Hi Brno!
Last summer I flew to the Czech Republic, to visit friends and family, and spent most of my time in Brno. Where I haven’t been since moving to Ireland. So I have experiences for you and of course lots of photos.
Brno is a chapter in itself. I used to live in a small town not far from it and Brno meant mainly doctor visits and surgeries for me. It wasn’t much fun. Of course, we went there to the cinema or to the Christmas markets, but when you go there X number of times a year for a check-up of braces or surgery, you just get sick of the city, sorry.
For people who are not familiar – Brno is the 2nd biggest city in the Czech Republic with a rich history and culture. You can find it in the South Moravia part of the Czechia aka close to the Austrian borders.
But when my mom and I decided to visit friends in the Czech Republic a year ago, I started to look forward to it. To the people, I had not seen many of them for a long time, and then Brno itself. I was curious how it had changed, and how it would affect me this time. After all, the last time I was there was more than 10 years ago. But let’s start from the beginning.
The trip to the Czech Republic was soo fun (yes, I am being sarcastic). We originally booked a flight from Dublin to Prague with Ryanair. We only had a certain date to choose from, because the day before departure I was supposed to go to the Jonas Brothers concert (it was moved to September a month ago) and the weekend after arriving home I was supposed to go on the Eras tour (you can read about my Jonas Brothers concert here and about Taylor here). A month later Ryanair wrote to us that they wouldn’t fly on those days after all (they don’t fly to Prague every day, but only about 4 times a week). The new dates didn’t suit us, so we ended up flying to Vienna. The original flight to Prague wasn’t until the afternoon, but the one to Vienna was in the morning, so we had to leave Waterford at 4:15 in the morning eww. The old Irish people were talking loudly on the bus, so you couldn’t even rest, and there was a lady with her kids sitting in front of us on the plane. Luckily, they fell asleep during the flight. But at least they have new scanners in Dublin, so I didn’t have to take out my cosmetics or my camera. Hurrah!
The flight home was perhaps even worse than the arrival in Vienna. The flight was 2 hours late due to a storm over Frankfurt. At the last minute they changed my mom’s seat (I chose two next to each other, but suddenly my mom had to sit somewhere in the front). In the end, no one was sitting next to me, so thanks to the delay they allowed her to come and sit with me and we had at least one seat next to us free yay We missed our bus home due to the delay, and we didn’t want to wait long for the next connection from the same company, so we went home by Expressway (which is operated by the national carrier Bus Eireann). Well, that was a mistake. Normally you get on at the airport and get off in Waterford, but the driver kicked us out on the bus in Dublin city. The bus that was waiting for us there was already quite full and people were not behaving well at all the whole way home (we arrived home sometime after midnight, if I remember correctly) – someone was talking on their phone loudly, others were listening to music without headphones, kids were screaming,… At least the Czech Republic was worth it.
We ended up having 3 full days in Brno, which was really nice. Now I can say that I know the center of Brno very well! On Friday (the day after our arrival), my mom and I went for a walk around the city and bought souvenirs and goodies and stuff (like traditional Czech baked rolls). In the evening, I met up with my brother and went to sit down at the U Dřevěného orla pub (now I realize that in the Czech Republic we only ate and drank at places having an eagle in its name haha). They have Holba on tap. Simply the best. However, that evening, Brno welcomed us like home – a storm and strong winds started like in Ireland, hehe. It even took away the heavy big umbrellas that they use in the gardens in front of pubs and restaurants. We arrived at the Airbnb completely soaked. It was so bad that we couldn’t get a taxi in the whole city. So Irish.
Otherwise, my brother and I went to Eagle on Tuesday for one (I grew up in Holba and it’s my favorite place) and I also had a burger and it was very good. I can only recommend it.
On Saturday, my mom and I split up. She spent the day with her bestie and I with mine. You actually know her from my blog because she visited me in Ireland a few times lol We started the day at Café Trail on Lidická, where they have one of the traditional Czech meals – buns with pudding-like and lemonade. I really enjoyed it. During our breakfast, other people came there and they had dogs. So we enjoyed ourselves and went for a walk into the city. Honestly, we didn’t really have any plans. We just wanted to chat, after all, we hadn’t seen each other since Covid. But we managed to take a leisurely walk around the city, visited the old town hall and the view of the city, as well as a walk in the park around Špilberk. In the end, we stopped in the courtyard of the Moravian Gallery (Moravská galerie), where it’s nice not only from the outside but also from the inside. I took loads of photos and luckily my friend didn’t mind (I have the best people around me).
In the evening, we met up with my mom and had dinner and food at EFI Hostinec on Zelňák. I had a classic aka fried cheese and it was great. On the other side of the square, on the roof of the Tržnice Brno building, there was some house/techno party. They also played my favorite songs hehe Now I see that you can go up to that roof for free – find the “Vyhlídková terasa” on Zelňák on the maps of Brno.
My mom and I decided not to plan anything for Monday and just chill in Brno. We spent the day shopping and in the afternoon we went to Špilberk castle. Like, straight to the castle, where we bought a guided tour. I also bought my 51984165841984 T-shirt there. But it has a super Brno design, I couldn’t leave it there. The tour was called “The Story of the Castle” and in the end we had the guide all to ourselves. The tour lasted an hour and we saw a lot of interesting parts of the castle. After the tour, we went to see an exhibition in the castle itself (historical but also artistic about Špilberk and Brno). Then we had dinner at the Italian restaurant Nel Forno on Svoboďák aka the Freedom square, where we had Czech beer the black Kozel and pizza to go.
My opinion of Brno has changed. I really liked it here, of course a lot has changed (Myšina is still a tragedy) and I didn’t have to go to the doctor 🙂 and the nice weather also helped. I would like to thank all my friends and brother for taking the time to meet and chat. Without you, the Brno experience wouldn’t have been the same hehe, beer and all the goodies I started missing the day I left (I think of Holba, a fresh roll, ice cream, and a divine ham and cheese sandwich at least once a week). Folks, you don’t even know how good you are doing!
If anyone is interested in where we stayed – I found an apartment on Airbnb on Lidická. It was a regular studio apartment next to the Hotel Passage. We had an apartment facing the courtyard, so we weren’t woken up by cars or trams, but we could count on the cleaners every morning around six 🙂 (I really don’t understand why they have to scream at the whole of Brno at 6 in the morning) The apartment was clean and for being a studio apartment, it was very spacious, modern and my mother and I didn’t get in the way at all. The total price for 7 nights was €546, which is less than 14,000 Czech crowns. The only thing that bothered me a little was the communication with the owner. On Airbnb, they told me that they would wait for us to hand over the keys. Instead, I received instructions on how to find the keys to the building and the apartment (in a completely different building). And the instructions came via WhatsApp, even though I asked them to send them normally in the Airbnb app (who doesn’t use Airbnb – it’s a big deal, because if something happens, the Airbnb customer service center only has access to messages in Airbnb and doesn’t take into account all messages outside). Fortunately, nothing happened and the stay went smoothly, but I don’t like this reluctance. It was the first time I’d explained it to someone, they’d agreed just to keep doing whatever they liked. However, that’s just my personal opinion. I recommend the accommodation, they also have bigger apartments than just studios. They call themselves Homester – Residence Caesar on Lidická.
