish Mises Institute. We were able to meet a lot of like-minded people and the rumor is that the record of attendants was broken this year. One of our favorite lectures this year was the comparison of Sweden and Switzerland and why Sweden is much more vulnerable than Switzerland by Stellan Abrahamsson. All public lectures can be found in the link below (in Swedish).

Ulrika gästar Radio Frihetligt

Sorry friends, this will mostly be in Swedish! (Ulrika is guest in a Swedish libertarian radio show) 

Ulrika har varit med i Radio Frihetligt och det blev ett 40 minuters samtal med vår vän Simon om hennes syn på frihet, bitcoin, nomadlivet och hur vi vill leva vårt liv.   Det blev ett trevligt samtal även om Ulrikas gravidhjärna ibland ställde till det och  gjorde att hon ibland tappade vad hon ville säga 🙂

Jag hoppas att ni tycker om avsnittet!

Vi vill också tacka våra vänner familjen King för de fina julklapparna. Våra bitcoin-pashminasjalar passar vår livsstil och de har verkligen varit till hjälp under kalla kvällar här i Spanien! Ni kan hitta bitcoinsjalarna i deras webbutik!

We also want to thank our friends the King family for the lovely Christmas gifts. Our bitcoin Pashmina scarfs fit our lifestyle and they have really been helpful during the cold evenings here in Spain! You can find the bitcoin scarfs in their online store!

 

Budapest, a hidden library and a fellow Swedish bitcoiner

We left for Budapest after our first round to Prague to assist our friends, the King family, when Edward Satoshi King was about to enter the world. Budapest has been a city we’ve been waiting for a chance to visit, and now it was time for us to see this place.  We use the website Atlas Obscura to find places worth visiting when we arrive to a new place and that’s why we  ended up in Ervin Szabós library, a hidden gem in Budapest. We also went up on Gellért Hill – the view of Budapest and the Danube river are magnificent from the top.

We were fortunate to be in Budapest at the same time as another fellow Swedish Bitcoiner, Nanok Bie, the Editor-in-chief of news.bitcoin.com. We met up for dinner and we had a lot to talk about. Thank you Nanok for pleasant evening!


Vi åkte till Budapest efter vår första tur till Prag när vi var där för att hjälpa våra vänner, Kingfamiljen, när Edward Satoshi King skulle komma till världen. Budapest har varit en stad som vi har väntat på en chans att besöka och nu var det dags för oss att se den omtalande staden. Vi använder webbsidan “Atlas Obscura” för att hitta platser som är värda att besöka när vi kommer till en ny plats och därför slutade det med att vi bland annat besökte Ervin Szabós biblioteket, en dold pärla i Budapest. Vi åkte också upp på “Gellért Hill” –  utsikten över Budapest och Donaufloden är magnifik från toppen.

Vi hade också turen att vara i Budapest samtidigt som en annan svensk bitcoin-entusiast, Nanok Bie, chefredaktören för news.bitcoin.com. Vi åt middag honom och vi hade mycket att prata om. Tack Nanok för en trevlig kväll!

The mighty Danube (or Donau), the second longest river in Europe that divides Buda and Pest – the capital of Hungary. Budapest was our next home for a few weeks after we left Prague.

Gellért Hotel is where you want to get of if you want to walk up on Gellért Hill to get an amazing view over Budapest. This hotel opened its doors in 1912 and it is famous for its thermal baths .

The Liberty bridge stands in front of the Gellért  Hotel and is one of the bridges connecting Buda with the Pest side of Budapest.

It is a short, but steep walk up on Gellért Hill. The hill is named after Saint Gerard who was thrown to his death here in the 11th century.

We passed the most awesome playground we’ve seen so far during our travels. Take your children here if you’re in town.

Look at these slides!

South part of Buda from Gellért Hill.

You’ll find the Citadella, a fortress built in the 1850’s, and the Liberty statue on top of Gellért Hill. The Liberty Statue was erected in remembrance of what was then referred to as the Soviet “liberation” of Hungary during World War II. The first inscription stated “To the memory of the liberating Soviet heroes the grateful Hungarian people 1945”. After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the Hungarians changed the inscription to “To the memory of those all who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary” .

The Danube river originate in South Germany and then flows through 10 different countries (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine) before ending in the Black Sea.

