Cultural Differences Between Greece and the Czech Republic

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Cultural Differences between Greece and the Czech Republic

Prohlašuji, že předložená bakalářská práce je původní a zpracoval/a jsem ji samostatně. Prohlašuji, že citace použitých pramenů je úplná, že jsem v práci neporušil/a autorská práva (ve smyslu zákona č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů, v platném znění, dále též „AZ“).

Souhlasím s umístěním bakalářské práce v knihovně VŠPJ a s jejím užitím k výuce nebo k vlastní vnitřní potřebě VŠPJ .

Byl/a jsem seznámen/a s tím, že na mou bakalářskou práci se plně vztahuje AZ, zejména § 60 (školní dílo).

Beru na vědomí, že VŠPJ má právo na uzavření licenční smlouvy o užití mé bakalářské práce a prohlašuji, že s o u h l a s í m s případným užitím mé bakalářské práce (prodej, zapůjčení apod.).

Jsem si vědom/a toho, že užít své bakalářské práce či poskytnout licenci k jejímu využití mohu jen se souhlasem VŠPJ, která má právo ode mne požadovat přiměřený příspěvek na úhradu nákladů, vynaložených vysokou školou na vytvoření díla (až do jejich skutečné výše), z výdělku dosaženého v souvislosti s užitím díla či poskytnutím licence.

V Jihlavě dne 11. května 2012

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Podpis

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank to my supervisor Mgr. Zdislava Kratochvílová for her valuable advices during the supervising of my bachelor thesis. Also, my thanks belongs to my parents who supported me during the whole period of studying at the college and also to my friends and people around me.

COLLEGE OF POLYTECHNICS JIHLAVA

Department of Tourism

Cultural Differences between Greece and the Czech Republic

Bachelor Thesis

Author: Michaela Siberová

Supervisor: Mgr. Zdislava Kratochvílová

Jihlava 2012

Abstract

SIBEROVÁ, Michaela: Cultural Differences between Greece and the Czech Republic. Bachelor Thesis. College of Polytechnics Jihlava. Department of Tourism. Supervisor Mgr. Zdislava Kratochvílová. Degree of qualification: Bachelor. Jihlava 2012. 92 pages.

In my bachelor thesis I chose the topic called the Cultural Differences between Greece and the Czech Republic. In the theoretical part I focused on the basic facts about both states in these spheres (history, name and the state symbols, geography, climate, environment, politics and inhabitants). Than I wrote about concrete cultural differences which were concerned with religion, sights, sports, cuisines, feast and festivals and character and appearance.

In the practical part, I asked my respondents with the help of questionnaires for answers to the same 17 questions, thanks to them I tried to find out the awareness of my fellow – citizens about Greece and the Greeks about the Czech Republic.

Key words

Greece. The Czech Republic. Cultural Differences. Culture. Religion. Awareness.

Abstrakt

Ve své bakalářské práci Kulturní rozdíly mezi Řeckem a Českou republikou jsem se v teoretické části zaměřila na základní charakteristiku obou států v daných oblastech (historie, název a státní symboly, geografie, podnebí, příroda, politika a obyvatelé). Dále jsem psala o konkrétních kulturních rozdílech, které se zabývaly náboženstvím, památkami, sporty, kuchyněmi, svátky a festivaly, a vzhledem a chováním.

V praktické části jsem se pomocí dotazníků tázala svých respondentů na 17 stejných otázek, prostřednictvím kterých jsem se snažila zjistit povědomí svých spoluobčanů o Řecku a naopak Řeků o České republice.

Klíčová slova

Řecko. Česká republika. Kulturní rozdíly. Kultura. Náboženství. Povědomí.

Preface

The topic of my bachelor thesis is the Cultural Differences between Greece and the Czech Republic. Why I chose this theme? I spent some time in Greece and I was charmed by this country. Also, I realized facts and behaviour which I would not accept as a Central European woman, but after returning to my homecountry, I decided I wanted to find out more information about Greek people, their culture and everything related to them.

I would like to tell you from where I drew my sources of information. I found data about the countries in books, from the library in Přelouč where I come from and from a school library also, but the information for the part with cultural differences, it was harder to find, therefore I used the internet a lot and also many articles in English, which was sometimes also a problem, because there were used expressions which I did not understand properly or I did not know how to rewrite them into an easier but still the same meaning.

My thesis is for those who like traveling and also who are interested in other nations as well. In my opinion, it can be used as a guide about the mentality and other interesting things during the visiting of Greece.

Content

Introduction ...... 11

1 The Profile of the Czech Republic ...... 12

1.1 Basic information ...... 12

1.1.1 History ...... 12

1.1.2 Name and the state symbols ...... 14

1.1.3 Geography ...... 14

1.1.4 Climate ...... 15

1.1.5 Environment ...... 17

1.1.6 Politics ...... 18

1.1.7 Inhabitants ...... 18

2 The Profile of Greece ...... 19

2.1 Basic Facts about Greece ...... 19

2.1.1 History ...... 19

2.1.2 Name and the state symbols ...... 21

2.1.3 Geography ...... 21

2.1.4 Climate ...... 22

2.1.5 Environment ...... 23

2.1.6 Politics ...... 23

2.1.7 Inhabitants ...... 24

3 Cultural Differences ...... 25

3.1 Culture of the Czech Republic ...... 25

3.1.1 Religion ...... 26

3.1.2 Sights ...... 26

3.1.3 Sports ...... 27

3.1.4 Czech Cuisine ...... 28

3.1.5 Feasts and Festivals ...... 28

3.1.6 Character and Appearance ...... 31

3.2 Culture of Greece ...... 32

3.2.1 Religion ...... 32

3.2.2 Sights ...... 33

3.2.3 Sports ...... 34

3.2.4 Greek Cuisine ...... 35

3.2.5 Feast and Festivals ...... 37

3. 2. 6 Character and Appearance ...... 39

4 Practical Part - questionnaire ...... 41

4. 1 Awareness of Czech people about Greece and its culture ...... 42

4. 2 Awareness of Greek people about the Czech Republic and its culture ...... 62

Sources of respondents for the questionnaire: Awareness of Czech people about Greece and its culture ...... 80

Source of respondents for the questionnaire: Awareness of Greek people about the Czech Republic and its culture ...... 80

Sources ...... 83

Printed sources ...... 83

Online sources ...... 84

List of graphs ...... 88

Annex - Questionnaire ...... 90

Introduction

My thesis called the Cultural Differences between Greece and the Czech Republic is divided into two parts – theoretical and practical.

In the theoretical part, I was focused on basic facts of both countries such as history, the name and the state symbols, geography, climate, environment, politics and inhabitants. At this time, Greece is mentioned especially in the connection with the economical crisis, but this is not what I wanted to tell you about in my work. In the next section, I tried to concentrate on the cultural differences in the following spheres: religion, sights, sports, cuisine, feasts and festivals, character and appearance. Because the culture is a very broad term, I did not identify everything related to this problem extensively, but I believe that I did my best to show you the main differences between these two cultures.

The goal of my work is to find out and compare the differences between the cultures of Greece and my homecountry.

1 The Profile of the Czech Republic

1.1 Basic information

First of all, I would like to tell you something about my home country – The Czech Republic. It is a state lying in the centre of Europe which has borders with these states: in the west: Germany (lenght of border is 810 kilometres), in the north: Poland (lenght of border is 762 km), in the east: Slovakia (border is long 252 kilometres) and in the south: Austria (lenght of border is 466 km).

The Czech Republic is situated on the area of three historic counties: Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. The country extends the area of 78 867 square kilometres. There are about 10,5 millions inhabitants. My country is divided into 14 regions. The capital is Prague. The official language is Czech and the currency used in the country is a Czech crown. The time zone is CET UTC +1.

The head of this democratic republic is a president, top legislative authority is the Parliament of the Czech Republic. The country is also a member of these important organizations: UNO, NATO, EU, WTO, Schengen area, Visegrád Group etc [36].

1.1.1 History

From the very early period, by the time of the 6th century AD, in the area where our state is now lying, there were a few nations, for example the Celtics and the Germans. Later, Slavics people were here and then, in the 7th century, there was a political union which is said to be created by Samo. First certain mention of Bohemia comes from the period of Charles the Great. In the beginning of the 9th century, a state formation came into being and was called Great Moravia. The ruler of this country, prinse Mojmír, wanted to expand and he needed to gain support, that’s why he started to cooperate with Byzantium. Main results of this alliance manifested in the Church. It is not known, that Moravia was in the first half of the 9th century Christian country, the rest of Moravia believed in pagan. You should also know, that Christianity was believed only between the ruler and his family, military retinue and some inhabitants.

Prinse Rostislav invited two Byzantine missionaries – Constantin and Methodius, they brought the faith into Great Moravia. It means that new Church was created and was

12 independent on the East countries. Next ruler after Rostislav was prinse Svatopluk who connected many areas. In the beginning of the 10th century, Great Moravia came to an end because of incursion of Hungarians [Bělina, 2002, p 96 – 99].

During the 10th century, new state was created on Bohemian area. Generation of Premyslids started to spread Christianity, prinse Bořivoj had got a seat in Prague, it was a centre of the Bohemian state from the end of the 9th century. It was a rise of Czech power, but in the end of the 10th century, because of disputes inside the dynasty and also due to the politics of new neighbouring states, e.g. Poland, decay followed.

During this period (from the 9th to the 11th century), the literature developed almost in every big cloisters and cathedrals. For our country is the most important the activity of two missionairs who came from Thessaloniki – Constantin and Methodius. It is connected with beginnings of literature in Slavonic language which was first used for missionary activities. Thanks to this literature, they were able to translate the Old Testament. Constantin compiled the script called glagolic [Bělina, 2002, p. 104 – 105].

In 1346, Charles IV became a new king. Thanks to his four marriages he achieved territorial and political profits. He decided to make Bohemia a centre of his power, because this country was in the half of the 14th century well developped, on the contrary of the western Europe. Charles built up an European metropolis from Prague and in 1348 established the Charles University.

Later, there was a problem with the Church, the reform was necessary. The most important person from this period – beginning of the 15th century was a preacher John Hus. His statement: “They preach the water, but drink the wine” is nowadays taught at schools.

After the death of the king Václav IV, hussite revolution broke out fully. The Hussitism was a movement reacting to a crisis in Bohemia. During the first half of the 15th century, crusades were led against them, but unsuccesfully, though the Hussites were not numerous, they were more determined and well trained.

Since 1526, Bohemian countries have been incorporated to the Habsburg monarchy. In this period, our countries belonged to the Austria and later to the Austria – Hungary until the end of world war the first, which was in 1918. This meant a birth of the Czechoslovakia state [Bělina, 2002]. 13

Between 1939 – 1945, there was the world war the second, where we fought together with the USA, Britain, Canada, Australia, China and others as the Allies against Germany and others.

