Montblanc fountain pen in The Infiltrator

Another spotting on the big screen, but this time is of a different magnitude. Mostly you see actors using pencils or ballpoints, but in the movie The Infiltrator, Bryan Cranston uses a fountain pen. It is a very short appearance. The fountain pen used is a nice white and silver. Very classy and elegant.

If you take a closer look the fountain pen has the grip and the top part silver color. The barrel is a mate white.

On the grip, there is some engraving. The cap is a screw type.

The fountain pen featured is a Montblanc Meisterstuck Solitaire. It is a very nice fountain pen with a gold nib 18k plated with Rhodium. The grip section, end of the barrel and the clip is platinum plated.

On the grip, there is a beautiful engraving with Montblanc.

The price of the pen is between $ 650 - $ 1000.

Spring is here

I do not know how many countries have this tradition but here, it is a custom to offer to the ladies on the 1st of March a small gift in the form of a "martisor" and or snowdrops. In some regions, it is a custom for men to receive them. Anyway, it's meaning is the rebirth of nature the end of winter. It is the white and red string and usually, it comes attached to some kind of figurine, something that shows that spring is here, like a flower or something that brings luck like a horseshoe. And is a custom for women to wear them during the month of March or at least in the first days of March.

Of course, you can find different motifs, flowers, plants, good luck symbols, traditional symbols, birds, insects (usually ladybugs, I haven't seen a dung beetle martisor yet), and colored pencils. Wait .. what?

This is the first year I saw such kind of symbol but maybe it will start a trend. I think the magic pencil from Koh-I-Noor would be a much nicer spring symbol.

Koh-I-Noor and the Olympic Games PyeongChang 2018

It is very hard to find a connection between the sports world and the stationary world. But somehow there is such a connection, in the Czech Republic. Continuing the posts about Koh-I-Noor... 

It is very interesting to see how much the Chech company is tied to the country. In Prague, there are several Koh-I-Noor stores in very central locations. They are in the old part of the city, where it is full of tourists. I would expect to see a bar, a tourist trap or some fashion shops instead of a stationary shop, but they promote themselves very well and want to show the ties of the company to Prague and the Czech Republic. It like bohemia glass, when you say it, Czech Republic comes to mind. To show how "Czech" they are, they closed the production facility in China, so all the Koh-I-Noor products are made in EU.

So since 2016, Koh-I-Noor is a partner of the Czech Olympic team. I think this is the only stationary brand that promotes itself by partnering with the Olympics or with any kind of sport.

Koh-I-Noor in Prague

This is one of the many Koh-I-Noor stores in Prague, close to Charles bridge. It was closed, but luckily I managed the next day to catch it open. 

As the sign says Art Materials inside, so for the no art persons like me the selection was a bit limited. I could not find fountain pen ink unfortunately but I added to my collection a Koh-I-Noor 5219 blue clutch pencil.

A fun fact about this particular Koh-I-Noor store, it is right near the Romanian embassy and the Gingerbread museum

The pencil looks nice and feels nice in the hand and the knurled grip feels a lot better than the Versatil or the thin barrel of the Koh I Noor Notebook pencil

The price for it was 75 CZK which is about 2.95 euro or 3.65 $

Not all the products were cheaper than what I can find in Romanian stores but this was about half the price.

A more in-depth review of the Koh-I-Noor 2 mm clutch pencil will follow.

Until then here is a little of the Prague's beauty.

Even though there are impressive architecture and imposing churches in Prague, the Czech people according to Wikipedia are not that religious.
34.5% non religious
44.7% undeclared
the biggest number of followers has the Catholic Church with a little over 10%
So there should be no surprise if you see a church converted into a hotel or a bar/restaurant.