Hello all the readers,
welcome at my blog! I am really glad you came across my
website again. Firstly there is something that needs to be explained. Some of
you who have been regularly visiting my blog might got confused why I have switched
into English. An explanation will follow shortly.
I was not sure whether or not I shall carry on with
updating my blog. Even now as I am writing I am still not quite convinced that
I will keep up with that. The thing is there might not be so much exciting to
blog about any more. As I was living in Vancouver my blog and all the thoughts
were addressed for the most part to my family and close friends living back
home in Czech Rep., hence I was naturally blogging in Czech language.
While whether or not to continue with writing my blog was the
question, the language in which I will be blogging not so much. Since I have really made friends with couple of fairly special people in Vancouver, who happened to become my close friends and I know, or at least I am
hoping, they would be flattered to read something about me by the time I am
gone from Van, I was forced to switch my blog language into English.
Having said that most likely this particular blog post
and all the future ones, if they come, will be mainly read by my close buddies,
acquaintances, fellow students and hopefully few gals who I was either hitting
on or were for a change hitting on me.:) And they all speak English.
What else motivated me to keep up with my blog and
switch it into English was my conviction that being able to put few words on a
paper is simply a good skill for the future that will pay off and as always, I welcome any chance
to speak or write English.
I believe that should be it as for the prologue of my
new blog post. In another words my Blog, in the past melodramatically called in Czech “Cesta
za odvahou” – “A journey for the bravery" is not over. Rather exactly the
opposite, it goes on, however temporarily inspired by experience from outside
of Canada, in English language and for different audience for a change.
~~~
Let´s
start with the obvious. As some of you over there in Vancouver have already noticed, I have left Vancouver. I
flew back home to my city Brno in the Czech Republic on December 27. I did so
after spending 2,5 years is diverse and greatly cosmopolitan Canadian city
Vancouver to which I really got bonded to over this time.
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| Barbecue at Sunset Beach |
Packing up all my stuff from my room was a real pain and not an easy
task to do since I am this collector type of person and a few days before my
departure I found myself in a situation having way more things, souvenirs, apparel and collectibles of all kinds than I could possible wrap up with me
home.
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| A mess while packing my stuff before leaving my room |
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| Once I was all done with packing and cleaning. Last minutes in my room |
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| Last farewell with my lovely neighborhood |
However my entire stay in Van was not about collecting
huge amount of tangible items whatsoever. It was rather about experiencing
remarkable moments and feelings. My all stay, at least in terms of my set goals
at the very beginning, the whole stay in Canada was supposed to be focused at
improving my English as well as, as being often said, discovering the bigger
world or if you want about broadening my horizons. More or less, I have
accomplished that all.
I told to myself I should objectively evaluate my entire
stay in Canada, with its pros and cons, achievement and failures because yeah there have indeed been bunch of stark losses and upsetting failures. But
overall impression from the whole stay is positive.
I don´t mean to get to much here into that Visa application
issue. I had to leave Canada because my visa application was not
approved for me.
So whether I liked it or not I had to leave as I was
drastically running out of cash and staying in Van longer would be just
postponing necessary departure. I was planning to
go home for this Christmas anyway, I have just pictured that a little
differently, with my visa knowing that I am coming back soon.
~~~
The flight from Van to London was pretty ok. The only
bother was we had almost two hours delay of departure due to the previous harsh
landing of our plane. For that reason proper and careful check had to be done
prior taking off of our plane.
I flew with British Airways from Van to Heathrow in
London, the entire flight was in a length of roughly 8,5 hours. During the
night all the travellers were sleeping and although I usually don´t sleep
during the flight even myself I eventually managed to fall asleep for almost 3
hours. If you kill some time during the flight with sleep it always makes the
entire flight way easier to stand. The only bother was at the seat right before
me there was sitting this restless dude who was fidgeting for the first two
hours and to make it even more convenient right behind me there were two
other very noisy blokes speaking French. Luckily enought, I have found a support in this
British gentlemen sitting right next to me who noticed how extremely restless
was this guy before so I was glad to have someone to complain to.
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| Flying over London shortly before landing |
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| River Thames flows right through the heart of London |
Later on we were talking about UK, Vancouver and for a
little while we were also discussing our future plans regarding to which country
we are planning to live. He shared his huge disappointment over Brexit result
and the cause of this surprising voting. He basically blamed elderly people
who, according to his opinion, still tend to think about UK as about an empire
which should be sovereign without being a part of a bigger political subject as
European Union. Keeping in mind there were many older Britons in the plane being
able to overhear what he was saying, clearly this men simply just did not give a damn about
what people might be thinking about him.
I told him I am considering coming to England or
Scotland and he replied, quite honestly which I liked, “you know British people
don´t like exactly those foreigners from eastern Europe like you, exactly those
like you” He repeated himself pointing his point finger at me like crazy. He
did not mean bad, he was just being honest with me.