In 1989, there was a revolution against the political situation – Communism and the result was its downfall. At the end of this yeas, Vaclav Havel was elected as a president of the Czechoslovakia. On the 1st of January 1993, the Czech Republic as an independent state was created [Bělina, 2002].

1.1.2 Name and the state symbols

Oficial name of the country is the Czech Republic but we call it for short – Czech. The first using of expression Czech was in 1777 and it was a synonym to a word Bohemia. Our state symbols are: small and big state sign, state flag, standard of a president, state seal, state colours (white, red and blue) and anthem “Kde domov muj” (Where is my home).

The independent Czech Republic came into being on the 1st of January 1993 and later joined to the western European assosiations, for example on the 12th of March 1999 – NATO, on the 1st of May 2004 – EU, on the 21st of December 2007 - Schengen area [36].

1.1.3 Geography

As I mentioned a few paragraphs before, my country has got four neighbouring states. The longest border is with German, then with Poland, Austria and the last is Slovakia.

The surface of the Czech Republic is various. There are many mountains, lowlands and rivers. From mountains, I can enumerate these: the Giant Mountains in the north (highest peak is Sněžka) – bordering with Poland, Orlické hory (Velká Deštná) – also bordering with Poland, Šumava (Plechý – this is the highest peak only in the Czech side) – borders with German, and Krušné hory (Klínovec) – borders with German. Mountains involve 67% of all the surface of my country [35, 36].

Now, I would like to talk about waters. We have got rivers, lakes, ponds, dams, waterfalls, underground waters and so on. The Czech Republic belongs to these three drainage areas: Noth, Baltic and Black Sea. The largest part (63,3%) of the state is

14 drained off by Labe to the Noth Sea. Smaller part (27,5%) is drained off by Morava and Dyje to the Black Sea. The last smallest part ( 9,2%) is drained off by Odra to the Baltic Sea. There are two main rivers which are very important; Labe and Vltava. Vltava is the longest one, but it flows only in our republic, springs in the south of the country and in Mělník, Vltava empties into Labe and flows further to Germany. Labe is shorter in the Czech Republic, but then it flows to Germany, so its total length is 1154 km. Other rivers, as I mentioned before, are: Odra, Dyje, Morava, Sazava, Berounka, etc.

Other kinds of waters are lakes. Their occurence is minimal and they are also of small area. The largest lake is situated in the south in the Šumava Mountains, and it is called Black Lake. In the Šumava Mountains, there is Laka, Devil’s, Plesne and Prasilske lake too. We have got also many ponds which are situated especially in southern Bohemia, the largest one is Staňkov pond. Some people are wrong about this, they think that Rožmberk is the largest, but it is the most important pond and one of the oldest.

Last kind of waters, I would like to talk about is underground water. It is caused by rains, so it means, that these waters are endangered by pollution of the environment. We also can find mineral water springs, they are mainly situated in western Bohemia, around Karlovy Vary. They have got treatment effects on human body, that’s why the Czech Republic is sometimes famous for our spa in the world [12] [Toušek, 2005, p. 15 - 17].

The waters in my country is very popular for people, due to sports and holidays. During the summer time, many of them use our rivers, ponds, lakes and dams for relaxing, as a cheap way of spending their time. In winter, ponds and small rivers usually freeze and we skate on the ice what can be dangerous, if the ice is not thick enough. Only one kind of waters is missing in Bohemia – the sea. The nearest distance to the Baltic Sea is from the southernmost point of the Czech Republic. It is about 290km, but in my opinion, this is not what major part of the Czechs want. That’s why very popular holiday for our inhabitants is by the sea somewhere abroad, especially in south and southeast Europe.

1.1.4 Climate

As I told earlier, the Czech Republic is an inland state which is located in mild latitudes of the Norhern Hemisphere. The climate is mild, but various during the different periods of the year and due to different height above seal level. It is known that the higher you 15 are the colder is the air and the more rainfalls fall down. Also, it depends on the height of the sun, that’s why there change four seasons every year. It is typical, we have got spring, summer, autumn and winter. Every part of the year has got its characteristic features. What is the same for other states situated in mild climate, we have hot summers and cold winters. These changes of weather have influence on the flora and fauna.

The average temperature of the air is dependent on the height of the sea level, it is logical that on the top of Snezka, there is a temperature about 0,4°C, in the southeastern Bohemia in lowlands, there is a temperature about 10°C.

Besides the temperatures, we distinguish the wettest and the driest places in the Czech Republic. The wettest is situated in the highest mountains, capitally in the nortwest. On the contrary, the driest places are in the southeastern Bohemia and behind the big mountains – we call it rain shadow.

What is typical for individual seasons? I start with winter. Winter months are December, January and February, and during this time of the year is snowy, more often rainy weather, again, it depends on altitude and temperatures.

After the winter, the spring follows. Spring months are: March, April, May. The snow dissapears from the highest peaks and you can watch the vegetation growth thanks to the higher temperatures. It means that thaw is caused, the snow and ice change into liquids and rivers are full of water, it can be dangerous, there is a threat of floods.

Next season is a summer – June, July, August. Temperatures are 20°C higher then in January, people can use our water areas for swimming, because in the second half of the summer, the water is much warmer. If you don’t like hot weather, in mountains you will find the pleasant climate for sure. The summer is also the wettest period of the year.

The last one is an autumn - September, October and November. From the beginning of the autumn, the weather can be still sunny and warm, it is used a special expression for it – Indian summer. Then the weather changes, it is colder, rainy, windy, the leaves of the trees change their colours, fall down and this means new winter [11, 36] [Toušek,2005, 15].

1.1.5 Environment

Each state should take care of its natural heritage and resources. So does the Czech Republic through the authority Ministry of Environment. We can find many protected areas which belong under this ministry; they are for example: national parks (NP), nature reserves, protected areas and so on.

Fauna and flora is a centraleuropean type, but this type is mixing with notheuropean, Mediterranean and Alpine features.

Area of the Czech Republic belongs to the zone of leafy and decidious forests but with growing altitude, there are more coniferous trees. Forests cover about 33% of the area and are used for sources of timber, what is helpful especially for local economics.

According to the altitude, there are degrees of vegetation height, but it is not necessary to know it in detail, so I will write about it briefly. The lowest part where the trees grow is called flood plain forest. Another are oaks forests, then we can find beech – oak forest in the height 450 metres above sea level, then there are oak – beech forests. From 600 metres, there start to appear oak – coniferous forests, the higher we are, the more coniferous trees we can see, for example: firs, spruces, larches and so on. The highest trees are dwarf pines – trees which are smaller then others of the same type. You can also see mosses in the forests; soft green or brown plants that grow in a layer on wet grand, rocks or trees. Typical czech tree is a lime, it is considered as a czech symbol.

The forests are important both for timber and for relaxing. People in Bohemia go to the forests to have a rest, to breathe a clean air, to pick mushrooms and berries. Unfortunately, people who build or have cottages near these areas destroy the environment, but the forest are dissapearing not only due to owners of huts, problem is an output, global warming, acid rains, some animals, insect and so on [30].

Now, let me tell you something about fauna. According to the mild zone and to the forests – leafy and coniferous, some typical kinds of animals can live here. It is not excluded that other species can live here. The most common species living here are these: from mammals: hares, martens, otters, wild boars, deers and rarely you can see bears and wolves in Moravia. Birds are represented by these: partriges, pheasants, geese and ducks [10].

1.1.6 Politics

My country is a multi – party parliamentary representative democratic republic. The highest law is the Constitution of the Czech Republic. According to that, the president is a head of state and a prime minister is a head of government. President is elected every five years and is a part of executive branch. The functions of president are these: nominates Constitutional Court (judicial branch), nominates a prime minister, dissolves the Chamber of Deputies in some conditions. Now president is Václav Klaus, first, he was elected on the 28th of February 2003 and his second season started on the 15th of February 2008.

Legislative branch is represented by the Parliament which is bicameral, is divided into the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Number of members of the Chamber of Deputies is 200 and they are voted for four years, the second part of the Parliament – Senate consists of 81 members for six years [36].

1.1.7 Inhabitants

Number of inhabitants in my homecountry is approximately 10 504 203 to the 31st of December 2011. Bohemia is on the 14th position in Europe. According to this statistics, number of people in the Czech Republic is increasing thanks to the immigration.

It is proved, that maternity is delayed to the age of 27 years for the first child and generally to the age of 29 years.

Men die on the average in the age of 73 years and women in the age of 79 years [6].

In the towns and cities lives about 71% of population and density of population is 131 persons per a square kilometre, what ranks the Czech Republic on the 12th position in Europe [7].

2 The Profile of Greece

2.1 Basic Facts about Greece

The other country I want to talk about is Greece – officialy the Hellenic Republic, previously Hellas. Its former name was a Kingdom of Greece. It is situated in southern Europe and has got borders with these states: Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey. Greece is surrounded by the seas – to the east there is the Aegean Sea, to the west there is the Ionian Sea and to the south there is the Mediterranean Sea. The curiosity is that the Hellenic Republic has the 11th longest coastline in the world. Except that, the country has about 1400 islands, and 227 of them are inhabited, e.g. Crete, the Cyclades, Rhodes, Lesbos and the Ionian Islands. The surface of the republic is hilly, 80% of the land consists of mountains, the highest is Mount Olympus which is 2 917 metres high.

Greece is considered to be a cradle of Western civilization, a birthplace of democracy, philosophy, the Olympic Games, literature, political science, drama – which includes tragedy and comedy, mathematics and so on. Greece is famous for its inheritance which is recorded in the seventeen UNESCO World Heritage Sites, thanks to that, Greece is the seventh in Europe and the thirteenth in the world.

The area of the republic is 131 990 square kilometres and the population is about 10,7 milions inhabitants. The capital is Athens, the official language is Greek and the currency is euro. The time zone is EET UTC +2.

In the head of the state is a president. The legislature is adjusted by the Parliament as in the Czech Republic. The republic consists of 13 regions and one autonomous monastic state Mount Athos. Greece is also member of some international organizations, for example: NATO, EU, Schengen area, United Nations, and others [32].

2.1.1 History

Greece has got a strategic location on the crossing of Europe and Asia, thanks to that has got the republic very interesting and rich history. It is said that Greek school children have to learn history so broad as the Guiness Book of World Records.

The european civilization came into being on the islands of the Aegean Sea. Here grew up the culture which is called antique for short. Three thousands years before Christ were created the cultures influenced by civilizations as Egypt or Middle East. The development of ancient greek culture was permitted thanks to the knowlegde of using the metal. They also had an access to the sea, it was good for a sailing and trade.

There is a legend about the king Minos who lived on Crete. During his reign the country flourished. In this period, the first greek speaking tribes came and they settled on the mainland. Their culture was called Mycenaean, was situated in Peloponnese peninsula and is considered to be a base of the european culture.

After the extinction of the Mycenaean palaces, the life changed. Inhabitants moved to the hilly areas or on the islands. We call this process First Greek colonization.

