Country life and city life

COUNTRY LIFE AND CITY LIFE
For twelve years our family has been living in a seven – story block of flats, part of a modern housing development at the edge of our town. Those who live in the country often claim that they would never want to live in town and by no means in a block of flats. However, living in a town or in a village has its positive and negative aspects. First let’s talk about city live.

For the surrounding villages, a town is the centre of all activity. People come here from far away to buy many necessities – not just clothes and shoes, home and garden accessories but in particular food. In town, where a lot of people live, we can find many different shops offering a wide variety of goods. A cetain degree of competition is at work there, so that we don´t depend on single high-priced store. Once we have finished shopping we can also stop in for a cup af tea or coffee at the nearest café, sweet shop or restaurat. And thatś one of many advantages. If we don´t feel like cooking or are too busy with other things, we can just pick up the phone, reserve a table and have lunch or dinner at our favourite restaurant. There are a large number of such establishments in town, offring their services not just during the day and late into the night, but even overnight.

A town, however, principally means a place where all kinds of cultural activitoes are concentrated. Trade fairs and festivals, performances of dance and music group, exhibitions of well-known and novice painters, photographers and other artists are held there. We almost forgot the most sought-after cultural venues for young and also old generations – cinemas and theatres. Just about every town has its cinema, where people go for amusement in their free time, but also to acquire new knowledge and new experiences. By contrast not every city has a theatre. When we wish to attend a theatre performance, we usually have to travel to one of the bigger regional towns. We should not forget, either, that we have available in the cities various sposting facilities – winter stadiums, outdoor and indoor swimming pool, playgrounds, tennis courts, gyms, etc. Various sporting events are often held there. These can be athletic games, volleyball, basketball, handball, football, baseball, softball matches, as well as gymnastics and swiming competitions. At the present time the formely very popular hobby of horseback riding is making a comeback in our country. Even in cities horseback riding clubs have been founded, mostly attended by children and young people to learn to care for the animals as well as to ride them. City cultural organisation try to offer some compensation to children who suffer from a lack of movement in nature competitions and lots of active movement. During the week children can attend different interest circles and on weekends they can go out to the country with their friends.