Travelling

Travelling is the method how to get from one place to another place. People have used travelling for along time. One hundred years ago they travelled on horses, by carriages and of course on foot. Then they used trains, steam cars and steam boats. It was something strange and something new for them. Now is travelling very popular, common and necessary. There are two main ways of travelling. You can use your own means of transport and the other is to rely on the public transport. People and goods can by transported by land, by air or by water. Water transport is relatively cheap but quite slow. That is why it is used especially for transporting goods. There are cargo and passengers vessels, ferries and steamboats on the rivers, sees and oceans. But in general not many people have the courage to board a ship although the trip is not expensive, but may be they are afraid of seasick. On the contrary the fastest way of travelling is to travel by air and it is also the most expensive. Normally people in our country take plane when they go abroad because our republic very small and it is not worth to take plane for such a small distance. At the airport we go through the passport control and security check. Our luggage are checked and then we wait until the plane is ready for take-off. Some rich people can also hire a helicopter, but now is helicopter uses especially for badly injured people. Land offers the greatest variety of means of transport. There are motor road vehicles and bicycles on the one hand and rail of the other. Cars and motorcycles are very popular however they are quite expensive to purchase and also the petrol is not cheap. For short distance is car fast enough but when you travel by car in a town, you can get to a traffic jam that is not pleasant, sometimes you can wait in a jam for a few hours. Modern cars has soft seats and a lot of space for the legs and sometimes even more comfortable than the interior of a plane. If you want to drive a car you must have a driving licence. You can get it after passing a special exam from driving and traffic rules in a driving school. When you travel you have to be very careful, because there are many accidents. A lot of people die in a car crash (Lady Diana), in air crash or shipwreck. In our country and in the most countries of Europe people drive on the left but in Britain and some other countries people drive on the left. Another disadvantage of using cars is that cars are very bad for nature. By using petrol they lets out poisonous gasses and we breathe it. They also contain some other danger substances as lead and sulphide dioxide. Buses, train, trolleybuses, trams (streetcars), underground (tube) are designed for public use. They are cheaper than cars but less comfortable and have some other disadvantages. For example, when you go by car, you can go any time you want but when you travel by public means of transport you have to fellow the schedule. You can get on the bus on a bus stop or on a bus station, that is a name for a main stop in a town. They can go either between villages or towns or in the town. London is famous for its red busses called double-deckers. In our country going by train is cheaper but also slower than going by bus (in Britain it is reverse). If you want to travel faster you have to pay a supplement, which is reacquired in EC, IC or express train, passenger train is without any supplement and it is sometimes called slow train. Railway stations are almost same. They consist of a big hall with a ticket office where one can buy a single or a return ticket and a seat reservation, the departures and arrivals board, a left luggage office or lockers, telephones, waiting hall, a restaurant, a drink machine, a book-stall, a lavatory and toilettes, sometime it is decorated by some flowers and a little fountain. I think that busses in our country are unreliable. In big railway stations there are underpasses leading directly onto the platform, so you can get on a train safely. Train has a first class, which is more expensive and amore comfortable and a second class, which is less comfortable but cheaper. If you are a non-smoker it is better to look for a free seat in a non-smoker compartment. During the travelling you can chat with friends, observe the landscape out of the window, eat some food, play cards or sleep. When a conductor come, you hand him a ticket and he checks it. This is a big difference between Czech railways and a British railway, because there is no conductor in a Britain, but you give your ticket to a ticket collector after the journey before leaving the platform. Usually a train consists of passenger carriages, sleeping-car, dining-car, mail-van and a goods wagon. In big cities there is a very favourite way kind of public transport ? underground. In our country it is only in Prague, and it is quite small, it has only three lines A, B and C. It is very fast, because it could get to a traffic jam and quite comfortable. In America it is called subway or tube. In towns there are also taxis, which a re very comfortable, take you exactly where you want to go, but they are very expensive. Young people usually have not much money and they use hitchhiking. It is the cheapest way of transport but also the slowest and quite dangerous. Many people can be robbed and girls can be abused. I hitchhike quite a lot, because my fiancé live in Tvrdonice and there is no bus or train connection between my village and Tvrdonice. So that is why I have to use this way of transport. But in some countries they do not know, what is hitchhiking ? India. Some people love more romantic means of transport, e. g. going on a yacht, canoeing, gliding, hot-air, ballooning, windsurfing, skateboarding or roller-skating. In Europe it is very popular now to travel by residential cars in which you can have everything for your personal use.
People all around the world travel for various reasons: They want to get to school, to work, for a holiday, for culture. And many of them like travelling because it is exciting. Travelling fever increase during holidays, when people go abroad. For going abroad you need necessary documents ? valid passport and a visa, money, you change them in a bank or at an exchange office. It is also very useful to know some foreign language, as an English or German. And I think that this is the primary purpose, why we learn them. The most beautiful places are Rome, Venice, London, Prague, Paris or Amsterdam. We can see there very nice buildings, temples, churches or castles. For a recreation and for having a rest we travel to beautiful scenery of Whales, Alps, and places around in Mediterranean Sea. In our country foreign tourists admire Prague. There are many monuments, which were built hundred years ago. There are lots of temples, monuments, churches, castles and old buildings. Etc. In Czech republic there are also some recreation places: Šumava, Krkonoše, Bílé Karpaty or Beskydy. But travelling does not only mean going abroad but also seeing interesting places in our country or commuting to work or to school. In our state there are many state and private travel agencies. Here people can buy trips, tickets for foreign busses or trains or reserve accommodation, which is very important. In thirst place there are hotels and motels, which differ in price and comfort. Before arrival you should make a reservation, book a room in it. You can get bed and breakfast or full board. In a hotel there is usually some of the hotel?s services ? a restaurant, a bar, a coffee shop, a travel desk, a theatre ticket office, a hairdresser?s shop and beauty salon or sports facilities like a swimming pool or a fitness centre. The motels are situated mostly by the roads. The guests can park his car at the door of his own room. A special kind of accommodation for young people are youth hostels, where it is possible to stay overnight at a low rate but only for a limited number of times and also it is not very comfortable. Usually you got there only a bed and a toilette. Some tourists also prefer to stay at a farm or they rent a room on their own or in a camp. Of course when we travel we need luggage for our cloths. We can use rucksack, tent and sleeping bag. We use suitcase when we go by a coach and we need not carry it so often.
I prefer riding my bicycle, because it is cheap and do not spoil the nature. But it is a pity that you cannot ride a bicycle in winter.

