By Jakub Hůlka
The Belgian students together with their two teachers came to the Czech Republic on April 16th and they stayed here for exactly one week.
Upon their arrival on Tuesday afternoon, each participant took them home so that they could settle down and to get to know their families a bit. The following day started with a tour of the most known landmarks in Rychnov followed by a guided tour of Rychnov castle. After we got to know our town a bit more, we spent some time at the school gym and played some fun games.
On Thursday we went on a trip to Litomyšl where we went on another guided tour of the famous castle and right after lunch we went to Andrlův Chlum to admire the view from the local view tower.
On Friday we went to Potštejn. We couldn’t go by bikes due to the bad weather so we had to go by bus. In Potštejn we walked up to the hill to see the castle ruins. We had lunch there and then we went to Častolovice to the castle park and to the mini zoo there.
We had to think of our own program for the weekend. Most of us were doing something within a larger group, for example playing some sports or just hanging out somewhere. A lot of us went to Majáles on Saturday so the Belgians got to know some famous Czech artists. On Sunday we all went to play bowling to be together and to have some more fun.
On Monday we went on a trip to Dvůr Králové and visited the zoo where we got to roam for a bit and then we had a guided tour for an hour. After having lunch at the zoo and recharging our batteries, we travelled to Kuks to see the Baroque hospital together with the admired statues of vices and virtues there.
The last day we had to get up a little earlier to go to Prague where we enjoyed a walking tour of Prague’s most famous sights, such as Prague Castle, the Astronomical Clock, Václavské Square and many more. After having lunch, we enjoyed some leisure time in Prague which was also the last thing we did together with our Belgian friends.
I believe everyone enjoyed the exchange program as much as they could. We had a great time every day and made friends along the way as well as getting better at English and getting great experiences.
