Zlín - home of Bat´a

So, a few weeks ago, I went to Zlín to do an interview. A nurse invited me to visit her and to tour her maternity ward. Although it was a 4-hour bus ride, I went and wasn't sure how things would go. So, she met me at the bus station and we went for lunch at a lovely little cafe that specialized in crepes. I ordered one with ham, cheese and asparagus. It was nice...except for the ketchup artistically splooshed on it. I am the odd American who does not like ketchup on everything. Afterwards, we went to visit her hospital.
She was very happy to explain to me that their ward is very baby and mother friendly, including this sign outside that said so...in English!
Afterwards, we went for a small tour of the town and then to the hotel. Now, this was a surprise for me in a few ways. First, though a miscommunication of mine, I thought I would be staying with my host. No problem, though, because I was a little nervous about staying with someone I barely know anyway! But the Hotel Moskva (Hotel Moscow for you non-slavic speakers) was in a word, amazing! I felt like I was in a cliché. Now, I've been in a few Czech, Slovak, Polish-owned hotels and hostel so it shouldn't be a surprise to me how things have not been remodeled much, but I felt like I wanted to look for listening devices! Maybe I was biased by the name.
My room was very spare.
but it did have internet, which is good because I had to communicate with my family about a crisis so that was good. And the tv had CNN World News so I was able to get some English-language television. I've recently realized that's something I miss - being able to understand what's being said on the news.
The exterior is just as fabulous...complete with socialist-worker statue out front.


I had a few food options at the hotel - and Irish Bar or a Mexican Restaurant. Since I had eaten at that Mexican-food chain in Olomouc, I opted for the Irish Bar. It was nice.





The next day, we toured the Bat´a Shoe Museum. Now anybody that knows me probably knows about my love for Bat´a shoes. It's my own special way of helping the Czech economy. So, a little background for everyone - in 1894, Tomáš Bat´a founded his now-famous shoe factory. At the time, Zlín had about 3 000 people. By 1930, he had 42 000 employees. So, Zlín, although having an old history like most Czech towns, has a very young history as a city. With this growth, Bat´a had to build factories and living quarters for his workers and the city reflects the architecture of that age. It was very functionalist but with an emphasis on maintaining gardens so today the city has an interesting look to it. You can see a neighborhood of Bat´a worker homes nestled in the trees here.


Well, kind of...they're in there, I promise! Anyway, the original Bat´a died in 1932 but his son, also Tomáš fled to Canada in 1938 where the company continued to flourish. In 1945, the company was nationalized and the named changed to Svit, which remains today since Tomáš didn't get anything back from the state due to allegations that his uncle collaborated with the Nazis. However, in almost every Czech town, or at least city of any decent size, you can find at least one Bat´a shoe store. The shoe museum that I mentioned actually has a really nice collection of preserved and replicated shoes from around the world and throughout history. My internal anthropologist was fascinated by thinking about how much we can learn about a culture just by studying their shoes!