Now, I want to tell you about creating of polis what in translation means something like a city – state. The normal state could not be created because of the geographic conditions – mountains, waters and so on. Sparta was one of the most powerful and Athens was one of the most important polis. The inhabitants were divided into aristocracy, the slaves and the demos. The archon Solon did a reformation, downsized the power of aristocracy, thanks to that the power of the demos was bigger [Čornej, 2002, p. 15 – 31], [Bain, 2001, p. 71 – 72].

About the 5th century BC, there were the Greek – Persian wars, once it was considered as a top of all the european history. There were many famous battles between these two sides, for instance: by the Marathon or Thermopile. The Greek soldiers won the war. Later, Sparta and Athens fought against themselves, it was called the Peloponnesian War. Sparta was a final winner.

In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great conquered many territories, his successes meant penetration of Greek and Oriental cultures.

Around the 4th century AD, Greece which belonged to the Roman Empire fell apart into two parts – Western Roman and Eastern Roman Empire. Greece comes under the Eastern Roman Empire which was later called Byzantine.

In 1453, the Turks conquered the capital of Byzantium – Constantinopole, they gained a domination over Greece.

Between the years 1821 – 1832, there was the Independence War. Greeks won thanks to the help of european states – because they did not like the Turks.

Greece also participated in the world war the first in 1914 – 1918, they wanted to set free the other Greeks who were still under the Turkish rule. Unfortunately they did not succeed.

During the world war the second, around 1941, Greece was occupated by Germans. There were two movements of resistance against them, it resulted in a civil war till the year 1949.

The year 1974 meant for Greece a new era, democratic elections helped to abolish a monarchy and Greece became a republic.

In the 80’s, Greece became a member of some organizations [Horák, 2006, p. 149 – 156].

2.1.2 Name and the state symbols

The name Greece comes from Latin Graecia and it was used by Romans. Present name is Greece or officially the Hellenic Republic as I said before. Sometimes it is called Hellas which is used not only in Greece but for example in English speaking countries. The state symbols are: the state sign, flag and anthem called “Ýmnos eis tin Eleftherían“ (in English Hymn to Liberty). State colours are blue and white, both are used as on the flag as on the state sign [32].

2.1.3 Geography

Greece has got four neighbouring countries; Albania – lenghth of borders is 282 km, the Republic of Macedonia – borders are 246 kilometres long, the longest border is with Bulgaria – 494 km and then is Turkey – 206 km. As I told a few paragraphs earlier, the Hellenic Republic is washed by three seas – from the west through the south to the east by these seas in this order: Ionian, Mediterranean and Aegean. I also wrote about islands and now I would like to tell one interesting thing about the Crete lying in the Mediterranean Sea; there is an olive tree in the village Vouves which is the oldest, bigest and well – preserved and its age is approximately 2000 – 4000 years [37, 38].

The country is situated on the south of the Balkan Peninsula and countinues more to the south to the Peloponnese.

Now, I have to remind that the surface of Hellas is from 80% mountainous and hilly, that makes the country one of the most mountainous countries in Europe. The most famous and also highest mountains is Mount Olympus with the highest peak Mytikas – its height is 2917 metres above sea level. This mountains is famous from history as a mythical residence of Greek Gods. In the western Greece, there are wetlands, lakes and the Pindus Mountains which countinues to Dinaric Alps. Thanks to the high rocky mountains, the average altitude is 500 metres [Bain, 2001, p. 76], [Horák, 2006, p. 148 – 149].

I will tell you about waters in Greece, but only briefly, because this country belongs to the poorest in Europe in terms of the water. The rivers are the most watery in winter, because of the rainy season. The rivers flowing in Pindus Moutains are: Alikmon and Pinios, from the lakes I can name only Lake Prespa, bordering with Albania and the Republic of Macedonia, but the area in Greece is only about 38,3 km.

At the end of the geographical part, I would like to tell you about the problem of earthquake. It is remembered from the age about 1450 BC as a result of the eruption of volcano. During the years AD it was for instance on Crete, on Peloponnese, on Rhodes, in central Greece, northern Greece and in other parts of the country. The volcanic activity stopped, except from Santorini [Pristl, 1992, p.13 – 14].

2.1.4 Climate

The climate is typically Mediterranean with mild wet winters and very hot and dry summers. Individual areas are various because of the altitude. The mountains in northern Greece are similar to the Balkan mountains – freezing winter and very hot and wet summer, while west coast and the Ionian Islands have got the highest average annual rainfall.

Winter is divided from summer only by a short period of spring and autumn. It is not usual that there is a snow during the winter, it is only on the highest tops of mountains.

The climate of each island can be different too, for example the Aegean Islands are colder and wetter than islands in the south. Western islands are drier than the eastern ones.

In the seas blow the winds, but it also depends on the season of the year. The passages of ships are influenced by that. For example in the summer, there is a wind which is very strong, in the spring there is a milder wind, and during the winter there is wind called Gregale which brings storms [Davies, 1998, p. 7 – 8], [Bain, 2001, p. 76], [Pristl, 1992, p. 14].

2.1.5 Environment

In the Ancient Greece, the country was very fertile with extensive forests what is nowadays hard to believe. It is due to the olive tree, in the past, the forests were felled in order to gain a space and soil for growing those trees. Later, they realized that this soil was bad. The second factor which is not good are omnipresent goats.

According to the surveys of the European Union, the Aegean Sea is the least polluted sea in Europe, but unfortunately we can not say this about the seas in the surroundings of the industrial cities. There also are not fish so much.

Now, let me talk about flora. It is so various like nowhere else. It is thanks to the fact I mentioned a few paragraphs higher; the soil is bad for agriculture and that’s why got away from fertilization.

Now I tell you about fauna, in the north of the country, there live boars which are unfortunately the aims of hunters. On the mainlands, there are squirrels, hares, rabbits, foxes and weasels. You can even see reptiles, including the vipers. Many people can’t imagine Greece without wild goats and donkeys.

As in my country, even here we can find some endangered species which live in the mountains of the north Greece. These include a bear and wolf. A seal lives in the Mediterranean but it is about to extinct [Bain, 2001, p. 76], [Davies, 1998, p. 8].

2.1.6 Politics

Since the 11th of June 1975, Greece is a democratic parliamentary republic with a president as a head of the state. The highest law is also the Constitution. The president 23 is elected by the parliament for five years. Actual head of the state is Karolos Papoulias. The president appoints a prime minister as in the Czech Republic.

The unicameral parliament consists of 300 members for a four – year term and they have got legislative power. The actual prime minister (since November 2011) is Lucas Papademos.

The last power which is called judicial is represented by Supreme Judicial Court and Special Supreme Tribunal and jugdes are also appointed by the president.

In this part, I would like to talk also about administrative division. There are 13 regions which are next divided into 51 prefectures and one autonomous region which is called Ayiron Oros and is located in Mount Athos, as a one “finger” of Chalkidiki peninsula. This place is interesting because women are not allowed to entre here, it is a place which is led by monks [15, 32], [Bain, 2001, p. 77].

2.1.7 Inhabitants

Maybe you will be surprised but the population of Greece is only a little bit higher than in the Czech. It is about 10 964 020 inhabitants. Estimated 4 millions of people live abroad; 2 millions of them live in America.

Life expentancy of males is almost 75 years, it is 2 years more than Czech males, Greek women live as long as the Czech ones.

Density of population is 82,9 inhabitants per square kilometre, what is less than in the Czech Republic. Those people live especially in lowlands, around Athens and Thessaloniki [2,21].

The structure of inhabitants is from the 95% Greeks, minorities are: Turks, Albanians and Macedonians.

One last thing I would like to talk about is a behaviour of Greek people. They are extremely friendly, expecially inhabitants living on the islands. They have got the same expression for the friend and for a stranger – xenós [Davies, 1998, p. 20], [Bain, 2001, p. 77].

3 Cultural Differences

When it comes to a culture, I imagine sculptures, buildings, everything what I learned in a secondary school, social events.

If I want to write a definiton of a culture, I would tell you that culture differs from nature, it is man – made. It is connected with a process of socialization in which a person changes into a member of a human society. It is working thanks to passing between generations. The most important culture mediator is a family. Within the one culture, the subculture can exist. Subculture is a different culture of groups, e.g. ethnical, age. As I wroted before, culture is regulated by norms, it is what differs it from the nature.

We can divide two types of culture – material and spiritual culture. Material culture means tools, robots, machines, buildings, everything what a human being transforms from a landscape. Spiritual culture means an art, philosophy, science, law, morality, religion, traditions, symbols, and so on.

Culture has got many functions, especially cognitive, educational or socialization. The main way of mediation is a communication, through the language and talk.

Last function could be the recreational one. It means for humans they can relaxe, relieve, distract.

Cultural differences can be seen in the time, for example the culture of the Ancient World, of the european Middle Ages, of Modern Period or according to a locality, e.g. Western European Culture, North American Culture, and so on [Havlík, 1995, p. 34 – 38].

3.1 Culture of the Czech Republic

History of the Czech culture can be dated into period of the 9th century, when two missionaries – Constantin and Methodius came to a Great Moravia and introduced the Cyrrilic font. This language is nowadays similar to other Slavic languages. The other education was in Latin. Czech language started to develop during the Hussitism.

Development of our culture is closely connected to the history of the Czech country. In 1348, Charles IV established the university, in the same century the Prague Archbishopric came into being.

The works of many authors were reactions to politic situations. Authors showed through them their opinions.

After the year 1989, foreign influences started to penetrate the Czech culture. Movie festivals are made, for example in Zlín or Karlovy Vary [4, 18].

3.1.1 Religion

When I was interested in the religion in the Czech Republic, I visited a special Czech link, where there are public statistics taken from surveys. I found data from the year 2001 but because the religion is something what does not change so fast, it is not bad source.

I can tell that number of people who believe in any religion in the Czech Republic is decreasing. According to this survey, aproximatelly 3,3 millions of our population is believing. It is one third of the total population.

The most of these believing people belong to the Roman Catholic Church, than many people avow to the Czech Brethen Evangelical Church, the Czechoslovak Hussite Church. Other church with at least 10 000 members is the Orthodox Church (the most popular one in Greece).

The Jehovah’s Witnesses is a non – christian church which had got about 23 000 members what ranks it on the fourth position.

Buddhism and Islam are represented too, the first with almost 7 000 and the second with more than 3 000 members [5].

3.1.2 Sights

If some foreigner asks me where to go to see beautiful sights, I would recommend him those which are on the list of UNESCO. In this moment, 12 places are on this list.

The first I start with is Prague. Its historical core is famous for many buildings from many architectural periods. Prague Castle, Vyšehrad, Hradčany and others belong here. 26

Český Krumlov is another sight. It is known for the buildings in the Gothic and Renaissance style. There is a spacious complex of the chateau and castle.

The Church of Saint John of Nepomuk is a pilgrimage church. It is a work of Santini and it comes from the Baroque Gothic period. It is build on the place called Green mountain.