Pontus took a picture of Ulrika at one of the viewpoints on Gellért Hill. From this place you see the Pest part of Budapest. Budapest is one of the most densely populated cities in the EU. There aren’t so many tall buildings here, but the city seems to stretch far out in to the horizon.

The Citadella was not open when we went there, so after enjoying the view we walked back down through the Jubileumi Park.

The Gellért Hotel from the side and the Gellért square where the tram and bus stops are.

We were fortunate to end up having dinner with another fellow Swedish bitcoiner our first night in Budapest. Nanok Bie is a journalist and currently Editor-in-Chief at news.bitcoin.com, so we talked about whats going on in the cryptocurrency world and of course the bubble that separates Sweden from the rest of the world. We had a lovely evening and we hope to meet Nanok again somewhere else in the world.

We use the website Atlas Obscura to find unexpected places to explore and in Budapest we found out about Ervin Szabós library from that site. The library is described as “a 19th century aristocrat’s mansion, turned into a library, hidden in a modern library” and it is exactly what it is.

You’ll find Ervin Szabós library tucked in the 4th floor in a rather dull “modern” library and you wouldn’t know it was there if you didn’t know about it beforehand.

The City Council purchased the building in 1931 and converted the palace rooms into reading rooms that is still used today.

There are five different rooms to explore, all built by a well-known Hungarian aristocrat, Count Frigyes Wenckheim at the end of the 19th century. The building is called the Wenckheim Palace, but the library was named after the director of the library, Ervin Szabó, a librarian and anarcho-syndicalist, who became a leader of the Hungarian anti-war movement during the first world war.

You can find both old an newer books, here but most of the books from Wenckheim’s time have been moved elsewhere or destroyed. More pictures from the library can be found in the slide show below.

 

 

 

 

Hacker’s Congress 2017, Paralelni Polis

Our visit to Prague this time was for the Hacker’s congress at Paralelni Polis, where we also held a presentation at a bitcoin meet up a few days before the conference started. We had really high expectations, because we visited last years version of Hacker’s congress and we had a really interesting and inspiring time, so we didn’t expect less for this year’s version. Hacker’s congress covers more topics than cryptography and programming – it is about finding freedom in an unfree world and how you can hack your life to become the greater you. A few of the talks are available at World Crypto Network if you are interested.


Vårt besök i Prag den här gången var för den årliga “Hacker’s Congress” vid Paralelni Polis, där vi också höll i ett föredrag på ett bitcoinmöte några dagar innan konferensen startade. Vi hade väldigt stora förväntningar, då vi besökte förra årets version av “Hacker’s Congress” som var otroligt bra och inspirerande, så vi förväntade oss inte mindre för årets version. “Hacker’s Congress” täcker fler ämnen än kryptografi och programmering – det handlar om att hitta frihet i en ofri värld och hur du kan hacka ditt liv för att bli ett större du. Några av föreläsningarna finns tillgängliga på World Crypto Network för dig som är intresserad.

It was time for the 2017 version of Hacker’s Congress and these were the topics covered during the Congress.

The Hacker’s Congress was held at our favorite place in Prague, Paralelni Polis which means parallel city in English.

This year 5% of the attendants were Swedish, and we have met many of them before, so we went out for dinner with a few of the Swedes. One of them brought a really nice cap to the table!

Adam Back was one of the speakers talking about Bicoin and he devoted his talk to the scalability and fungibility problems of bitcoin. His talk is one of the recorded talks uploded to the World Crypto Network hosted by Tone Vays.

Tone Vays was another speaker who mainly focused on talking about the history of the Bitcoin price. We’ve heard this before at Anarchapulco 2016 so it was not so much new things for us.

Pamela Morgan made people start thinking about what will happen with your cryptocurrencies when you die.

Peter Todd was here taking about Proof of Work and what a blockchain and mining are trying to prevent. Really good talk.

Giacomo Zucco had a great talk about the antifragility of bitcoin.

Hacker’s Congress is a three day conference and you can only pay for food and beverages in bitcoin and litecoin. No Fiat-money here!

Julia Tourianski a.k.a brave the world, had a talk about what she’s learned about people after she discovered bitcoin.

Jeffrey Tucker had an interesting talk over Skype about bitcoin and Austrian economics, which is in line with how we see bitcoin.

In the breaks, we tested Paralelni Polis own beer.

Our focus was bitcoin, but other topics was also interesting for us. Pavol Luptak talked about the possibilities with the new technologies available.

