5…4…3…1… OFFBLAST!

Mmm, 2005 - I guess it will take quite some time for people who were there to forget this year - the year of the mushrooms! All the conditions were there: the house was a bit too cozy and the weather was a bit too rainy… And that’s the recipe that made going thru the house without seeing a constellation or two absolutely impossible! In 2005 couples were popping out everywhere, so they were referred to as mushrooms. (Credits for the official name go to Ania.) Everything was revolving around them - you were either a part of a mushroom or a passionate member of the newly started “anti-mushroom” movement!

One more thing we’ll all remember was the famous “pink stuff”! We never asked what was in it (some mysteries are better left unsolved…), but the impact it had on us was huge - it made us laugh, it made us talk, it inspired us for the advertising game and most of all - it made us ask for more!

NAP was led by Seb S., and several games will be remembered: a treasure hunt that turned into a scary night in the scary forest, only to find out that the treasure was a water-melon (ok, ok, there was some chocolate as well); the first puppet show ever -accidentally performed on the day of the big “no-alcohol-above-15%” announcement made by our beloved General Norbi, which turned out to be pretty inspiring; a water-balloon fight which took 4.5 hours to prepare and lasted for 0.42 minutes (but was soooo much fun!); a “24-hour-guitar-free” day that had to be announced before the Singing evening, simply for us to be able to enjoy the sound of the guitar again (“Bye, bye, Miss American pie!”)…

Waking-up service was also special, as it did not only include the traditional singing, noo no, with the package you also got this water gun and a trumpet…

Several spontaneous games were played during the camp - werewolves (with Peter being one in every single game, mostly cos together with Ondrej, Aga, James and Bertrand, he was slightly bending the rules), chasing the numerous (green) sheep, trying to fit as many people as possible in a tiny inflatable pool (12 was the record, right?!), trying to jump over the pool without breaking it (Mario spectacularly failed at this one, leaving the pool “brrrokkken!” and then trying to put the blame on others cos it was “accumulated damage”! :-) But to be fair - we did fix it, with a LOT of sticky-tape! (“OK, who took the sticky-tape?!”)); and of course the “ok, there’s a line” game - the ones who got it loved it, the ones who didn’t - hate it still!

In spite of all the fun we’ve had, we also managed to do some serious work. Had you been present in 2005, you would’ve had a chance of joining one of the 7 cool working groups, and of getting involved in a bunch of interesting projects about astrophotography, physics & chemistry, philosophy, Milky Way, extragalactic astronomy, simulations and rocket-building. Dark Slovak skies gave us excellent observing conditions, but also some amazing thunderstorms! (Make sure you check the photos made by Marc-Andre and Mislav!)

Apart from the traditional parties, a lot of spontaneous ones were held. The atmosphere in the AAP room, with the red cap over the lamp, candles, a lot of people and Norbi and Petar playing the guitar was amazing. Birthday parties for Seb S. and Mislav were also special, and of course included a lot of water. And we cannot forget the crazy “toothbrush” parties held in front of the NAP room after breakfast!

Connected to the parties - there’s one crucial thing no one present will forget, the most popular question “level check?”, which was to be answered by a number, representing a level you reached on this very sophisticated scale… ;-)

We stayed true to the old traditions but also introduced some new ones. So every day after dinner in the cozy BMW room you could join a “coffee circle”, where Petar prepared extra-strong coffee to keep people awake and ready for a WG session and a party to follow…

One more thing participants in 2005 will definitely not forget is - grasshoppers! Provided by Anja, they were offered by her “be-more-weird” participants to everyone during dinner! Did you have the guts to taste them? ;-) (Speaking about bugs: There’s another cool story, but you really need to have been there to know it! Or ask Aga… ;-)) And one more thing will be memorable - launching the first bug astronaut! (No worries, it was alive’n’kickin after the landing.)

We had a lot of fun on the excursion and the free day, but in a completely different ways - we spent the first one deep underground in an ice cave, and the second one high up in the clouds, visiting a famous Slovak observatory! The cable-car was a thrilling experience - especially on the way down, when it had to stop every 10 minutes due to the strong wind…

There wasn’t any specific camp-song, but we’ll all remember “Elektronik Supersonik”, as well as “Star trekkin across the Universe”, and some good old music that will always remind us of the amazing summer of 2005: “Wish you were here”, “Kometa”, “Creep” and “Karma police”…

The deadline party was especially crazy - just imagine countless liters of water, a huuuge camp-fire, some Zlaty Bazant and the Perseids.

For a minute there, we lost ourselves…