April 27: Ostrava

That day after class we took a train to Ostrava. There, we met Ross Chambers. Ross took the same study abroad trip we are on several years ago. He now lives in Ostrava and started a Harley-Davidson branch there. He is married to a Czech girl and they are expecting their first child. We went to the Harley-Davidson shop and he told us about his life and starting an American company in a foreign country. He said is was really difficult to get the company approved and a struggle with all the paperwork he had. It took him almost five years to get the business going. His story was really interesting and it was neat to think he was on the same trip we were and was inspired to live here. He loved Olomouc as much as we do.  Ross took us to the center of town. We went to the top of this tower to see the city. From there you could see all the factories. Ostrava was heavily influenced by Communism and industry. The town became an industrial center and the steel and coal factories dominate life during the Communist rule. Today, Ostrava still has one of the largest steel companies in the work, Vitkovice. It didn't look that smoggy that day, but Ross said it was a clear day.  That evening a group of us stayed and went to Stodolni street. "Stod" means one hundred, hence the street once had over a hundred bars. Now it "only" has between sixty and seventy. I think we made it to about ten bars that night. Not that many when you think of all the ones to see, but we had a lot of fun. Many of the bars had dance clubs in the back. You walked through the normal looking pub and then walked through another door to a party of fifty to one hundred people. Some bars you had to go downstairs and all the sudden there would be a huge room down there or a bunch of little rooms almost like bunkers. One bar we walked through had a courtyard with a huge tent in the back that was a whole other bar. We had fun and stayed the night with one of our friends from Ostrava.