Another monument is on Olomouc’s square, Holy Trinity Column. I could tell you more about all these sights, but it would last a lot of time, because all of them are beautiful and interesting, so I only name the rest of the UNESCO sights. It is: Complex in Lednice – Valtice, Holašovice, famous for south Bohemian folk architecture, Chateau and Gardens in Kroměříž, Kutná Hora, Chateau Complex in Litomyšl, Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Jewish Quarter in Třebíč and Telč [23].

The Czech Republic is not only about the monuments of this list, it is beautiful various nature, another castles and chateaus, mountains, you can spend here your leisure time in each weather, there is always some kind of things to visit here.

3.1.3 Sports

From places to visit, I moved to sports. As I wrote in the paragraph above, we have got various nature and thanks to this fact, we can do many kinds of sports. The Czech Republic is known in the world as a sporty country.

The most popular sport is football. Next is ice – hockey, skiing or tennis. We can play the sports actively and passively too. According to the environment you are in, you can do sports, such a cycling, running, rafting, boating and others. Each of them has got some patrons.

Czech sport tradition is famous maybe all over the world, for example our ice – hockey players are known in the U.S.A., football players in Greece (not only), as you will see in the practical part, and we also have several olympic winners.

Czech children in a school age go in their free time to do some sports, boys especially football, girls go dancing or doing gymnastics. Our children are more sporty than in other parts of world, because of the prices of these clubs [19, 20].

3.1.4 Czech Cuisine

Maybe you do not that Czech cuisine comes from our neighbours – Germany and Hungary. Traditional Czech meals are worse digestible and heavier than the Mediterraneans. It is because we use more animal fats, meat and flour.

The most important ingredients of the Czech cuisine are: pork, beef, poultry, rabbit, venison, from the fish it is a carp which is eaten especially only on Christmas. We also eat vegetable, mushrooms, fruits, pulses, pastry, diary products, spice, herbs and drink Czech beer.

Our favourite meals are also soups, which are served as a first course. They are followed by dumplings, sauces, meals from eggs, and after that we eat desserts – cakes or pies.

The beer is the most favourite Czech drink, with very long tradition and very good quality. Czech beer is known all over the world. There some special meals consumated to a beer, it is for example: cheese, sausage and so on. Another drinks we produce are also popular, e.g. Becherovka, liquer which tastes after herbs.

The most typical meal eaten in my country is a pork with dumpling and sauerkraut = cabbage. It does not mean that we eat only this. Into Czech cuisine belong these kinds of meals: collared pork, fried cakes from potatoes, fried mushrooms with eggs, goulash, roast duck and many others.

As you could see, our food is very substantial, but now we have got many opportunities to eat healthier, buy food which is marked as bio and with combination of sport feel better [26].

3.1.5 Feasts and Festivals

With festivals, I mean also customs and traditions, because every important festival is related to some special habits. Czech customs are based on Christian or pagan traditions and they vary a region from region. Unfortunately, in the towns and cities, they almost dissapeared, but in the Czech Republic, there are still places where we can find them, it is mainly the Moravian countryside. These customs are varegiation for tourists, in case they come during some festival, e.g. the Easter or Christmas.

I will tell you about them briefly in order they follows from the beginning of the year.

New Year’s Day – on the 1st of January, we have got a special motto, which means in translation, that how we behave on this day, this way we should behave all the year. Also, this is important day because on this date in 1993, the independent Czech Republic was created.

Three Kings Day – the 6th of January, it is official ending of Christmas, three people dressed as three kings go from house to house and with a chalk write on the doors K + M + B what means: Christ, bless this house.

Carnival – it is a three – day feast, with this day starts fasting which lasts 40 days and ends on Easter. Also, the top of this feast is the carnival Tuesday, it means mask parade and theater.

Easter – a feast celebrating a ressurection of Jesus Christ, and it consists of these days: Easter Triduum, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday, which is connected with pagan traditions. Eggs are dyed, lamb is baked, and other habits are held. Easter is a moveable feast, it is celebrating according to the first full moon after the 21st of March. In the Czech Republic is Easter celebrated only two days – for Easter Sunday and Easter Monday.

April Fool’s Day – on the 1st of April, people are joking, they try to catch you through some fun.

Witch Burning – on the 30th of April, it is from history, because it was believed that there were women with bad power and people burnt the fires against them as a defence.

May Day – on the 1st of May, girls must be kissed by boys under the flowering cherry tree to stay young and beautiful. It is also celebrated as a Labour Day.

Day of Slavic Missionaries Constantin and Methodius – they came to us in 863 as I wrote in paragraph history, it is celebrated on the 5th of July.

John Hus Day – on the 6th of July, he was burnt in 1415.

St. Wenceslas Day = Czech Statehood Day – on the 28th of September, this day was murdered Saint Wenceslas who is now Czech’s patron.

Independent Czechoslovak State Day – on the 28th of October, in 1918 Czechoslovakia came into being.

Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day – on the 17th of November 1989, thanks to this demonstration the Velvet Revolution started.

All Soul’s Day – on the 2nd of November, we know it especially as we light candles on the graves. In the past people held traditions, they baked special pastry called souls and offered it to poor people or travellers.

Saint Martin Day – on the 11th of November, Martin was said to come on the white horse and bring the snow.

Advent – period four weeks before Christmas, it is connected with a preparation for Christmas, most of families have got advent wreath with four candles and each Sunday light one.

Saint Barbara – on the 4th of December, during this day the small twigs from the cherry tree are cut and if they on Christmas Eve come into flower, a single girl from the house will get married in next year [Toufar, 2004, p. 82 – 83].

Saint Nicholas – on the 6th of December, in the evening of this day, Nicholas together with his companions go to the houses of children and give them sweets and fruits or potatoes and coal if they were nasty. Children usually say poems or sing songs.

Christmas Eve – on the 24th of December, it is celebrated in the evening, but during all day some families do things related to this, for example in the morning they decorate a christmas tree, they try to not eat all day to see a golden pig, the Christmas Eve’s dinner is usually fish soup and a fried carp with a potatoe salad, but some families have got instead of a carp a pork steak for example. We listen to carols, and after the dinner we go around the christmas tree and give the gifts to each other. Before the midnight, many families go to the church to sing carols during the Midnight Mass [Večerková, 2010].

Christmas Day – on the 25th of December, families meet at the table and eat especially a roast duck or a goose, dumplings and sauerkraut.

St. Stephen’s Day – on the 26th of December, in this day carolsingers used to go from house to house and sang the carols, they got fruits, some money or they were invited to have a chat [8].

3.1.6 Character and Appearance

So how is the character of a person living in the Czech Republic? It is the best to ask foreign people living between us for their opinion. Here is it: Czechs are educated, with sense of humour, cultured, men are maybe too soft, they could be manlier. We could also should be more assertive, because we are not able to fight for our opinions. Another opinion was that Czech people drink alcohol a lot, women take care of home well, they clean the house and their men do not help them so much. A German girl says, that Czech people do not tend to take everything so seriously, that we are more similar to a southern mentality with this behaviour [24].

What about the appearance? It is said that Czech women are the most beautiful in the world. Is it true? The owner of modeling agency Milada Karasová says, that Czech girls are more womanlike, they are not arrogant. They also became more stylish, they have got better style in terms of clothing. On the contrary men, they have got still problems, there are still some things that should be improved [27].

As I read about the typical appearance, I got to know that there are three ratial types of people living on the area of the Czech Republic. The first is a Nordic type: fair hair, blue eyes, pale complexion and tall body. The next is a Mediterranean type: dark hair and eyes, darker nevertheless pale complexion, medium figure. The last one is a West Slavonic type which is the most one, with medium dark hair, light eyes, robust figure and lower growth [22].

3.2 Culture of Greece

I wrote in a chapter History of Greece that it is one of the oldest cultures, it has got roots in Mycenaean and Minoan civilizations as I told you before. Greek culture is also influenced by the domination of Byzantine and others, for example by Romans. Now, the culture differs region from region, because of its location and size. It lies between the west and the east as a crossing, so there can be visible some features of blending.

Greeks are very proud of their culture and love talking about it. Also, they are always ready to tell you about everything you could be interested in.

They remember the names of Gods and legends and myths related to this. The beginning of the gods is when old gods – Uranus and Gaia rose and from them, there was a generation of Titans. Thy were later defeated by generation of Olympians. I am sure you remember some names of these gods, it is for instance: Zeus, Hera, Pallas Athena, Ares, Afrodite, Hefaistos, Eros and many others.

In the Ancient Greece, the oracles were very important, it had got big confidence and respect. The oracles were forecast from observation of flight the birds, the interpretation from entrails of sacrificial animals or from the unusual natural phenomenons such a water spring. The most famous oracles were situated in Dodona or in Delphi [Pristl, 1992, p. 32 – 43].

As I told earlier, the culture is related to the history, but not only, you can see it for example on state symbols – the flag – cross is symbolizing the Orthodox religion and the stripes mean sunlit waves of the sea around the nation. Now, let me tell you about religion [3].

3.2.1 Religion

Despite the fact, that in the past many areas were the dominations and the situation was not easy for the original inhabitants, religion always was on the top position.

Today’s population consists of 97% of Christian Orthodox. The rest of them are Muslims – 1.3%, Roman Catholics, Jews, and Protestants. Greece and Russia are the only countries where so many people observe the Orthodox church.

There are some differences how is the Orthodox various from other religions, for exapmle: orthodox priest can be married before he is ordained, there are also differences in fasting and many others which mainly religious people can be interested in.

The role of the church is more visible on the insular part of Greece. There are strong conventions for widows, they have to be dressed in black several years after the death of her husband. Widowers wear a black belt on the sleeve a one year only.

Tradition says that each family must build its own chaple – that’s why there are so many small chapels around the islands. On the Aegean Islands, you can see minarets [Davies, 1998, p. 21].

Who believes in nothing, he can withdraw from the Church, but in the countryside it would mean withdrawing from a normal social life, because of many feasts of religious origin. When there is something to celebrate, people always go before that to the church [Pristl, 1996, p. 106].

3.2.2 Sights

For sure, there are many beautiful and interesting places to visit, but I can not name you all of them, that’s why I chose those which are on the list of UNESCO – as in the czech part. In Greece, there are more sights on those list – 17. Now, I will write about them briefly.

Acropolis in Athens is the first one I want to talk about. It is a base of ancient monuments. In the past when Athens were a centre of previous state, cultural life and other events took place here, in Acropolis. It is the dominanting feature of the city.

Archeological Site of Aigai for which is sometimes used modern name Vergina, this place was also in my questionnaire and more than half of respondents has never heard about it, though this is the place where Fillip II, the father of Alexander the Great, was buried.

Archeological Site of Delphi is another place. As you know, it used to be an oracle, a spiritual centre of Greek world.

Archeological Site of Mystras – called the Wonder of the Morea, originally built as an amphitheater around the fortress. This city was conquered many times and today there are especially medieval ruins and breathtaking landcape.

