Entertainment

12. Entertainment

In my free time I devote myself to a lot of hobbies. When I’m in the mood I go to the cinema with my friends. They’re almost always showing good movie. I like comedies and romantic films. But my boyfriend, though, finds these movies dull and uninteresting. As he’s fond of films with a lot of action, we have to reach a compromise. Sometimes the advertising on television captivates me much that I can’t resist and simply have to see the film. Once in a while it happens that I don’t like movie at all. One never knows what to expect. That applies not only to selecting a movie. I think that cinema is useful not just for our entertainment and relaxation; through film and the movie screen we learn a lot of interesting things.

I’m also one of the great theatre buffs. Way back when I was little I used to take part in a drama group. We studied different plays. But then, when I started attending secondary school, my activity in our school ensemble came to an end.

In order that we should be able to go to the movies or attend theatre performances, we have to buy a ticket. The price of a ticket varies greatly. Cinema tickets usually cost about fifty crowns, while tickets to the theatre may cost many times more. That’s also why we don’t attend theatre as often as we go to the movies. But it is important to go to the theatre as well, because it does provide many answers to our questions and may help us to understand life better.

Cinemas and theatres are the most popular cultural activities. Many of us, however, also like to visit art exhibitions. Every city has exhibition spaces, where the individual exhibitions take place. Each one has its visiting hours posted, in order that we should know when the exhibition is open. The most frequent are picture exhibitions. The exhibition may present the work of a single artist or sometimes it presents the work of several artists on a single theme. People who visit such exhibitions are mainly experts in painting, sculpture, and students of art school. Just about everyone has at least some interests in art. In entering an exhibition hall we must usually pay a certain fee. Besides the exhibition of paintings, there are exhibitions of photographs, statues, as well as objects made of wood, iron, glass etc.

My cultural life includes visits to museums. Not every town has museums. A visit to a museum, however, contributes to our education and enriches our minds. There are many kinds of museums. These can be museums of history, agriculture, industry, etc. Often there is a guide who takes us around the museum exhibits; his explanations help us understand all that we see. Then he willingly answers our questions. Most museums are concentrated in our capital, Prague.

Since the days when I was little, I used to accompany my parents on visits to various castles, chateaux and also ruins. We used to do that primary in the summer. You won’t find anybody who wouldn’t like to make his vacation or holidays more interesting by visiting a chateau or a castle. One can learn a lot that way about the distant past. Castle and chateaux were most commonly built at elevated locations. We wonder how people could build such fabulous constructions without the help of modern machinery and equipment. In visiting historical buildings we also get out into nature.