TRAVELLING
Travelling is very popular in the 20th century and beacuse of it it´s so common. It is a part of life of each of us.
People of all around the world travel for various reasons: One of them is tourism - especially during holidays. Travelling is their hobby, people want to see the most beautiful sights of world's famous cities and they want to see old castles and churches or they travel for their holiday at the seaside or to the mountains. Some people travel for business, for political or cultural reasons or for scientific purposes. Especially young people travel abroad to learn new languages and to earn some money - Au pair and some other activities. Many people like travelling because it´s exciting, they can see new places, meet new people and friends, eat something unusual and see the way of life in various countries. Besides they can get new experiences. On the other hand travelling has some disadvantages because it can be very dangerous: we can meet bad people, we can get lost, our money could be stolen or we could have an accident. For some people travelling is very expensive.
When going abroad we must get necessary documents. First of all a valid passport and a visa (for some countries).We have to change money to hard currency in a bank or at an exchange-office. It's better when we take a guide, when we find some information about a place and take some facts. When we going by train we must buy tickets and when we fly, we must book air tickets, flight number and departure time.
It´s better for us to know some foreign languages. We can use it everywhere. Even when we want to find out the toilet.
Travelling does not mean only going abroad but also seeing interesting places in our country or get to work or to school. People usually go by train or by bus, in big cities they can go by tram or the underground (tube) or take a taxi.
In our state there are many state and private travel agencies. Through travel agencies people have their trips, tickets and accommodation reserved. They need only money for their fun. Travelling through travel agencies can be sometimes dangerous, when they bankrupt and we are in foreign country without help. In this case you have to find out our embassy and ask for help.
Means of transport
At present time we have many more various means of travelling and transportation then our grandgrangparents and grandparents had. New technologies allow us to travell more comfortable and faster.
There are basic means of transportation; we can travel by car, bus, train, underground, aeroplane or on a boat.
In Czech Republic there are favorite mainly travelling by car. Even our car industry started to produce much better cars with modern motors and equipment. However on our roads there still remain many quite old cars, because a lot of people can not afford to buy a new car. These cars sear leaded petrol, which polute air and nature by poisonous substances. Petrol is in our country quite expensive.. In the USA people use cars a lot. They are used to going by car even to post the letter.
In our country is also important bus transportation. Bus lines connects nearly all villages in our state, these bus lines are in many causes financed partly by state, because public transportation is important for old people or for people, who don't have a car.
In Czech Republic is also very important railway transportation. We have very compact net of railways and mainly railways have in Czech Republic long tradition. First public railway in Czech Republic was between České Budějovice in south Czech region and Linz, which is the city in Austria. It was planned at the beginning of 19th century, but Napoleonic wars caused economical crise of Austrian Monarchy, which Czech lands were part of. So it was finished in thirties of 19th century. It was the first public railway on Continent. It was built by father and son Gerstner, who planned it according similar railways in England, but their work was in many views much better.
Prague is the only Czech city with underground system. First kilometres were built in 1974. We call underground metro as well as French people. In Prague there are three lines of underground and most of stations are under the foot hold. In Prague there are also trams used by a lot of passangers The first electric trams went there at the end of 19th century.
As for the aeroplane transportation in Czech Republic there are several international airports but the most important is in Prague. It´s in Ruzyně that is a quite far part of Prague. Our airplanes fly to all destinations around the world. In these days were many planecrashes but in my opinion flying is most comfortable travelling and maybe it will remain for a long time.