United States of 'Murica

 

United States of America

Formerly a British colony, now United States (hereinafter "USA") are considered the most powerful country in the world. Being the fourth in the world in area and the third in number of citizens with over 300 million citizens living on area bigger than India or Brazil. There are 49 states that are in the North America with the 50th laying in the Pacific ocean. That gives us 50 states plus Washington D.C., which is not a state but separate district. It is that way because Washington is the capital of the USA.

USA is a federal republic. And even there is one central government, there is a great deal of decentralization. That was proved by recent permission to smoke marijuana in only two states and yet it being prohibited by the federal law.

There is also power divided into three parts. Executive, legislative and judicial. Legislative power is in hands of the Congress, executive in hands of the President and judicial is in hands of Supreme court.

There are lot of "must see" places in the USA because they are so large. If I should exclude NYC as a separate question I must mention Las Vegas as a paradise for gamblers, Los Angeles as a birth place of most of the great movies (Hollywood) and many others like Chicago, San Francisco or San Diego. I could just spit on you the names of the cities and I think that you can say that you know almost all of them.

There are Rocky mountains on the west and Appalachian mountains on the east. Those are two greatest mountain ranges in USA. Then there should be mentioned Yellowstone park, Death Valley, Grand Canyon. From the rivers Colorado river, Rio Grande (forming part of the US-Mexican border), Mississippi river or Houston river. I could just mention Niagara falls and you should think of Great Lakes. There are so many things that I can't possibly include them all.

Like I could talk about Czech Republic on and on I can talk about USA as well. About economics and politics problems, about cultural clashes between Hispanics and nowadays habitants. For all I know I could sing you the anthem of the marines :D (or at least the first part)

Czech r[(be)e(r)]public

Czech republic

Czech republic is a country you can find dwelling in the Central Europe. Czech rep. is not a part of the Eastern Europe as many believe and we strictly differ ourselves from them. We have common borders with Germany to the west, with Austria and Slovakia to the south and Poland to the east. Czech rep. (hereinafter "CR") consists of 10 million habitants living on almost 80 thousand square kilometres area. In Prague, the capital of CR, live over 1 million citizens. Prague is the largest city by far, when you consider that the second largest city, Brno, has something over 300 thousand habitants. CR is divided into 14 regions, these has certain level of independence, yet only on the region's level.

The political power is divided into three parts as in almost every country in the west. Legislative, executive and judicial power.Legislative power is in the hands of Parliament, composing of Senate and Chamber of Deputies, the president and the government holds the executive power. Judicial power is in the hand of Supreme court. Only one court has more power and that's the Constitutional court, which decides if law passed by the Parliament are not in conflict with the Constitution.

CR is rich in history. Before Slavic people came, there had been the Celts and even before them some pre-historical human settlements. You can find a lot of places of interest all over the CR. Some examples that I could talk about some more are Karlštejn, Český Krumlov, Olomouc or Říp and of course many more. The history is not the only thing that we can draw attention with. We have also few cities famous for their spas like Karlovy Vary, Mariánské lázně or Františkovi lázně. In addition to this, we have greatest beer and loads of beer festivals and even more breweries. People for whom the nature is the main thing to visit, we also can offer few mountain ranges like Krkonoše or Orlické hory and some beautiful National parks and Protected landscape areas.

I could talk on and on about economy (import/export), cultural habits or other things but that would take a long time to finish...

Travel, tourism and transport

Public transport in Prague
There are three kinds of public transport in Prague.

• Bus
  Bus is the most widespread kind of public transport in Prague. Its advantage is that you can travel by it almost everywhere and in relatively short interval. It covers the centre of the city as well as the suburbs and it goes to and fro night and day because there are day lines and also night lines. They are sometimes quick because there are request stops.
  Buses are quite accurate but it depends on the traffic and that's what I see as a major drawback. No one likes to be stuck in the traffic jam squeezing in a crowded bus. Especially in summer time that's the worst thing that can happen because everyone is sweating and breathing so the air is thick with the warm smell of sweat and you cannot breath because there is no oxygen. Of course I'm exaggerating with the oxygen thing but it's really terrible and I wanted you to imagine how bad it is. 
• Underground
  For me the underground is the fastest kind of public transport. There are no traffic jams and even-though there can occur some issue with a suicide jumper it's very rare. The apparent disadvantage is that it only goes to several main destination. The current underground system has around 60 stops from which you can transfer to the buses or trams. Prague's underground system is really deep in the ground therefore in the summer it provides refreshing breeze and in the winter there is not freezing like outside.
• Tram
  I don't really use tram so much because I can get to the centre by the underground system but it's a good alternative to the underground.

To sum it up I think that the best way to get around it to combine all of these. This way you can get everywhere in Prague.

