Bratislava is a short train ride away from Brno, Czech Republic. Of course, we had to go. While we have talked about visiting the Czech Republic eventually on this trip and hitting Prague, Brno and Cesky Krumlov we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit Brno now. Nick studied abroad in Brno for 6 months and has so many stories about his time there. With friends and even just amongst ourselves, the conversations almost always eventually turn to travel, places we have been and adventures we have had. Nicks best stories are about his time in the Czech Republic- it was where his love of travel started and has always said someday he wanted to go back. He loved every minute there and couldn’t say no to the opportunity to get to visit his old stomping grounds. I couldn’t turn it down either- I have heard so many stories about Brno and was so excited to get to see all the places he talked about and the city that he loves so much.
So we hopped on a train and an hour and a half later we were in Brno. Nick wasn’t sure that he would be able to navigate the city still or find his way to any of his favorite haunts. After all, it had been 7 years. Surely the city had changed and he had lived in so many places he doubted he would remember his way around Brno. At first that was true. He recognized the castle as we were pulling in and pointed it out, telling me its name was something like Spielberg (close- its Spilberk) but very little of the city center looked familiar to him. So we had some lunch- Czech Goulash, of course, in a basement restaurant that would violate every single fire code in the US- and continued to wander the city center.
Czech goulash made with dark beer and dumplings
We walked up a hill to a beautiful church from the 17th century- Nick remembered watching fireworks from the hill. As went kept going, his memory got better and he remembered the city better. We walked up to the Spilberk Castle and looked out at the spectacular views of Brno from up there, it is a very pretty, colorful and hilly city.
After we had been wandering around for a while Nick got his bearings and was able to find his way to many of his favorite haunts including his favorite pizza place (although it was no longer a pizza place), wine bar and even his dorms. As we were walking up the hill to his dorms he said that he remembered the hill being bigger but after climbing our hill in Monteverde and hiking Cerro Amigo in Costa Rica, the hill in Brno seemed much smaller.
After we had wandered the city checking out Nicks favorite places and hearing all his stories again- this time with visuals!- we went to his favorite place in Brno– Starobrno Brewery and had fresh, unfiltered Starobrno!
It was so fun for me to get to see this place that means so much to Nick and get to see all the places he went when he was in Brno. His time studying abroad had such an impact on him and it was awesome to get a small insight into his time in Brno.
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