A Colourful Holiday without the Colours of Ostava

by Andreea Sarcani, expat living in Ostrava

DISCLAIMER: This article will not provide you with cheap accommodation tips or anything similar.

Before I started writing this I went to Wikipedia for a quick check on the history of holiday. Recreational holiday, of course, not the religious one. I was really curious to get an idea about how the concept of holiday has transformed over the years in different countries. Not very satisfied with my findings. It is not such a mysterious topic, after all. Holiday entered the lives of the working class people after the industrial revolution as a once a year week or 2 weeks of reward after one year of hard work. The adult version of the expensive toy we wanted our parents to buy at the end of the school year if our report looked good enough. I remember my every year by-the-beach holiday in communistic Romania. It somehow sealed in my mind the idea that a holiday without sunbathing is unimaginable. It has been impossible to change that until now. Otherwise I am not the holiday or the travelling type. Holidays make me more tired than a normal working routine. I somehow wouldn’t miss holidays, if it wasn’t for the sea. Probably this is thanks to a healthy work-life balance. I would have to add here how much I love and cherish the variety of my work. (I am an English teacher, an artist, a writer and an amateur singer) I am somehow a supporter of the recreational life style. How would I define that? A mix and match of fun, relaxation and work. The possibility to work remotely, our flexible working hours, travelling with our work offer us a multitude of ways to relax while working, to arrange our lives in a way that work would not be so overwhelming. Ask yourself, what do you really need from this summer holiday? Wish you to stay healthy and safe, and that you get completely refreshed and rejuvenated during this summer!

Things to try if you decide to spend most of your holiday in Ostrava and the surroundings:

1. Spend one weekend on your own. Many people miss being on their own doing whatever they please or doing nothing.
2. Go swimming in the Silver Lake (Opava) at night. Try the disk golf course just right next to it.
3. Visit the local library.
4. Start keeping a diary.
5. Engage in a new hobby. Photography is always an amazing choice.
6. Call a friend which you haven’t seen for years and invite them for a quiet picnic.
7. Make some little inexpensive changes in your house, change from which you will benefit longer after the summer ends.
8. Declutter. Your kitchen home appliances, your bookshelves, your wardrobe and especially your mind.
9. Go to your digital holiday archive and make a beautiful collage or frame few of the best pictures. Some of them could make amazing gifts.
10. As you can’t go to Colours of Ostrava, start playing an instrument, or start practicing again in case you had played before. Maybe next year you will be the one performing

with our Expat Centre Music Social Club on the Colours of Ostrava 2021 stage.

My intention behind this series of articles is to invite people to get out of their automatic

thinking and out of their routine, and start asking themselves questions, so they will get

the inspiration to live more authentically.