Odd customs at the pool and skate park

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

   We decided to go swimming to get some exercise. Kladno as a small indoor water park. It is pretty nice and the prices are lowest during the week in the morning. The pool is closed at the time as it is used for school swim lessons. I took lessons in this pool when I was in elementary school as well. But the water park with the slides did not exist then. 

   While we enjoy the swimming, the whole system seems to be over-complicated. Tickets are priced based on time – 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours, etc. You get extra 10 minutes for free for changing.  Every person gets a watch with a chip. This keeps track of time, allows you to get through the tourniquets and lock/unlock lockers. You can also add money to the chip so that you can buy snacks inside. I do not like that for a moment, the kids are on one side of a tourniquet and I am on the other (when we are not together with both Steve and I and both kids). I get nervous that my chip will not work (sometimes it takes a little bit of time to get the tourniquet unlocked). There are tourniquets to get in and also between the pool and the water park area. 

   There is a small area behind the ticket office to take your shoes off before going into the locker room. Once in the locker room, the proper procedure is to take a shower naked, put your bathing suit on and then go to the pool. On the way back, you are supposed to get undressed in the shower room, shower, dry off and go back into the lockers naked and dry. While I do not have an exception with the procedure itself, I am extremely uncomfortable with the fact that the shower room is just one big room with shower heads on the wall. There is absolutely no privacy. Therefore I have been rushing through this step without showering, just drying off and wrapping in a towel. 

   The first time we went swimming, Steve and Stevie came out of the men’s locker room on the wrong side and the woman from the front desk walked them to the pool right through the men’s locker room, right through the shower room full of naked men (there is no other way to get to the pool other than through the shower room). The next couple of times, a woman came to clean the shower room while Steve was there. 

   I have not seen a man in the women’s locker room yet, but I am certainly not showering butt naked in front of anyone (and I am guessing that a man can walk through at any time). There are also boys (8-10 year olds) that come in with their moms. I understand that this is necessary, but no one seems to be concerned about exposing themselves to kids this age. When I bring Stevie into the ladie’s locker room in the US, I always call from the door to let anyone inside know that a little boy is coming in. 

   After the swimming, we drove to the Skate Park. It was empty as older kids were in school and the kids got to practice riding their scooters. Stevie was very proud of his Skate Park band and button.