Our “normal life” in Krumlov has come to an end, we are back to our real normal life, and so I can briefly recapitulate what my 12 days in the house on Latrán Street has brought me. As another family wrote in their blog, it was a time of strong experiences. And my experiences were also positive. As always, it’s up to you and the attitude you choose. I decided to enjoy the project, the town, the other participants, and my time in a strange environment with my family, and to focus on what I like, what I enjoy – in brief, to have a good time.

But I should emphasize that spending time in front of static cameras at three different places in town shows nothing of true normal life. Normal life does not take place in just the few square meters in front of a building. Normal life is not just a few activities limited by place. I personally would not decide to spend hours at a time with my kids in a clearly defined space amidst a mass of tourists engaging in a relatively limited range of activities. Which is why I decided that we could also go to the river, where the kids threw pebbles into the water and went for a swim, to stroll through the gardens, to grill in our courtyard, to have a beer outside the busy city center, to go to the pond on the edge of town (a great place, by the way), and to spend time with friends and family. Downtown Krumlov is a place where one can live, and it would take only a few measures to make life easier for locals (for instance, by allowing them to drive through and to park for a reasonable price). As the old-timers show, you can live there. Sure, the crowds of tourists can be unpleasant, but you can avoid them – there are beautiful places that are easy to escape to, even with a baby carriage and small children. The flats in the old buildings are inhabitable and can surely be made more amenable for family life with just a few simple alterations. And you can go shopping and out to eat in the center without breaking the bank.

My experience from Krumlov is a positive one, and I do not consider the town to be an outdoor museum. I had the chance to spend some time there beyond the usual day trip to see the city’s monuments or the obligatory stop while rafting down the river, and I can say that one can live nicely in the city’s historic center. But my family and I are not the proof – the real proof are the “old-timers” you meet in the street but who you won’t even notice if you’re just passing through as a tourist. They don’t air their duvets in the windows, because nobody ever did that here anyway, they don’t throw balls back and forth in front of glass shop windows because that is absolute nonsense, they don’t drink coffee on the city’s busiest street at a table in front of their house. Why would they? Much better to go and sit by the river or in a park or garden, and then to come home to their houses in the center of the country’s most beautiful city and live their normal lives, just as I do in my home elsewhere.

Y.