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| View at hundreds of family houses in London. Right in the middle soccer stadium "Stamford Bridge" of London´s team Chelsea |
Anyway…as I had a connection from Heathrow to Prague I
had to spend over three hours at Heathrow airport. I looked around and saw
almost no Asian tourists. It was unexpected because after my few visits in
England I was under the impression there is so many Asians in London. No, no
way. Nowhere near as many Asians as in Vancouver. All Caucasians.
While waiting I got a bit thirsty so I had to go to exchange few Canadian Dollars for British Pounds.
Would you believe this? In the Exchange office at the front desk I handed them
$ 10 CAD and got back around 3,80 Pounds. Ridiculous, eh? Freaking high
exchange fee and highly disadvantageous exchange rate cost me almost all my
money! I can tell you
I felt blessed I got enough change to get myself at least a bottle of regular
water. Also that shop assistant at the register was not too crazy about
helping me out when I requested my receipt. What a difference to a kindness and
willingness that I encountered at the same situations in Vancouver.
The whole flight from London to Prague went like nothing.
Humble plane with only two rows of seats with 3 at each side seemed kinda tiny
compared to huge Boeing with upper deck and one extra middle row consisting of
four seats. The whole flight took no more than two hours. One little bottle of
red wine made the flight even more pleasant.
As soon as I got off the plane in Prague I felt weird.
Everyone was speaking Czech, all over were Czech signs, Czech advertising for
products. Everything was in my first language.
I caught an Uber and got myself a ride to the train
station. At the train station platform I ran into bunch of Korean travellers, which
made me feel sorta like in Vancouver. The architecture of the whole city was
totally different than compared to Vancouver´s, very old yet very familiar to
me. Back to the past – That would describe the best the way I was feeling.
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| National "Mahen´s" theatre in Brno |
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| This is what my view from the balcony is now |
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| Svratka river in Brno |
Actual Prague looked like a ghost town. No people
around, no snow, not as much Christmas lights as you may spot in Vancouver and no
foreigners around but local people. Everything was unlike in Vancouver.
As far as biggest differences are concerned in comparison
Vancouver with Brno, my city seems to be quite abandoned. You can see few persons
here and there however there is no crowds of walkers like in Metrotown, where I
used to live or for instance like in Downtown in Vancouver. Oh man, how I hated
Metrotown with all those slow walkers and homeless people around. And with that lately closed walkway which was connecting station with Metrotown Mall, and
which was replaced by 69 stairs which were leading to the platform
at Metrotown skytrain station. Yea, Metrotown was getting on my nerves sometimes, but if you want to know the
truth I am kind of missing it now. :)
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| Cathedral Saint´s Peter and Paul |
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| Favorite spot for chilling and hanging out of youngsters. Reminds me of Queen Elizabeth Park |
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| Our new monument - Metal lizards. They weren´t there by the time I was leaving to Canada |
So what does my city of Brno look like? There is no
high, glassy condos, instead the city centre was built by mostly short
historical buildings, few of them with a historical base few centuries old,
often with a red roof made out of bricks. My city is small, compared to
Canadian Van. Population is roughly around 400 000 people. One might easily say it is a village. No Underground or Skytrain
lines, everything is super close. I catch a bus from where I live now and I am
in the city centre (we do not have such a thing as Downtown here in Europe) in
no more than 15 minutes. So that is a good thing.
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| This is a czech tram. Same ones can be seen in US Seattle. They´r reliable, punctual but slow.. |
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| 8 metres tall sculpture of a knight on a horse. It was not here either when I left to Can..:) |
What I am missing here the most is the mountains and the sea, so bad!
That is what I love about Van the most, its magnificent nature. I was completely
stunned by the Vancouver´s backcountry. Another thing I would use here is sweet
coffee DD - Double Double from Tim Horton´s. Evening chilling time spent
there after a body grinding hike has always been kind of special occasion for
me. To speak the truth, we do have a lot of coffee shops here in Brno. There is
even few Starbucks branches, numerically expressed exactly 4 in total. But here
it is unlike what Starbucks and Tim Horton´s coffee culture is in Vancouver. I
like to grab my laptop, hit Tim´s coffee shop, order a Double Double, steal a
seat and stay inside for the couple of hours while working on my laptop and
drinking my drink. It is one of the most significant tableaus for Vancouver.
So back to Starbucks in Brno. Few days after my arrival I
entered one Starbucks and did a little bit of chattering with a cashier working
behind the register. What I really don´t like is that Starbucks in Czech
Rep. is considered something filthy fancy and classy. It is not very
cool when even the smallest cup of coffee costs here more than large Starbucks
coffee in Vancouver, having in mind the real cost in Canadian dollars according
to current exchange rate. Small Starbucks coffee costs here around 90 Czech
crowns, which is roughly $ 4,70 CAD. Ripping off. Who could possibly buy
that coffee when even a small cup of coffee cost way more than is an average
hourly wage? Well certainly not me.
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| One out of in total 4 Starbucks Coffee´s in Brno |
Anyway, my first minutes and hours spent back home felt
so strange, I can hardly describe that by words. Flying across few time
zones is of course always odd experience, since such a long distance is reached
only within few hours. It felt very weird meeting people who were speaking
Czech language. No more English yapping around me.