Archeological Site of Olympia – place where antique Olympia stood on the Peloponnese, in the 10th century BC, Olympia became a place where Gods were worshiped. Besides the monuments, sports fields were preserved from the year 776 BC. Since this period, the Olympic Games are organized every four years.

Archeological Site of Mycenae and Tiryns – there are ruins of two greatest cities from the Mycenaean period. Both places are connected with Homer’s works – Illiad and Oddysey.

Meteora – it is a monastery, monks started to settle here from the 11th century. Though it was very difficult to build it, 24 monasteries were created.

Mount Athos – Orthodox centre, it is an autonomous state, and women and children are forbidden to entre. It is also called Holy Mountain.

I wrote about some of them and here is the rest: Delos, Historic Centre with the Monastery of Saint John, Medieval City of Rhodes, Monasteries of Daphni, Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni of Chios, Old Town of Corfu, Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonika, Pythagoreion and Heraion of Samos, Sanctuary of Askleipos at Epidaurus, and Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae [1, 28].

You can see that Greece can be very proud of its culture heritage, and I did not mention everything what was worth a visit. If I have an opportunity, I would really love to see Meteora, but I was only in Vergina because it was close to a town Veroia, where I stayed.

3.2.3 Sports

As it was told, Greece is a birthplace of the Olympic Games. Sports are considered to be and oldest kind of entertainment here. The Olympic Games had got religious importance. There were played six major sports: javelin and discus casting, jumping, running, pancration and dispatch race. They have became an international game.

Now, during the economical crisis, there is a problem that many sportsmen will not participate in the summer Olympic Games in London due to decreasing of grant (only about 75 will participate). Accorring to experts, the problems are caused from the big part by the Olympic Games in 2004 which were held in Athens – it cost much money and Greece has got huge debt due to this fact. It is said that economical situation will not be better earlier than in 2014 [29].

The most popular sport in Greece is a football (soccer). Every small town has got its own fotball team. Every good Greek is a fan of one big and important team. During the matches, pubs are full of noise – Greeks advise to players and support them [Davies, 1998, p. 25 – 26].

At schools, the most favourite sports are basketball and handball, very important is also exercising. Other sports played in Greece are: waterpolo, or mountain sports as climbing, hiking or skiing. There are also matches in fighting [9].

On the other hand, there is relaxing, very important part of their life. In kafeníon – place where men sit around the table and talk about everything – politics, sports, life. They drink a coffee and you can hear in a background clicking of their beaded objects called tavoli. They play with them to do something with their hands. It is normal that every man has got at home a few of these things, they have got different colours, and when they go for a beer without a company, they just play with beads and they are not bored [Pristl, 1996].

3.2.4 Greek Cuisine

If you visit Greece and you really want to taste some typical Greek food in the typical place, you should not listen to guides, but follow, where Greek people go to eat. You will experience the atmosphere. If you want to eat like typical Greeks, you should take your friend, relatives and eat together with parea. This word means a company.

You should know that the main meal of the day is a dinner, they eat in the late evening. The tourists visit taverns around 6 and 7 pm, but real Greeks go there around 9 pm [Pristl, 1996, p. 70 – 79].

So what are the typical meals and where you can eat it? Typical place for eating in Greek was is a tavern, as I wrote. Those place are for example next to the bussy road, 35 because these people love to see a life, noise, feeling that something is happening. Greek food is made from healthy and quality ingredients. It is said that the secret of this cuisine is: fresh ingredients, a lot of herbs and vegetable, olive oil and easy recipes.

The typical Greek meal is a moussaka, which was also answered in the questionnaire. Another famous meals are: souvlaki – lamb or pork meat roast on a skewer, gyros – which is originally from Turkey but in Greece is very popular, grilled chicken. These were the meals containing a meat. They also eat a lot of salads – with big pieces of tomatotes, onion, garlic, cucumbers and so on. Feta cheese is eaten with salads and is very delicious. Greek people eat soups too, especially in winter, because their soups are very succulent.

I am sure you have ever heard about tzatiki – yoghurt with garlic, cucumber and herbs. It is delicious. You can eat it with bread which is very popular too.

Greece is a country surrounded by seas, it means, you can eat many seafoods and fish, which can be grilled or boiled, and every restaurant offers them.

Maybe you do not know that Greeks every food sprinkle with a lemon, for better digesting.

After the meal, you might have a taste for something sweet. Try baklava – very sweet dessert with nuts and sugar syrup. Greek people like everything very sweet, if you go to a candy shop, be prepared that every desserts are from honey and heavy sweet butter cream. If you like typical chocolate, you will be dissapointed.

Greece has got a licence for producing beers of many marks (e.g. Mythos) and they are cheaper in a bottle than in a can. The national drink is an ouzo – it has no colour and if you add a few drops of water into it, it changes colour into white. Another greek alcoholic drink is Metaxa.

The place, where the God Dionysus was born, is famous also for its wine. They belong between the best producers of the wine in the world. The most popular and famous greek wine is retsina.

If you do not want to drink and alcohol, try a coffee, especially frappe, which is cold and whipped so it has a dense foam [14, 16].

3.2.5 Feast and Festivals

Greek traditions and customs are again related to religion – they come from paganism. These traditions vary an island from island, village from village, region from region. It depends on the place you visit, they celebrate different feasts in different days, that’s why I can not write about all of their festivals and important days. I will write only the most important events.

Every person in the Czech Republic celebrates its birthday and name day, but birthday is more important. In Greece, name day is bigger reason to celebrate. It is also thanks to the fact that children are named according to the names of their grandparents, and they celebrate it all the family. As a result of this, there are about 5 male and 5 female names which are the most popular, for men: Dimitris, Konstadinos, Panagiotis, Georgios, Nikolaos and for women: Stavroula, Maria, Eleni, Sofia, Panagiota. Because this means a real mess, they help with calling them for short, what means even worse mess. Another problem for foreigners is, that their surnames are also similar to their names, for example: Dimitris Dimitriatidis. As I said, the name days are more important and if a person celebrates it, friends come to his / her house with wishes and small presents [Pristl, 1996, p. 104 – 106].

Now, I would like to tell you about marriage. In the past, it was normal as in my country, that bride had to have a dowry and some marriages were arranged. Today the process of a wedding day is the same as in the Czech Republic, there is only one special thing – during the ceremony, the best man and the best woman give the rings to a priest and cross the crowns over each other three times and then, they place them on the couple’s heads. Almost every adult gets married except from people who are in monastic order. Nowaday’s age for getting married is late twenties for women and mid thirties for men. These marriages are monogamous with one of the lowest divorce rates in Europe, but I think this is only thanks to the fact, they get married in the church and from the religious reasons, not because they are so happy.

Another important day is a baptism, baptizing of babies is very interesting. Before this act, newborn must be without a faith and a name, because it is not strong enough to survive the procedure of baptism. During the ceremony, baby is three times immersed into blessed water. After this, they go the house of the family or a restaurant where they celebrate [Pristl, 1996, p. 106 – 107]. 37

Important religious festival which is celebrated here is Easter, it is even more important than Christmas. On the contrary of my country, they celebrate it from a Good Friday. They go to the church, to cemetery and throw fireworks. They eat a Ressurection Meal – lamb’s entrail soup, Easter cake and Easter biscuits. On Easter Sunday, they spend all day with a family, eating, dancing and singing. They celebrate Easter according to a Julian Calendar on the contrary of the western countries which celebrate it according to the Gregorian Calendar, that’s why mostly are not Easter at the same time [Pristl, 1996, p. 24].

There are two non – religious festivals: Greek Independence Day – on the 15th of March, they liberated from the rule of Ottomans and the “NO” Day – on the 28th of October, Greeks said NO to Italian invaders, oxi = no, people put the flags into their windows, students go in a march which is organized by schools and they wear blue and white uniforms.

Last thing I want to talk about is Christmas. You know that sometime is used Xmas for short, which is a little bit disrespectful, but not in Greece, X is a symbol of cross. Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December, and before it, there is a forty – days fasting, which was originally religious but nowadays it means a diet before a lot of food. It is not usual that they have got a christmas tree at home, instead of it, they have got a wooden bowl with a sprig of basil and holy water. It is used for saving the house from bad ghosts. Another tradition is keeping the fire at home – from the same reason. Gifts are given of the 1st of January – Saint Basil Day. They eat lamb or pork, but it is not exception they eat even turkey. The head of the family divides a bread which is decorated with a cross. They also eat kolliva – mixture of grains, or rice, honey, poppy, fruits, raisins, almonds, cinnamon and candied fruits [33] [Večerková, 2010, p. 201 – 202].

Have you ever heard about bouzouki? Probably not. It is not a feast but it belongs to an entertainment in Greece. It is a live music with a lot of wine, dance and songs. It is every weekend during the warm weather, it takes all the night and it has nothing common with religion. It takes place close to nature, on some place where is a bar, many lights and space for dancing. It takes untill the night ends.

In the end of this part, I would like to talk about superstition. All over the world, people tell stories what happens to you in certain occasions. For example you must say piase kokkino – touch red, in the case that two people say the same thing in the same time, they also have to touch something red, it is because of they are afraid of getting into fight. Instead of the Friday the 13th, they have got Tuesday the 13th, and there are more another superstitions such a matiasma, spiting and so on. I have to say, that festivals in Greece are really based on religion and people still try to hold them, on the contrary of my country for example [15].

3. 2. 6 Character and Appearance

I believe you have ever heard about a southern temperament. So how do the typical Greeks behave? They are easy – going, direct, lively, unpunctual, good at improvisation – the art of rhetoric comes from Greece. They are famous for talking about politics, drinking alcohol (but they do not drink it to get drunk, if somebody is drunk, society considers his / her behaviour as disgraceful), relaxing – mentioned in a chapter Sports, typical place for them is kafeníon as I said, they are very proud of their country, on the contrary of many Czech who are maybe ashamed of their origin. Also men’s bravado is typical [17].

If you talk with somebody here, instead of their passion for discussing, beware of swinging with head. If they swing yes – nai, they do it in the same way as we do for no. If they swing no – oxi, they toss a head shortly, it seemed to me as a very arrogant gesture.

If you remember from a chapter Feasts and Festivals something about marriages, I fill this information about the fact, that Greek people are very respectful to their families. Every household has got many common photographies displayed on visible places. Young people talk about their parents and grandparents very nicely. It is not such a usual phenomenon in my country.

For young men, there is an obligatory military service. I think it is a good idea, because it makes from males gentlemen, independent and self – confident people. They are more adult if you compare it with Czech men in the same age [25] .

What about the appearance of Greeks? I am sure you imagine olive – coloured skin which have got all Mediterranean nations. Maybe you have heard about typical Greek facial features. What does it mean? It was especially a straight and smooth nose, it was considered as a perfect. Now, noses are various, as well as the mouth – their common feature is the size, they are big. What you can admire on Greeks are the eyes. They are mostly dark and brown with very thick eyelashes. Some people have blue, green or gray eyes, but it is about only 25%. Hair color is usually dark brown, almost black and it is often that they have got big volume and waves. The skin is almost light brown and they have got the advantage, because they are able to absorp UV rays easily [31].