HOLIDAYS AND TRAVELLING

Travelling is very important and very common. People all around the world travel from various reasons: one of them is tourism ? especially during the summer holidays. Another reason is that people want to see world?s famous and interesting places. Some people travel for a business or for political, cultural reasons or scientfic purposes. Many people travel because it is exciting, they can see new places, meet new people and friends, eat unusual meals or to get know an exciting experiences.
In the other way travelling has also disadvantages. We can meet bad people, we can get lost in foreign country and city, be murdered or our money or laguggage may be stolen or the travelling can be for some people expensive.
There are many kinds of travelling:
Young people do hitchhiking or just hiking. Some prefer travelling by car,by ship, by air, train or by bus.These two are most frequent means of public transport, which is cheaper but also less comfortable. Someone prefer travelling on a motorcycle or riding a bike. Some people prefer romantic kinds of traveling like on a yacht, balloning, canoeing and so on.
When someone want go abroad he must get necessary documents like passport and if is there need also visa, money in currency of the country he goes to or credit card and also assurance. If someone travelling by train (fast, express) he needs tickets ? single or return, season ticket. And if he fly he need fly tickets. He should speak some foreign language to make himself understood. Most people all around the world speak English or German.
But travelling doesn?t mean only going abroad. Many people stay at home and see interesting places of their country.
Travelling takes up more time in our lives than most of us can imagine. An everyday form of travelling may be shopping, commuting to school or job, visiting friends. In town when someone hasn?t own means of transport rely on the public transportion service like trams, buses or underground.
In our country there many state or private travel agencies. Trough this agencies people have their trips, tickets an accomomdation reserved. We can aranged a lot of kinds of trips: cultural trips for sightseeing or knowing the country, recreation stays in the mountains or at the seaside.
For travelling we can use a lot of kinds of luggage: a knapsacks for longer journey like sport trip, we can fix a tent and sleeping bag to it. We use a rucksack when we going for a walk or to school. We use a suitcase when we go by air or coach and we don?t need to carry it often.

In our country are many short holidays during the school year: autumn holidays which last only few days; christmas holidays which last for 11 eleven days in which people celebrate christmas and new year, on these holidays i am usually with my family for few days, we visit my grandparents and the other relation and than a i am with my friends and we prepare for New Year?s Eve; spring holidays last one week, on these holidays we usually go in Austria in Alps to sky; easter holidays last only few days, people draw on eggs and prepare themselves for eastern customs;and the longest summer holidays, which last for two months. My last summer holidays a spent first three weeks in England in Brighton. It was the international language course and i was one of the odlest people there. We lived in families with other students of this course and attended school. In afternoon or morning (it was up our activity leader) we had free time. We also made some trips in the other cities like Hastings, Canterbury or Isle of Wight. In free time we could do some acitvity, ehich prepared our activity leader ? like bowling, laser games, barbecue, sporting etc. or we could do something on our own.
When i came back i was in Prague till the last week in holiday In these ten days i was with my boyfriend. We visited some exhibitions, we saw some films in cinema and because it was very hot weather we swam a lot. Than i worked in my mother?s law office for three weeks. In the last week of my holidays i was with my family in Rome. It was really terrible trip. When we came there first of all a false taxi-driver stole my grandparent?s bag with their passports, money, mobile phone, medicne, glasses. So we spend our first evening at police office. Next day my grandparents went to ambassy and everything was allright, they became new passports. But in Rome there are many thieves so man has to be very carefull. Every day someone tried to mainly in underground stole us something. Except this it was very nice. I saw many very important sights of Rome and I liked it.