Brno

Well, we're back from Brno. While I'm writing this I'm looking at the photos and making a selection for this post. I don't have much to choose from, coz it was so damn cold, even though the city was wonderful, I just didn't take a lot of photos. Neither did Tanja, hehe.

So let's begin. We went to Brno with Collegium agency on the 29th of December 2008 at 11.30pm from Ljubljana. The plan was I go on the bus in Ljubljana, and Tanja goes on in Maribor. After a 30min delay the slovenian football asociation bus left, and in a few minutes the first shock- we don't have enough seats for everyone. The people didn't care, as long as they were sitting down and drinking. But I admit I was nervous, Tanja wasn't on the bus yet, she came on last! But after a stop in Celje it turned out we had enough seats, so at this point I'd like to congratulate all the asshat's who couldn't sit properly. And the guide Oskar for being cool- ''you'll just sit a bit closer until Brno''.

Well, Tanja got on the bus soon, and we were ahead of schedule for more than 30 minutes, lookin' good. We didn't get to sleep of course, thanks to the before mentioned asshats. In the middle of the night I watched a horrible movie with a lot of interest, because that was just about the only thing I could have been doing at the time. The ride was quite fast though, a few stops in Austria and hello Czech republic! First toilet stop, 30 minutes out in the cold, brr. Couldn't use the toilet coz the only czech money I had was too old (NE PLATI NE PLATI, shouted the lady on the toilet, while I was just staring at her). Hehe, shock #2. Got to exchange my euros later at the local albanians. ;)

Well, we got to Brno according to schedule, a bit before 9am. We went on an orientation stroll of the town, but I think we were all too cold to remember anything the guide told us. I know I couldn't wait to get to the hotel and sleep. After the stroll we got an hour off, me and Tanja went to the first open bar we could find, to get some tea (a biiiit early for beer). Luckily the hour was soon over and in a few minutes we were in the hotel. Probably everyone was nicely surprised, because the hotel was actually new (well renewed, who gives a shit) and nice. Yipee, beds together and let's sleep!

In the afternoon we went to a brewery, the only 'trip' we chose to take. At the brewery Cerna Hora (Black mountain) there was an awful smell and it look a lot different than what I had expected before, but okay. I'll do anything for beer, especially czech beer :) There was a small van there, you'll see the photo, awesome! After we got to see the brewery, we went for dinner at their restaurant. It was okay, chicken breast with cheese and ham, baked potatoes, and sugared salad. Yeah, the czech are weird, they put sugar on their salads. It was okay actually, but I wasn't convinced. And the beer... smelled exactly like the brewery itself. I didn't like it very much. But I'm glad they had a small shop, selling beer and other alcoholic beverages, glasses... I bought a 1 liter glass. Very cheap and pretty, yay.

The next day we went to the city, but of course it was too cold to take any photos. We were actually looking for a bookstore, but we didn't find any. The shops open were rare, we couldn't find a single open bookstore. Or a shop with souvenirs. Or a shop with postcards, if anyone's wondering why we didn't write. But we saw a lot of tourists, especially older german people, and the occasional drunk EJGA EJGA (a shout common around here) wasn't really rare either. Tanja loved the trams driving around, so instead of walking, we took the tram back to the hotel. Interesting stuff, but if you're not careful, you might get hit by one, they're very quiet.

New year's eve that night! After around 20 minutes of searching we finally found an open bar. The czech must work so much during the year that on one day they seem to close everything. We drank our beers and wen't to see if we got lucky finding a restaurant. Well, we were lucky, found it in less than 10 minutes. Around 11.30pm we went to the main square, where people were starting to gather- mainly chinese. Didn't see any before, but at that time, every second person there seemed to be chinese. And they all had fireworks. I don't think Brno has an official fireworks, it was all private. Nonstop kabooms, the best fireworks I've ever seen. Until like 1 meter behind us a firecracker/rocket went off, two chinese people's jackets caught fire and someone was jumping around with a bloody nose, it was a clear sign we need to get away. And since everything was closed, we decided to go back to the hotel, heh. We found a cheap taxi and then celebrated there.

The next day we slept a bit longer, then we were lazy, and slept some more. Nothing worth mentioning happened until the evening, when we went to look for bars again. Mostly closed still/again, and if we found something open, they were staring at us, killing us with their eyes. Well, everyone, not just us. And then we heard a phrase, we never expected to hear in Czech- we don't have beer. It was hard to believe, since the table next to us had, of course, beer. We were all tired so we didn't feel like arguing and left to the hotel to have a beer there.

The last day we went to the nearest shopping center to get (you got it) beer. 10 bottles for 4 euros, luxury. At ten we all got back on the bus and started heading home, but first to the town... to a shopping center. Ah, the irony. We finally found an open bookstore there, but they only had 1 of the books we were looking for. We'll get you next time!

The drive home was calm, the drunks were sleeping, and everyone else were watching movies, lucky for us better than the one on the first night. A few hours before planned we arrived back to Slovenia. I loved Brno, but... home sweet home. There, I think I got everything imporstant, and this is the longest blog post on this blog so far, go me! Hope I didn't lose you somewhere in the middle ;)

Enjoy,

Ales