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Brno´s main square. This is what our city center looks like. You see, it´s no downtown. An object at the right side is a modern Astronomical Clock |
I met these two roughies at the airport, they were all swearing in Czech and I hated it so much. The
way I see it swearing in English is quite alright. I mean it is not cool sure but it does not sound
like swearing or anything so vulgar. I know what certain words mean but they have no real
subjective influence on me, on my mood, because even those bad words are still
in my second language. In contrast to that having to listen to those two fellas
swearing in Czech was very annoying experience.
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| The Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape - Gothic Lednice Castle with its huge gardens |
And maybe it was not all about having listen Czech
swearing, maybe the reason why I got a bit down after landing in Prague was that I
realized my Canadian adventure was over, for now at least. As soon as I caught
an Uber by the airport and I was chitchatting with the driver. We were
discussing together our travelling experience in Las Vegas and rest of USA. Like me he
has been there too. He was also an old traveller, you could tell.
He dropped me off at the rail station, where I was about
to hop on the train taking me to Brno – my hometown. I got to Brno around 2:45
am.
I was expecting Jet lag since there is an 9 hours time
shift between Vancouver and Czech Rep, however first night I nicely woke up at 8
am, like a normal person (for once finally:)). I never really
believed in any harmful Jet lag and was always blaming for it a placebo effect,
however even myself I got hit by that later on and due to a Jet lag I have been
feeling sluggish for at least one week. I was constantly gettin´ sleepy
around 7 pm. So usually the way it went, I was getting so sleepy until I
fall asleep, than woke up around 11 pm, than being awake like a zombie for
about half an hour and than went back to sleep again till 7 am. Basically I was
getting tired about four hours earlier and was waking up like an early bird
again four hours earlier than compared to my sleeping routine in Van. I don´t
suffer from a Jet lag any more now though, yet I am still trying to wake up at 7 am.
Feels awesome, like I am not wasting my time sleeping.
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| Surroundings of my current neighborhood |
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| In the background there is The Janohrad - artificial ruin of a Castle in the Lednice -Valtice Cultural Landscape |
~~~
What am I actually doing home? First thing on my agenda
after arrival back home was visiting all the authorities offices, namely Job
center, Social Insurance Office, Health Insurance office as well as apply for
the new ID. I was not too crazy about doing that but this black work had simply
to be done.
I am not searching the job in Czech Rep. now as I am planning to go to England. I have visited
couple of doctors for the regular examinations as I had to go to the doctor in
Canada only once within 2,5 years. Besides that, I have met few good old
friends of mine, which was so nice but times are different now and I could see
that both our ways of thinking and managing our lives have simply changed
compared to what we were like some 4-5 years ago.
A sneak peek at my ice hockey skills. Moves, soft hands, between the feet, and failed spin-o-rama...
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| On the frozen lake "Holásky". This is where I was learning how to skate as a kid |
As for my next steps, I am seriously thinking over
travelling to United Kingdom. Basic plan is to come there, accomplish all the necessities
to be eligible to work, get a place to live in and start saving money for my
future study program in Canada. That is in brief my future plan. I also have to add whoever would be willing
to join me for United Kingdom journey would be more than welcome. Feel free to
contact me..:)
However, the whole idea of going to England, searching the job,
accommodation, getting used to that incomprehensible dry British accent
and looking for the new friends along with opening bank account and applying for the National Insurance
number. The imagination of all of that is not particularly appealing. Nevertheless, all of that I will do in order I can come back to
Canada and enroll for another study program. Maybe BCIT, Douglas College or University
of Fraser Valley.
Having said that I have quite a basic idea of what and
where I would like to do for the next two years. I have not yet make my mind
about the area or city to live in in UK, chances are good either for Scottish
Edinburg or Liverpool along with Manchester. I might eventually be forced to
elaborate "Marketing Mix" for the chosen cities, which could help me
to come up with one city that best suits to my needs and goals. What I know for
sure on the other hand is I am not gonna go to London. Too big, too many folks
and expensive as hell. And there is one more almost-certainty, I totally want
to go somewhere with the ocean, sea or at least the river. That is why
Liverpool´s odds are the highest at the moment.
What I am a bit concerned about is British accent, which
is way harder to understand than crystal clear North-American accent. Not to
mention Scottish accent along with its slang is even worse. Well known fact is also that Brits do not like eastern European immigrant too much, there is sort
of hard feeling towards them. It appears to be a brand new
situation to deal with compared to interacting with mostly polite and nice
Vancouverites.
Also I definitely do not wish to live in a shared house
any more, never again. Bad news is renting a flat or apartment in UK is so
expensive and without any salary history also near to impossible. We will see, you
can cross your fingers for me if you want.
To sum my very first English post at this blog up, I
would like to thank to all you patient and apprehensive readers for finishing
reading my post till here. It means a lot for me, it really does.:)
I am sending my warmest regards across Atlantic Ocean to
all my fine friends and fellow classmates in Vancouver. You all rock! All the
best in a new year to all of you and take it easy!
~Vít~
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