Exploring Ostrava: The Industrial Heart of the Czech Republic
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- What I found surprised me. I returned to Ostrava, Czech Republic to see the traces of my family's past, how the city has changed since deindustrialization began, and the lingering reminders of its communist past. What do we bring with us into the future? Join me as I walk through the city, through old steelworks that are now festival grounds for Beats for Love and Colours of Ostrava, and so much more.
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Edit: The Tuzex location was not quite right, it was a couple of blocks behind that building, in downtown. In hindsight we probably could have asked any grandpa on the street instead of googling it 😂
yeah, on that corner was quite good bookstore where people were standing endless queues to bought some books
Trevor, you've done the city, our extended family, and personally my childhood extremely proud. Thank you for this gift.
Thanks Pat, means a lot ❤️
This ticked quite a few boxes for me. In a couple of weeks I shall be visiting Ostrava, my first ever visit to Czech Republic. I will be meeting a Facebook friend. We have been chatting every week for over 3 years now. The steelworks in this video resonated with me. My father was from industrial South Wales and worked in the Port Talbot steelworks in the 1920s which is due to close in the near future. In the 1950s and 60s we used to visit one of his brothers who lived near an abandoned steelworks where my brother and I used to play. At my school in the UK, surprisingly we were learning Russian. it seemed like a language that would be useful in the future. In 1968. I had a friend at university who was one of the Czech exiles. In 2009 I met another 68 exile, a journalist who was contributing pieces to a Czech radio station. Finally in 2011 I met a lady from Ostrava, when we were both living in Turin, Italy (which also bears the scars of de-industralisation). She moved back to Ostrava and I am looking forward to meeting up with her again after more than a decade.
Thank you so much for sharing your story, this made my day. I hope your visit to Ostrava is nice and you enjoy your time with your friend. One thing that struck me from your story that I see over and over again when traveling is how much we all have in common, regardless of language or country, like your experience in South Wales. Thanks for watching, and good to hear from you.
So impressive ! Uncle was delighted with how you played it all and you brought it closer to us better than we would have done it ;)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Enjoyed your videos , my parents took groups from Texas to Czech Republic from 1960s to 2006. I visited also many times my last trip was 2019.love it.
Thats awesome! I have heard there is a big Czech American community in Texas and that kolache are abundant 😀, judging by your last name you must know this well! Thanks for your comment and thanks for watching
Thanks for a nice video showing the city, im going there this saturday, Pantera are playing in the stadium 😎
nice, enjoy! thanks for watching
Skvělé, zajímavé a zároveň i smutné, nostalgické, ale i veselé video. Je hezké, jak se se svou rodinnou historií vypořádáte :-).
Ano, takový je život, jsem rad že jste citeli ty same emoce co jsem citel ja. Dekuji za comment
Now this that capital C content. I love this - thank you for sharing this part of yourself with the internet. It’s really beautiful to watch
Thank you for watching and for your kind words!
Was there in '96(my dad lived in Valašské Meziříčí back then, I was born and raised in the Netherlands and I visited him regularly in the nineties) and it was grim, dirty and it felt poor, especially the housing blocks where the Roma lived(the conditions they lived in were shocking to my spoiled western european soul). Walked around in the city to find a flee market kind of thing we heard was cool, don't think we found it eventually, it still was an interesting day. Really nice to revisit Ostrava this way and see it in a better light.
Thanks for the comment. It still has its tough areas and neighborhoods, but things are looking up I think. The grit of the people is still core to Ostrava's DNA.
Interesting video. I’m English and My wife is Czech. I first went to Czech in 1997. She is from Silesia too. Near Bruntal.
Her grandma has some crazy stories.
It has changed a lot in the 25 years .
It sure has. Thanks for watching!
Hi, could you recommend some place to visit?
Hi! The cafe at the top of the Bolt Tower gives you a cool view of the city, in the summer months grabbing a drink by the river is great. I also like Kavarna Pant, which is a bookstore and cafe.
@@braunventures Thanks
Underrated city. It's cleaning up quickly, hopefully the council can make it attractive enough to stop people moving away.
It has at least one of best infrastructure of czech cities so if people invest there more it could become popular again.
O-STRA-VA! This is how to pronounce the city's name. Of all the Czech words I've attempted over the several years I lived there, this one I got right! (The Kromesky Park briefly filmed in this video was one of my favorite places in the city. It is very beautiful, and I wished it had been filmed in its entirety.)
haha I pronounce it in the anglicized way when I'm speaking english and properly when I'm speaking Czech 😊. I try and meet people where they are at with language, just like the czechs spell juice, džus 😀. Komenský Sad is a great park, especially with the river getting cleaner
Ou shiet... Avion... moje knajpa! xd Zábřeh forever!
Great video. Love it
Thank you!
❤ 🇨🇿 lovely trip
Thanks for the great video, because our story is not identical, but similar...
My mother is from Ostrava, but then moved to Austria, but I always spent my childhood holidays in Ostrava by my grandparents (after more than 50 years, absolutely nothing has changed in the house and that is great for me).
Now I am 45 years old, live in Austria, but I love Ostrava more than any other place in the world and visit the city on average every month for 4 to 5 days (a little easier from Austria than from the USA 😉).
But I have to admit, though, that I miss the "old" Ostrava with all the old, red trolley buses 😀and the communist flair...
That is great to hear. There aren't many people who see Ostrava as their home away from home, so I'm happy to hear I'm not alone!
Super video.
Btw. Vítkovice zásobovali ocelí stavbu Titaniku.
Díky! Tak to jsem nevěděl 😮
@@braunventures Rádo se stalo .
My taxi driver in Prague asked me where I was going, I replied, 'Ostrava.' 'Ah,' he said, 'prdel svet,' - arxse end of the world.
😂 classic Prague-Ostrava banter
Amazing city.
Steel heart of republic and black star
Wouldn't they have been Polish tanks rolling through? Didn't Moscow put the call in to Poland? That's what we learned
The Soviet Union led the Warsaw Pact countries' invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 (except Romania, which refused). So the Polish communist government also dispatched troops, so they were present, but they weren't the principal actors or alone in the invasion. 80% of the troops were Soviet, 20% composed of the remaining Warsaw Pact countries. I imagine the % varied depending on the part of the country given geographic distance to other countries, so cities like Ostrava which was very close to Poland could have seen more Polish troops.
1:15 "Relief" from Nazi forces 😂😂🤣🤣Life wasn't any better under the Soviets.
Hopefully you saw the rest of the video 😅
A boring story from dissidents child. Study the history a bit.