4 Practical Part - questionnaire

In the practical part, I have tried to find out how informed and educated these two nations are about each other. I have created a questionnaire with the same seventeen questions for both of them. All the questions were obligatory and respondents could tick one answer, or chose one answer or write own opinion or express their opinion with a short text.

They had got the same time for answering the questions. Even though I sent the link to many friends in order to ask their families and friends, Czech people answered it much more then Greeks. The number of Czech respondents is 231 people, number of Greek ones is only 53. I was surprised because from my own experience, the Greek people are more willing to help you. Maybe it was due to unfamiliarity with the English language which was used for the research for the Greek side. I also had a translation to the Greek language, but the introduction of my questionnaire was in English and maybe this was the reason why many of respondents were discouraged. I used the websites specialized for questionnaires, but in most cases I had to send it personally through emails.

Now, let me introduce you the results of both parts.

4. 1 Awareness of Czech people about Greece and its culture

1) Your sex is: male / female

Graph no. 1: Your sex is?

As you can see, the questionnaire was answered by 166 females and 65 males only, it shows that women are more willing to answer and help and they care more about somebody’s needs. Maybe also men consider answering those questions as a waste of their time.

2) Your age is: 0 – 18 / 19 – 26 / 27 – 35 / 36 – 55 / 56 – older

Graph no. 2: Your age is?

In this graph we can clearly see that most of the respondents are in the age of students, it means for me that these people are familiar with the needs of other students and try to be helpful because they know that next time they may need other people’s help too.

As I have mentioned before, I used the website where I created the questionnare and this page is visited especially by students. For gaining more age groups, I had to ask my parents, their friends, other relatives and even strange people to get the right number of people who will answer it. I really wanted to find out how informed people of different ages are.

If I choose a segmentation according to age, I can see that in each group the respondent’s opinion is correct and they have got good awareness.

3) What is your highest level of education? basic / secondary with graduating / secondary without graduating / college / university

Graph no. 3: What is your highest level of education?

The third answer was about education. Most of people answered that they passed a secondary school, almost 60% with graduating. Next populous group were graduates of a university.

The rest of them is divided into basic education (11 persons) where was interesting that 6 of them is in the age of 0 – 18 years and 5 of them in the age of 19 – 26. The other group was secondary school without graduating (6 persons) and college (8 respondents).

4) Into what group of people do you belong to? student / employee / unemployed / maternity leave / retired

Graph no. 4: Into what group of inhabitants do you belong to?

I spoke about it before, the most of respondents were students, they have got the best access to the various questionnaire, and they spend a lot of their time on the internet. 166 students helped me to know how educated is the Czech nation.

The second numerous group was created by employees – 57 responds. Number of unemployed was low (6 persons).

The last two possibilities were: maternity leave and retired and each group has got only one respondent.

5) Do you know where Greece is situated?

Graph no. 5: Do you know where Greece is situated?

The question no. 5 – Do you know where Greece is situated seemed to me easy and I think, it really was. The answer should be a short text, without possibilities.

Most numerous answer was southern Europe with 118 respondents. Some people may were confused about the exact position of the republic because they answered southeastern Europe (53 responds), I think this is not bad answer.

Three people answered YES, one person wrote NO. On the contrary of these two groups, some people (16 persons) were very specific and wrote that Greece was situated on the south of Balkan and Peloponnese. Other responses were that islands in the seas surrounding Greece belonged there too.

Three answers were out – northern, eastern and western Europe. But it is true that Greece used to be politically considered to belong to the western Europe.

I have to say that Czech people have good knowledge about its location.

6) What is the capital of Greece? Answer should be a short text, there was no possibility to tick

Graph no. 6: What is the capital of Greece?

In this question almost 97% of respondents were right, they just did not know how to write the word Athens, but I considered any similar words as correct answers. I was surprised that 3 people answered Antwerp what is a city in Belgium.

Two people may were confused about southern Europe states, because they changed the capital of Italy and one person even answered that capital of Greece was Italy, but I believe it was a bad joke.

One answer was Thessaloniki, but this is a city in the north of Greece, on the other side of Athens. One person also thought that Damask was a capital but this is true only in one thing – it is a capital in another country on another continent – Syria in Asia.

7) Have you ever been to Greece?

Graph no. 7: Have you ever been to Greece?

As you can see, this response is almost fifty – fifty. Half of people visited this country, half of them not.

If I use a segmentation according to the age, I can tell you that from the group from 0 – 18 years five respondents were in Greece, four not. From the most numerous group 19 – 26, 80 persons visited the republic, 94 not. Another group from 27 – 35 answered that 18 of them were there, 11 not, from 36 – 55 eight people visited and seven did not and from the last oldest group three people confirmed their visit and one person answered that he has never been to Greece.

8) What is your first idea when I say Greece?

Graph no. 8: What is your first idea when I say Greece?

When somebody says a name of any country I always have an idea about this state even though I have never been there. I wanted to find out what my respondents think about Greece.

In my opinion, if you know some country well, you have got more ideas, you can not express your feelings in one word only, especially if you visited the place.

Sixteen people answered in very similar ways about the sea as a first idea. Fifteen people wrote antique, other opinions were crisis, gyros, olives, holiday, Olymp, sights and monuments, mythology and debt.

Other 147 respondents had got various answers but all of them were very related to Greece and their own experiences. These responses were for example: hospitality, mentality of local people, food, cheese, olive oil, drink – beers, metaxa, ouzo, wine retsina, rich history and culture, beautiful islands, sun, buzuka, Olympic Games, democracy, music, language and alphabet letters, ancient Greece, blue flag with a cross, blue and white colours as a symbol, special toilet and many others which are typical for this southern state.

9) Do you know any famous military leader / ruler / personality? (from history / present)

Graph no. 9: Do you know any famous military leader / ruler / personality?

I used a free type of answer without possibilities again, because I think that it is easy to tick answers eventhough you know nothing about it. That’s why the most common answers were just NO (101 respondents).

Other people were concrete, 26 of them wrote the military leader Alexander of Macedon, and other 15 respondents named famous military leaders except from Alexander; for example Pericles.

52 persons answered Greek intellectuals, for example: Solon, Homer, Pythagoras, Thales, Archimedes, Socrates, Sofokles, Plato and others.

Gods were also a popular answer, 15 people remembered old mythology and legends which are taught at school.

Three people wrote Zorba the Greek who was a hero of a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis.

Four people remembered Georgios Papandreu who is a politican and ex Prime Minister and then other 3 respondents wrote three different names; Martha and Tena Elefteriadu (singers), Lucas Papademos (economist and Prime Minister) and Eleftherios Venizelos (revolutionary and leader).

10) Are people in Greece religious?

Graph no. 10: Are people in Greece religious?

If you are not interested in religion of other countries, you may not know how important is a religion there. It is not so visible on the first sight, but if you ask about their feelings and traditions, you might be surprised. Even young people believe and they are not ashamed, they are proud of their faith. They are also wondering that it is not normal in your country and it is not appropriate to say that you are an atheist.

197 respondents from my country answered that Greek were religious. Twelve percent of respondents did not know about Greek’s belief and almost three percent (6 people) answered NO.

11) What religion do they observe pre – dominantly?

Graph no. 11: What religion do they observe pre – dominantly?

When it comes to the question of religion in Greece, you may think they all are Orthodox, but it is not so true. They also believe Roman Catholic, Evangelical, Buddhism and Islam.

In my questionnaire most people thought that they were Orthodox (135 respondents). About 22% answered Roman Catholic and the rest of them ticked the possibility I don’t know. Answers Evangelical, Buddhism and Islam stayed untouched.

12) What do you think is the national sport in Greece?

Graph no. 12: What do you think is the national sport in Greece?

Greece is known for establishing the Olympic Games in 776 BC, maybe that’s why was the most popular answer athletics (97 respondents). The second was football (92), you will see it in the next graph called Do you know any famous sportman – people answered especially names of football players.

Next answer was water sports (15), because of the Greece’s position in southern Europe, surrounded by seas. The same number of answers had got fighting sports (15).

Basketball was elected by only 8 respondents, but you would be surprised how popular is this sport, eventhough the body shapes and heights of the greek people are not ideal for it.

The others sports which are played in Greece are: golf, ice – hockey and tennis, but only four respondents agreed with it in total.

13) Do you know any sportsman in Greece?

Graph no. 13: Do you know any sportsman in Greece?

The question if Czech people know any sportsman in Greece was meant to be a short text, with their own words. That’s why 212 respondents wrote NO. People who knew Greek sportsman usually answered their favourite sport star, especially football players. Four persons agreed with Georgios Papadopoulos, 2 respondents answered Konstantinos Kenteris and other two people remembered Discobolus.

In this question is well seen, that many people have their own preferences, if somebody is keen on sport, he / she also knows names of teams, sportsmen and so on, even in different countries. If somebody is not interest in sport, the answer is no.

If I have not been to Greece, my answer would be also NO. Because I stayed here a few weeks, I saw some matches on tv, my answer was the Paok (football team).

14) Do you know what is the currency in Greece?

Graph no. 14: Do you know what is the currency in Greece?

As you can see, 224 respondents were right about the currency. They have got also opinion, that this currency is bad for Greece, it is not worth and some of these people answered: unfortunately still euro, but not for long time. Many of these people also knew the previous currency – drachma.

Three persons still think that drachma is official currency in Greece. One person wrote ruble and other person wrote peso, maybe this person was confused about southern Europe state Spain. One respondent answered that has no idea about the currency and the last person who answered wrote that they no longer have any currency, it shows you how negative is attitude towards to their financial situation.

15) Do you know any typical Greek food?

Graph no. 15: Do you know any typical Greek food?

For each country is typical some kind of food. When I was in Greece, I ate many delicious meals and I chose some of them to my questionnaire. First answer was Gyros (75 respondents), Moussaka (71), Tzatziki (43), Souvlaki (19), all of them (12) and Greek salad (7). One of my possibilities was also healthy meals, because they use ingredients that help you digest your food (it contains olive oil, vegetable, lemon, eggplant, fish and so on), but nobody chose this answer.

One person did not chose any answer, but also did not write own opinion, other person chose Baklava – the food I have never heard about it before and the people knew that Gyros did not come from Greece but from Turkey.

They also wrote that Greek food was very delicious, and they try to cook it at home, but they can not compare it with real Greek cuisine.

16) Do you know any famous sights / monuments or places?

Graph no. 16: Do you know any famous sights / monuments or places?

For this question I chose answers: Akropolis (48 respondents), Corfu (20), Knossos (18), Thessaloniki (17), Rhodes (16), Parthenon (15), Olympus (13), Delphi (9), Mycenae (8), Meteora (7), Achilleion (1) and Vergina (0). Respondents could tick one answer or write their own answers. The result is very clear, many people knew almost all of the above, very frequent answer was all of them except from Vergina or Achilleion.