Sun, beach, sea and people from all around the world...

... or in other words my holiday experience.

During this summer holiday I've been to Cannes for three weeks. Known for its international film festival it is also a great holiday centre. I went there to improve my French but frankly I also went there to chill on the beach and meet new people. I was accommodated right on the college which was just on the shore of the sea. It took me just one or two minutes to go from my room to the beach. That was really awesome. 

The class was from 9 o'clock till noon and then trice a week I had some more class for two hours. That left me plenty of time on the beach. I must say that my French is really better especially the speaking. The oral expression was hard for me in French it took me a long time to form a sentence and even after that I wasn't entirely sure if it's right. Now it's much better than it was it's not the best but better all the same.
There is not many things that you can see in Cannes but you can go by a boat to St. Tropes or ride a bus to Monte Carlo in Monaco. St. Tropes wasn't so good although I've seen some pretty amazing boats there and some houses of famous people but that's all. Monte Carlo is a different thing. Most likely because I was a major so I could play in casinos.I really liked it there albeit I think that is mostly because I played slots there and won (more than double). I saw two men in the main casino playing roulette and they bought chips worth 1000€ and lost them in the first round. They didn't make a big deal about it and just bought another chips also worth 1000€ and played along like nothing happened. This happened three times and then I was so depressed that I just left. :D

Drinking there was something worth mentioning. You have to understand that in time of summer the prices are almost double than those in time of winter and in the winter it is still pretty expensive to drink there for a guy from poor Czech republic. Even more now when there is a devaluation of the Czech crown. So if you wanted one beer you had to be prepared to cry. :D Nevertheless I got wasted few times. :D

Reasons for travelling

1. Business trips
   In the era of international market it's understandable that people need to travel to explore new growing economies or to maintain an existing business.
2. Holiday trips
   These can be separate into two
   -sightseeing tours
   -relaxing trips
   The first ones are becoming more and more common and the second ones were here a long time now there is only change in the destination.
3. Language trips
   These are the same as the one I am describing above. Something like summer school.
4. Escape trips
   These are for criminals which committed some horrible crime and are prosecuted in their country. These people are looking for a way out and for countries with no extradition.

Mass tourism is ruining the cities...
... or is it really?

Mass tourism in the cities has its pros and its cons like everything. On one hand it's pouring a lot of money in to the economy of the city/state on the other it's destroying the one thing that made the city special. The culture of locals or the culture in general meaning statues, churches, cathedrals or museums. I think that there should be found some kind of balance between these two. E.g. restore the damaged sights with money from the tourist or make some ground rules which would have to be kept and checked. What concerns the local culture I wonder if it's even possible to preserve it and if it's worth preserving when they are just an attraction for the tourists and the residents of the city don't care as long as they are not in their way. 

Bad example

Better

Housing

People from western countries need more space! 
That's one simple conclusion which you have to make after you've compared habits in choosing accommodation between Czechs and people from US and UK. I'm not saying that it's impossible to find a big house in Czech republic with a garden and a garage. However it's not so common in here. There are several reasons for that:

1. PRICE
   If you want to build a house in Czechia you want to build a strong one and therefore it needs to be set deeply into the ground. That costs you a lot of money. Then you need solid walls most likely from reinforced concrete and in the end if you count it all together (roof, equipment, etc....) you have to pay almost half a million in US dollars and that's not something you just can get randomly on the street. In US it is different. They build their houses from wood or bricks (bricks are also typical for UK). There is a significant change in price because if your house is built in matter of weeks from materials like wood just by few carpenters with their tools it differs from when you have to have a lot of  masons and builders building your house for three months or more.
2. Space
   This is an obvious point. Every little kid knows that USA and UK has to be bigger than some small country in the middle of Europe. 
3. Infrastructure
   Getting from your house (probably in the suburb) to your work in the centre is a crucial thing you need to consider before buying/building a house. In my opinion in US they have sophisticated infrastructure. It's not like that traffic jam could not happen but it's less likely to happen than in Czech republic.

These are several differences between Czech housing and US housing.
Now I would like to give you some pros and cons of living where I live and by and large describe you the whole area.

I live in the inner suburb in a flat. It is a great location because there is a huge park next to it and it doesn't take a long time to get to the centre by a public transport. There are four people living in our flat and because it can be considered a small flat I have one room which I'm sharing with my sister. I would love to have my own room but this is good enough. At least I don't have to clean it by myself. :D The only thing that bothers me in the nearby area are gipsies but they are almost everywhere here so I guess that's won't change.

RENTING or BUYING?

That's a question for which I think I have straight answer. Definitely BUYING. Renting is only acceptable for me when it's a short term option. By renting for a longer period of time you're only paying the whole price but not getting it in the end and that seems to be a nonsense.