Pavel Nedvěd / However it is, I must unfortunately admit, it is far from elegant. Sometimes unfortunate bypassers trip over my stick and nearly fall, sometimes I don't manage to stop myself in front of an obstacle and my head gets slashed or bruised. Then I secretly curse the lamppost or the traffic sign that is to blame, and cry over my fate. There are worse things than that though, for example hitting one's shank on, say, a bench. I guess I should donate one of my tibias for medical purposes. The grandsons of our garandsons would then hear: "This is what a tibia of a blind person, and a keen walker he was, looks like. It comes from South Moravia of the 20th century. Please note the most frequently hit spots that were probably caused by benches. The spots aswell show how an average height of a person has changed, nowadays all benches are 20cm higher than those 200 years ago." what a gracious future for one of my tibias! Sometimes I hit a bike that somebody put in my way (which is unfortunatelly not only mine). The bike is falling and I am vainly trying to catch it. Sometimes I get lost, too. The world changes too quickly for me to notice and adapt to the changes. Houses are built, torn down, rebuilt. A curb that used to serve as a guiding line disappears for the pavement needs to be accessible to prams and wheelchairs too. Shops get moved, arrise and get abolished, their interior changes. I can easily smell a pharmacy, but sometimes I please a shop assistant in an antiques shop when I ask for a box of cigarettes. The newsagent is next door, has been for past 100 years which, I admit, is quite honorable age. I shouldn't be wrong about the newsagent, but the antiques shop is surely new.

It is not always possible to find a guide so I sometimes roam the streets myself. I can aswell tell a good guide from a bad one now. After I hit myself, some of them just tell me: „I'm sorry, you are so skilled that I have simply forgotten you are blind.“ after I hit a side of a pavement they let me know about it, probably for me to know what damaged my foot. When I run my shoulder into something they just tell me in a friendly manner that perhaps I'm too spacious, or that I should be more careful next time. Women, I can say, are the best at reprehensions. I am usually quite humble and start hitting the guide only after I have hit myself at least three times.

I don't feel really safe in the center of the city. The pavements by the post office and social care center are only available either in the morning or the evening. Even healthy people get in trouble there sometimes. Fortunatelly, some shops do open at six, so I only need to be an early bird. At some places, I would be really grateful for a traffic light with the special button for the blind. Some drivers are careful but one cannot rely on that. It is hard to tell whether a driver has just stopped because of me and is now waiting for me to cross. Sometimes both of us are waiting which makes me really ashamed.

Some sidewalks have become, I'm sorry to say that, side-sits. Benches lurk at the edge of them, sometimes even in the center. There are tables and chairs in front of restaurants and cafés. Blind people are just a minority so we have to adapt to the needs of others. Thus, as a fictional plaster for my bruised shanks, even I sit down sometimes and relax on one of the sidewalk chairs or benches.

The situation I find myself in may, by all means, be called very specific: not only I'm blind but I can also hear only with one of my ears and don't have directional hearing. I can hardly and with big delays tell if a sound is coming from the left or right, if it is approaching me or becoming more distant. But I am still happy to be able to praise one thing: most people are really kind and ready to help on zebras, pavements, in shops and banks, offices, quite everywhere. Often they would even walk a way back with me or get out of their cars to help me across the street. Others give me directions or walk with me all the way to where I need to get. And so my big thanks go to all those kind helpers, for myself and many others. Thank you for your patience too, which is the base of everything.

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