Two answers were that these persons have never been there, so maybe they really don’t have any notion about monuments. One respondent wrote Zakynthos. Generally, they answered according to their own experiences of travelling, because this is for remembering the best.

17) Do you like people visiting your country? Is your relation to them possitive?

Graph no. 17: Do you like people visiting your country? Is your relation to them possitive?

I chose this question because I know how many Czech people refuse the communication with strange people, they have negative attitude towards them. I have got one experience related to the behaviour of Czech people in context with foreigners. I was on a trip in Prague and the centre was full of people from all over the world, according to appearance mostly from Asia. A woman standing close to me talked to her friend not so quietly that I could hear it too, that those foreign people are terrible, why do they come to the Czech Republic, why don’t they stay in their countries, why should she explain them a way to some monuments and so on. Unfortunately it is not only in Prague, when I come to a similar situation I always feel from some unknown reason sorry about behaviour of my fellow – citizens (I do not mean all the Czech).

In my opinion, many czech people are afraid of communication in foreign language, they tend to be shy and insecure, sometimes they seem to be unwilling, offensive, negative in contact with those people, even though young persons. On the contrary people living in Greece (and not only here), they are possitive, smiling, vital, friendly and convivial. 60

This is not only my point of view, a question no. 8 – What is your first idea when I say Greece – some people answered: Convivial and kind behaviour generally.

I was surprised by the result of this last question because of higher written. More than 80% answered they like foreigners, but I think many of them don’t admit how they feel face to face a person from a different country.

4. 2 Awareness of Greek people about the Czech Republic and its culture

1) Your sex is: male / female

Graph no. 1: Your sex is?

On the contrary of the Czech respondents, from the republic in the south of Europe, men were more heplful than women. From the total number of 53 people, 33 of them were males and 20 were females. Although I sent the link with questionnaire to both sex in the same number, men were more curious and willing to help me even though they did not know me at all.

2) Your age is: 0 – 18 / 19 – 26 / 27 – 35 / 36 – 55 / 56 – older

Graph no.2: Your age is?

As in the Czech section, the age group from 19 – 26 is the most numerous, almost fifty percent of respondents answered my questions.

The older groups are represented too, with 15 and 11 respondents, I believe it is very good for the questionnaire to know different opinions from the different generations. The only one group which did not respond were people from 0 – 18 years. It is due to I know especially people in my age and I asked them to send it to their friends and parents and they unfortunately did not know anyone from that group or these people just were not willing to fill it.

Other problem why only 53 respondents answered could be the language. As I said in the introduction of the practical part, they do not talk English as well as people in different parts of the world. The Greek language is special for them, they are proud that they can talk this very difficult language and have no needs to learn new languages if it is not necessary. Although my friend translated the questions and answers into Greek, it did not help me so much as I expected.

3) What is your highest level of education? basic / secondary / university

Graph no. 3: What is your highest level of education?

In the Czech equivalent, I had two more possibilites – secondary education without graduating and college, but I was not sure about the Greek’s school system, so I chose only these three.

Ten people answered they had got only basic education. If you compare it with previous question – about the age, it is weird, because nobody from the group 0 – 18 answered. It means that those people can live and earn and exist without higher education easily.

The second group with secondary education was more numerous – 34 respondents. When I was in Greece and I told somebody I was still a student at the university, they were surprised, if I enjoy being a student. It was normal that young people prefered working (for example in café bars) before studying.

4) Into what group of people do you belong to? student / employee / unemployed / maternity leave / retired

Graph no. 4: Into what group of inhabitants do you belong to?

For a question no. 4 I chose the same answers as in the Czech part, but only four of them were used. 14 people told me they were still students, more than half of respondents answered that they worked and only 11 persons wrote they were unemployed.

On the one hand, I was surprised that many of my respondents had got work in such a bad economical situation, but on the other hand, I know from my friend who lives here, that he does everything to earn his living, he has got two jobs, one is 100 km far away from his home and the second is during the night in a bar where he helps the owner with everything what is necessary.

5) Do you know where the Czech Republic is situated?

Graph no. 5: Do you know where the Czech Republic is situated?

If you want to know where you can find the Czech Republic, it is not probably a good idea to ask Greek people.

Almost a quarter of my respondents has no idea, where to find my country. A little bit more of them think that we still live together with Slovaks in Czechoslovakia.

Sixteen persons were right and wrote the central Europe and other ten people may think that we belong to Russia or the Ukraine, because they wrote the eastern Europe.

6) Do you know the capital of the Czech Republic?

Graph no. 6: Do you know the capital of the Czech Republic?

The same problem as in the Czech part – how to write the names of towns / cities? I was wondering, if many people do not know where the Czech Republic is situated, how come, that they know about Prague? 31 respondents’s answers were Prague in different forms, but I can not blame them for bad spelling.

On the contrary, 18 persons wrote they did not know. It was easier for me, because I did not have to read all the answers written half in English and half in Greek (the language problem as I mentioned before).

Four people were wrong, three of them thought Bratislava was our capital and one person wrote German.

7) Have you ever been to the Czech Republic?

Graph no. 7: Have you ever been to the Czech Republic?

If you ask a Czech person, if he / she has ever been to some country, you can be sure, that is the answer is yes, this person was there most on holiday. If you ask a Greek person and his / her answer is yes, it is very possible that they were here just on business.

It is not normal that they travel to the Czech Republic to spend their leisure time walking in Prague and other sights, but it is not so unusual. Greek people like to go for their holiday to southern countries, they like sun, so the good holiday for them is to visit another place in Greece, and if they want to travel somewhere abroad, they choose neighbouring states.

Almost 80% answered they have never visited my homecountry, the rest of them has done. I wrote that for example businessmen have got more money to travel here, but only few days and many of them are only transiting to other country.

8) What is your first idea when I say the Czech Republic?

Graph no. 8: What is your first idea when I say the Czech Republic?

Even though the Greek population has a problem to identify a location of the Czech Republic, they have got good ideas about our country. Their answers were similar to the answers of other foreigners from all over the world.

Many people imagine sport or concrete sportsmen, it was especially opinion of boys. The rest of them chose various answers, from Prague (26%) to for example sea (2 69 respondents). As you can see, some people really know nothing about the Czech Republic.

I was also surprised that answer Havel appeared four times, on the contrary Czechoslovakia was answered three times.

When it comes to Prague, some people imagine the Charles University, but if you look to the results of the next question – if they know any famous personality, nobody answered Charles IV.

Other answers were typical, beautiful women, beer, which is also sold in Greece in some pubs, moto GP which is well known, maybe because many Greek people like a motorbike instead of a car.

Two persons answered Karlovy Vary and they knew it was connected with Russia.

9) Do you know any famous military leader / ruler / personality (from history / present)

Graph no. 9: Do you know any famous military leader / ruler / personality?

With the result of the question about famous personality I was quite dissapointed. I did not expect that people would know only our two politicans and sportsmen. The rest of the respondents does not know.

But when I think about it deeper, it is a success that so many people remember Václav Havel ( 14 respondents) and other 6 know Václav Klaus.

19 people remembered sportsmen such Petr Čech, Jaromír Jágr or Dominik Hašek, but it is not excluded that those people used websites for finding some name.

I was surprised that famous king Charles IV was not mentioned even once, because he is famous around all Europe.

10) Are people in the Czech Republic religious?

Graph no. 10: Are people in the Czech Republic religious?

When it comes to the question of religion, Greek people do not understand that in other countries it is not important and there are mostly atheists. That’s why almost 72% answered that Czech people were religous.

The rest of them – 15 persons elected answer NO, but I am not sure if they were not just guessing.

11) What religion do they observe pre – dominantly?

Graph no. 11: What religion do they observe pre – dominantly?

In the previous question, 38 people thought that the Czech people were believers. From the possibilities above, they chose everything except from Islam.

Because in Greece people are Orthodox, they maybe thought that the Czech population is observing the same religion. The other group thinks that Czech people believe in Roman Catholic. Other 5 persons were for Evangelical, two for Jehovah’s Witnesses and one for Buddhism. Nobody was for Islam, which is represented in my country too.

12) What is the national sport in the Czech Republic?

Graph no. 12: What do you think is the national sport in the Czech Republic?

Although in other questions people wrote that they knew sportsmen e.g. Hašek and Jágr, their choice in terms of the national sport was a football with 20 respondents.

Ice – hockey was the second, followed by athletics, then by basketball and skiing. The last was tennis.

The last thing I would like to tell you is that Greek people think we are sporty nation.

13) Do you know any sportsman?

Graph no. 13: Do you know any famous sportsman?

My question about sportmen was without prescribed answers. 29 people wrote NO. Those were answers especially from women, but not only.

Other people thought about Czech football players, for example Tomáš Rosický who is known for operating in London’s Arsenal or Petr Čech, a goalkeeper of Chelsea FC.

Emil Zátopek, Czech athlete and olympic winner was chosen by two people as well as Kateřina Neumannová, famous for cross – country skiing.

14) What is the currency in the Czech Republic?

Graph no. 14: Do you know what is the currency in the Czech Republic?

For a question no. 14 should be an answer a short text. As I wrote before, it was sometimes difficult for me to read the responses because respondents did not respect my request and answered in Greek language. Than I had to use a transaltor on the internet, but it did not help me always.

I solved these answers: 14 respondents wrote that they did not know, 9 people thought euro as in Greece is used for payments and 30 persons wrote czech crown.

15) Do you know any typical / popular Czech food?

Graph no. 15: Do you know any typical / popular Czech food?

The question no. 15 was meant to tick one answer from those 6, without free answer because I would have a problem to solve to names of meals. I chose these meals and I added salads and healthy meals, even though it is not typical, it was just from my curiousity what they would answer.

The most people were for pork steak and potatoe salad, but this meal is not eaten only in the Czech Republic. I think the most typical meal is the second choice – pork with dumplings and sauerkraut, almost 25% of respondents chose this.

Soups which are eaten also in Greece had got more votes than sauces and the last two dishes – salads and healthy meals had got three respondents each of them.

16) Do you know any famous sights / monuments or places?

Graph no.16: Do you know any famous sights / monuments or places?

The possibilities for the question no. 16 were tick one or write with own words a short answer. Many people chose Prague as you can see in the graph above. It was almost 50 percent.

The rest of them is divided into Prague’s sights as the Prague Castle and Charles Bridge. Other answer was Brno, thanks to the moto GP, I spoke about it in the question of first ideas. Next is Český Krumlov which is on the list of UNESCO together with Olomouc.

Last four people chose the Giant Mountains, because even though the Hellenic Republic is a state lying between seas and its climate is very hot during summers and not so cold

78 during winters, they like skiing very much and mountains are good place where to go for them.

17) Do you like people visiting your country? Is your relation to them possitive?

Graph no. 17: Do you like people visiting your country? Is your relation to them possitive?

