exploring ostrava’s vítkovice

i was curious about passing through ostrava, czech republic’s “third” city, on my way to poland. it has long been known for being a polluted industrial and mining center of the country for most of the twentieth century, and also as a place that milan kundera writes about sometimes, for example, in his novel “the joke”. i can’t say this city has had the most shining reputation historically, but i’ve talked to some people about it who feel that ostrava has the potential to become a really hip city.

it’s home to a steelworks and mining center called dolní vítkovice, located in the heart of the city, which is now something of a national monument. czechs sometimes refer to it is “ostrava’s hradčany”, as a nod to the castle area of prague. well, it is a bit like a castle. a castle of industry. but nowadays, many tourists come to check it out and there’s even a visitor/science center located on-site. in the old days, it was europe’s iron production center. these days, vítkovice is the site of the popular colours of ostrava festival, hosting acts like sigur ros and robert plant.

i was surprised (after all i had heard and read) to see ostrava was a normal, presentable, decent-looking czech city– a very livable looking place! 

after arriving at stodolní street train station, alex and i walked through the famous party street in the day time (much more tame) and then all over the city center… looking for a doctor. (alex had a rash on his leg he really wanted to get looked at) that is one footnote i seem to have left out of our ostrava and kraków travels– how we really spent hours looking and waiting for a doctor! (don’t worry, we found one in kraków). but the good part is we got to see loads of ostrava streets in the meantime and it was a very pleasant sunny early august evening.

if you’re passing through czech republic on your way to poland, i think ostrava is worth a day, if nothing else than to explore the vítkovice works, to stroll around the pleasant main square, and to really get beyond prague. i’m glad i had a peek! 

i ate at sushi king (best sushi i’ve had in central europe, period) & stayed at inexpensive and spacious hotel maria near the center; i’d heartily recommend both.

there’s also famous czech party street stodolní (as i mentioned above), which gets purportedly really wild at night, but i didn’t stick around there long enough to find out…. it was early to rise and off to kraków in the morning.