It’s a little after 7 o’clock on Sunday. The street is almost completely deserted. The workmen are working on the house that is being renovated. I go to check the grocery store. It’s well-stocked, patronized by locals, with friendly clerks. They even have my favorite brand of milk. But they don’t have Czech apples, and they’re overpriced. There’s no milk dispensing machine. There was one by the Terno supermarket, but not enough people used it. I prefer to walk or drive to the supermarket to go shopping. People from town have to go to the bus or walk for a few minutes. There are no metal recycling containers. I know there’s one at Plešivec. There’s not organic waste containers – in ČeskéBudějovice they have them on the street. The trash cans on Kostelní Street below the church are usually overflowing, and there’s no containers for recycling.

It occurs to me that there’s no shop here for nursing needs. I discover a new shop with woolen goods, but that’s not something we really need right now. There used to be a floral shop there. I recently picked up a flyer about a new fabric store and haberdashery – it really did open in the Vošahlík Mill.

I got the stationery store, and right outside I come across a paper bag full of leftover food. On Latrán, I’m slowed by a group of Asians. I run into an acquaintance who’s walking the car she’s parked all the way by the high school. She’s spent the past ten years living in Kájov, the past 15 working at a hotel on Horní Street. She’s happy. She doesn’t know much about the project.

It’s too bad that the stationery store is so out of the way. It used to be on the square by the Old Inn. The man at the store has been helping out his daughter (she’s the owner) for several years now. It’s not exactly a gold mine. But I don’t find an ink cartridge compatible with my pen. They offer lots of other goods. We talk about the project. Supposedly it used to be against the law in Prague to air your bedding in the window – it was seen as a village habit. The same with beating your carpets. He says the project’s “a waste of money.” Things are the way they are, and we just have to live with it. There used to be 57 families on Dlouhá Street. He himself used to live on Radniční. The stationery store could easily supply everything for our Zuzana’s birthday for just a few crowns.

It’s getting hot, so I have my favorite ice cream, where I discover that there’s a price tag even on the cone, which I have to taste. Ice cream for 40 crowns – definitely not for locals. The upside of being close to home is that you don’t have to carry anything to drink with you. You can go home anytime you need. Dušan the musician I playing on the square for two of our Unes-co team members. They’re dancing. The tourists like it. A few of them smile at me when I do a chalk painting, but otherwise they don’t seem too interested. Next time, I’m going to bring a hat against the sun. And a fan. We close the evening with a get-together by the fountain, where we get to know other members of the team.

But even so it’s beautiful here!

Afterwards, I went to visit a friend on Šatlavská Street. She’s been livinghere for the past 13 years because she runs a gallery there. She says there’s nothing here for locals. The only time she goes into town is to walk the dog. The development fund turned the housing into shops because there’s more money in it.