If I compare this result with the Czech part, there is no different. It is natural that some people like the foreigners, the other not, it depends on personal experiences, the character and many other factors.

Now, I would like to return to the Czech questionnaire, where some people in the question no. 8 – What is your first idea when I say Greece answered: lazy and nasty people who don’t behave to others nicely. I think it depends on situation and even person, it is not said that each Greek person must be easy – going and friendly as well as the Czech people are reserved in every time.

Sources of respondents for the questionnaire: Awareness of Czech people about Greece and its culture

I created the questionnaire on the website www.vyplnto.cz, than I sent the links to all my friend, relatives and their friends in order to have many answers [13, 34].

Length of research: 17. 3. 2012 – 31. 3. 2012

Number of respondents: 231

Source of respondents for the questionnaire: Awareness of Greek people about the Czech Republic and its culture

I also created the questionnaire on the website www.vyplnto.cz, in English and Greek language together, but it was not succesfull, that’s why I had to sent it personally through emails – I used www.gmail.com [13].

Length of research: 17. 3. 2012 – 31. 3. 2012

Number of respondents: 53

Conclusion

In the theoretical part, I focused on the basic facts of both countries such as history, name and state symbols, geography, climate, environment, politics and inhabitants. Next part – the cultural differences between these two countries was very interesting and informative for me. Even though I have heard a lot about it, the information which I found were really notable, and not only because I needed it to my bachelor thesis but from the reason, that I believe everybody should be interested in other nations, their behaviour, simple be interested not only about themselves.

From the beginning it was hard to find data I needed, because the library in Přelouč did not offer the books which would help me. I used the internet a lot and books especially for the writing about Greece. In the school library, I found a few books about the Czech Republic, but in generally, I would evaluate the sources in the printed form as insufficient, on the contrary of the books about Greece, it helped me especially when I wrote about religion, sports, and cuisine for example. The internet was very useful, but unfortunately, some Greek oficial websites were written in Greek font, so I could not use them.

So how are the specific differences? In religion, it is obvious. Czech people do not believe so much, on the contrary of people in Greece, who are deeply religious and it is almost socially inappropriate if people have no faith.

Sights in both countries are worth a visit. I chose those which were on the list of UNESCO, but it does not mean, that there are not another places to visit. Greece’s places from this list are very old, they step in the time when Greek Gods lived on the Olympus, or when the first Olympic Games took place.

Sports are popular both in the Czech Republic and in Greece. People devote to the same kinds of sports, the most popular for them is a football. They even know some foreign sportsmen.

Cuisine was a chapter I really enjoyed writing about, because I have got my own experience with both and I can compare it according to my opinion. Greek cuisine is healthier and lighter on the contrary of ours. Still, both are tasty and we use ingredients which are available. Also, we cook meals according to the traditions.

Feasts and festivals was a chapter quite difficult, because there were many feasts which I did not know if it was necessary to talk about. Also, in Greek part, I had got problem with some ceremonies, because I did not know the vocabulary and I did not know what was important. To sum up, all the festivals are of the religious origin, and in Greece, they are still held, on the contrary of the Czech Republic, we hold them but not because we are religious, especially because of children and because we are used to. I think, for many inhabitants of my country, it has no deeper sense.

Last chapter, character and appearance was also very interesting for me. When I searched for articles about characters and behaviour, I found notable information.Foreign eople have got quite a good opinion of us. Greek’s people characters are different from ours, it is known that those nations living in southern Europe are rather temperament. In terms of appearance, Czech people are considered to be blond and blue – eyed in the world, but it is not true. On the contrary, people in Greece, they have got typical southern Europe appearance – dark hair, dark eyes and brown skin with big noses ( typical for Greeks).

In the practical part,.I created 17 questions and I sent questionnaires to many people. The questions were focused on the awareness of these two nations to find out how many things they know about each other. I was not surprised with the results. Czech people know much more about Greece than Greek people about us. It is not because they do not like the Czech Republic. It is because they do not consider to have knowledge of other states (not only my country) so important. I know it from my own experience, they are proud of their country, history, sights, and many other things and they think that it is not important to know more.

In this part, I had got one problem – the language. My friend translated the questions also into Greek language for better understanding, but Greeks did not understand it well, they answered in Greek and I had to use many translators to solve it.

My goal was to compare the differences between these two cultures. I found information about chosen spheres of my interest, moreover I compared awareness. I think, I achieved my appointed goal.

Sources

Printed sources BAIN, Carolyn. Východní Středomoří: Kypr, Malta, Řecko, Turecko. Praha: Svojtka a Vašut, 2001, 218 pages. ISBN: 80-723-7430-3

BĚLINA, Pavel. Dějiny evropské civilizace: portraits of regions. Translation Bohumil Dvořáček. Praha: Paseka, 2002, 323 pages. ISBN: 80-718-5474-3

ČORNEJ, Petr. Dějiny evropské civilizace: Řecko. Translation Bohumil Dvořáček. Praha: Paseka, 2002, 367 pages. ISBN: 80-718-5474-3

DAVIES, Paul Harcourt. Řecké ostrovy. Brno: Geodézie, 1998, 128 pages. ISBN: 80- 720-6071-6

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TOUFAR, Pavel. Český rok na vsi a ve městě: Řecko. Translation Bohumil Dvořáček. Třebíč: Akcent, 2004, 280 pages. ISBN: 80-726-8277-6

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The text without sources is based on my own experiences.

List of graphs

Graph no. 1: Your sex is? ...... 42

Graph no. 2: Your age is? ...... 43

Graph no. 3: What is your highest level of education? ...... 44

Graph no. 4: Into what group of inhabitants do you belong to? ...... 45

Graph no. 5: Do you know where Greece is situated? ...... 46

Graph no. 6: What is the capital of Greece? ...... 47

Graph no. 7: Have you ever been to Greece? ...... 48

Graph no. 8: What is your first idea when I say Greece? ...... 49

Graph no. 9: Do you know any famous military leader / ruler / personality? ...... 51

Graph no. 10: Are people in Greece religious? ...... 53

Graph no. 11: What religion do they observe pre – dominantly? ...... 54

Graph no. 12: What do you think is the national sport in Greece? ...... 55

Graph no. 13: Do you know any sportsman in Greece? ...... 56

Graph no. 14: Do you know what is the currency in Greece? ...... 57

Graph no. 15: Do you know any typical Greek food? ...... 58

Graph no. 16: Do you know any famous sights / monuments or places? ...... 59

Graph no. 17: Do you like people visiting your country? Is your relation to them possitive? ...... 60

Graph no. 1: Your sex is? ...... 62

Graph no.2: Your age is? ...... 63

Graph no. 3: What is your highest level of education? ...... 64

Graph no. 4: Into what group of inhabitants do you belong to? ...... 65

Graph no. 5: Do you know where the Czech Republic is situated? ...... 66

Graph no. 6: Do you know the capital of the Czech Republic? ...... 67

Graph no. 7: Have you ever been to the Czech Republic? ...... 68

Graph no. 8: What is your first idea when I say the Czech Republic? ...... 69 88

Graph no. 9: Do you know any famous military leader / ruler / personality? ...... 71

Graph no. 10: Are people in the Czech Republic religious? ...... 72

Graph no. 11: What religion do they observe pre – dominantly? ...... 73

Graph no. 12: What do you think is the national sport in the Czech Republic? ...... 74

Graph no. 13: Do you know any famous sportsman? ...... 75

Graph no. 14: Do you know what is the currency in the Czech Republic? ...... 76

Graph no. 15: Do you know any typical / popular Czech food? ...... 77

Graph no.16: Do you know any famous sights / monuments or places? ...... 78

Graph no. 17: Do you like people visiting your country? Is your relation to them possitive? ...... 79

Annex - Questionnaire

Hello,

I am a student of the College of Polytechnics in Jihlava and this questionnaire is focused on finding out an awareness of Czech people about Greece and Greek people about Czech Republic.It will take only a few minutes.

Thank you very much for your time.

Questions for the Czech people about Greece – Awareness of Czech people about Greece and is cullture.

Your sex is? male / female

Your age is? 0 – 18 / 19 – 26 / 27 – 35 / 36 – 55 / 56 – older What is your highest level of education? basic school / secondary school with graduation / without graduation / colllege / university Into what group of inhabitants do you belong to? student / employee / unemployed / retired / maternity leave Do you know where Greece is situated? short text – respondent’s own answer What is the capital of Greece? short text – respondent’s own answer What is your first idea when I say Greece? short text – respondent’s own answer Have you ever been to Greece? yes / no Do you know any famous military leader/ ruler/ personality? (from history /present) short text – respondent’s own answer Are people in Greece religious? yes / no 90

What religion do they observe pre – dominantly? Orthodox / Roman Catholic / Evangelical / Buddhism / Islam What do you think is the national sport in Greece? Athletics / football / water sports / fighting sports / basketball / golf / ice – hockey / tennis Do you know any sportsman? short text – respondent’s own answer Do you know what is the currency in Greece? short text – respondent’s short answer Do you know any typical / popular Greek food? Gyros / Moussaka / Tzatziki / Souvlaki / Greek salad / healthy meals Do you know any sights/ monuments or places in Greece? Akropolis / Corfu / Knossos / Thessaloniki / Rhodes / Parthenon / Olympus / Delphi,/ Mycenae / Meteora / Achilleion / Vergina Do you like people visiting your country? Is your relation to them possitive? yes / no Questions for the Greek people about the Czech Republic – Awareness of Greek people about the Czech Republic and its culture

Your sex is? male / female Your age is? 0 – 18 / 19 – 26 / 27 – 35 / 36 – 55 / 56 – older What is your highest level of education? basic school / secondary school / university Into what group of inhabitants do you belong to? student / employee / unemployed / retired / maternity leave Do you know where Greece is situated? short text – respondent’s own answer What is the capital of Greece? short text – respondent’s own answer What is your first idea when I say Greece? 91 short text – respondent’s own answer Have you ever been to Greece? yes / no Do you know any famous military leader/ ruler/ personality? (from history /present) short text – respondent’s own answer Are people in Greece religious? yes / no What religion do they observe pre – dominantly? Orthodox / Roman Catholic / Evangelical / Jehovah’s Witnesses / Buddhism / Islam What do you think is the national sport in Greece? Football / ice – hockey / basketball / athletics / tennis / skiing Do you know any sportsman? short text – respondent’s own answer Do you know what is the currency in Greece? short text – respondent’s short answer Do you know any typical / popular Greek food? Pork steak and potatoe salad / pork with dumplings and sauerkraut (cabbage) /sauces (e.g.sirloin in a creme sauce) / soups / salads / healthy meals Do you know any sights/ monuments or places in Greece? Prague / Prague Castle / Charles Bridge / Karlovy Vary / Brno / Český Krumlov / the Giant Mountains / Olomouc – Holy Trinity Column Do you like people visiting your country? Is your relation to them possitive? yes / no