Czech Republic

This is my third workcamp abroad. The first one was in Turkey, rebuilding a school, the second one was in Russia, working with kids in a camp, and this one has been in Czech Republic, helping with the renovation of the public space in a town, creating play structures for children and cooperation with outdoor children camp.

As last workcamps, I decided to go to Czech Republic (or Czechia) one day before workcamp started and I left one day after finishing the workcamp because I wanted to visit Prague for tourism. Once I was there, alone, the first day I walked a lot for visiting the city and I realised the culture was like ours in Spain, I mean not as different as it is in Turkey. Czech people were friendly and cheerful, and the last day of the trip I was in Prague again, along with two French boys, we were drinking beers and going clubbing and I realised, once again, that Czech people like parties as well. What I didn't like was they can still smoke inside pubs and bars, and this annoyed me.

If you go to Prague for tourism you have a lot of places to visit. The famous astronomical clock from the XIV century, the most narrow street in the world which has traffic lights for walking across it, victims of communism memorial, Charles bridge, David Cerny sculptures, John Lennon wall, Jewish area where you can also see sports cars and luxury shops, the six synagogues where the Spanish one is the most beautiful, etc but the best way to visit the city is with a free tour where the tour guide explains the history of the country and the importance of each place. What's more, you have to taste traditional food like Goulash and Trdelník, delicious!! With regard to economy and prices, Prague is expensive for Czech people because it is overcrowded of tourism. However, if you go to a small town near Prague, it is really cheap. What is amazing is the unemployment rate, only 4%, too far of our 20%.

I was there for working as a voluntear, yes working for free in my holidays, after visiting Prague I went to a small town near Prague called Odolena Voda which is a dormitory town with 6500 inhabitants where most of them work in the city. What did I do there? Easy and not demanding tasks like painting walls, cleaning the forest, cutting grass and trees, playing with kids, building swings, cooking, and in the meanwhile improving my English language skills, learning Czech, Russian, German, Italian and Korean as well. What was amazing was how people in a small town, and generally in Czechia, knew to speak languages like English and Russian, they are really worried about learning languages.

With regard to technology, most Czech people use the same services like we use, for instance Google and Facebook but Internet connection is different from here because I could see many antennas in everywhere, even in churches. Therefore, they usually connect to Internet by airwave instead of fiber optics.

Odolena Voda buildings

 

I would like to give special gratitude to Tomás, who works as a project manager, Katka and Jitka for their leadership of the volunteers, and to all volunteers for their friendship and the unforgettable two weeks we were in the town:

- Italian boys → Paolo and Davide

- Russian guy → Mikhail

- British people → Victor, Pollie, Jasmine, Laura and Benjamin.

- Korean girls → Jims and Han

- German girl → Lucia

- Spanish girl → Paula

Thanks and Happy Pivo to all of you!!