Paul Rosenberg talked about bio hacking and the CRISPR-technique.

Juraj Bednar had an inspiring talk about positive libertarianism or how to be free in an unfree world.

And Arto Bendiken had a highly interesting talk about anarchy and tribalism – Ulrika thought that this was one of the best speeches at this year’s Hacker’s Congress.

You could try the new fashion make up at the Hacker’s congress so you can avoid the face recognition algorithms in a public space, It is not for avoiding face detection algorithms, for that you need scarf and sunglasses etc to cover up you face.

Panel discussions on different topics were also on the agenda. Here, Smuggler, Frank Braun, Jim Bell. Paul Rosenberg and Joerg Platzer about the impact of cryptoanarchy and decentralization to our future.

Lastly, the crew of Hacker’s Congress said goodbye and welcomed us to the next year’s version of HCPP.

Life nomadic with Bitcoin and an unschooling family

We got invited to hold a lecture about our nomadic lifestyle and why we want to opt out from the current economic system at the Bitcoin meet up here in Prague. We gladly accepted and below you can watch the whole lecture and the Q&A afterwards. It was really fun to see that so many were interested in hearing about the nomadic lifestyle we have and why we want to opt out from the current economic system.

We have also spent time with the King family that uses unschooling to help their kids learn about the world and life, so we also want to show you a few pictures from inside such a cool family. Caroline is also one of the persons behind the Prague Worldschooling-group, so check out what they are up to.


Vi blev inbjudna att hålla en föreläsning om vår nomadiska livsstil och varför vi vill opta ut från det nuvarande ekonomiska systemet på Paralelni Polis här i Prag under ett Bitcoin meetup. Vi accepterade inbjudan gladligen och nedanför kan du titta på hela föreläsningen, samt frågestunden efteråt. Det var jättekul att se att så många var intresserade av att höra om den nomadiska livsstilen vi har och varför vi vill opta ut från det nuvarande ekonomiska systemet i världen.

Vi har också spenderat tid med Kingfamiljen som använder “unschooling” för att hjälpa sina barn att lära sig om världen och livet, så vi vill också visa dig några bilder från insidan av en sådan cool familj. Caroline är också en av personerna bakom Prags “Worldschooling”-grupp, så kika gärna på vad de gör.

 

 

This is a few of the unschooling books that are used to teach the kids. You won’t find these kind of topics in the Swedish state curriculum.

Winston is using these cards to teach his youngest brother the periodic table, but we think that Edward is a little bit to young for that. Also not a thing you would see in a Swedish classroom for 7-year olds.

We also wanted to help to educate the kids and when Henry and Winston showed interest in climbing we brought them to the boulder bar here in Prague.

They advanced quickly so now they are having rope climbing lessons!

We also introduced them to zombie hide and seek so we had to have som breaks just resting on the mattress.

Take every question you get from a child as a learning opportunity. Here Ulrika talks about how animals have different defense systems during our bouldering session.

Virtual reality is another thing we tried with the King children.

And we showed them how to build your own microscope with your smartphone and a laserpointer.

a wasps eye up close

A close up on a human thumb.

the root of a strand of hair

Close up on brave boys sacrifice for science – learning about the blood system.

Through Atlas Obscura, we found an underground alchemy lab that where only re-discovered after a massive flooding 2002. So we thought that this would be an interesting thing for the boys to look at.

Atlas Obscura is a great website that we use to find interesting things to see and do.

The secret alchemy lab is from the 16th century and they were built for the king Rudolf II for the purpose to try to make gold and to make the legendary philosopher’s stone.

They also made different elixirs to prolong life, make you healthy or become more happy. There was a whole room underground dedicated to dry the “magical” herbs.

From the laboratory, there are long, underground tunnels connecting the laboratory to the castle and other places in Prague.

A sign from King Rudolf II where he gives the scientist the approval to run the alchemy lab.

They sell elixirs that are prepared by a local monastery under strict conditions according to their original recipes. More pictures from the lab can be found below.

 

We also went to the Magical cavern in Prague, a painting gallery by the artist Reon Argondian. He turned his home into the Kingdom of Argondia and he also sells the paintings that are on display.

The paintings shows the magical creatures living in the Kingdom of Argondia.

They also have sculptures, who seems to have an apetite for small children :). More pictures from the Magical cavern can be seen below.

 

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