It’s a hot July day and tractors with bulky trailers power through the village streets, the farmers eager to make the most of the fine weather and the long days of work. In the local bar-hotel-restaurant some locals take respite from the afternoon heat and beerily look to make conversation with the outsider. This could, indeed, be any west of Ireland village in the current ‘heat wave’, but it’s Poběžovice in western Czechia, circa 20 kilometres from the Bavarian border. The locals cannot speak English and I can’t speak Czech, but many of the people of Poběžovice appear to speak…

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