European Travel 2014: Weekend Trip to Brno, CZ

After a week back at school a group of us decided to visit a city only an hour bus ride away from Olomouc. Brno is the Czech Republic's second largest city. We arrived on Saturday morning and easily found our hostel for the night. Then we went out and just walked around the city. We stumbled upon a great restaurant. It was called Richard's Pub. The portions of the boys' food was enormous. I am pretty sure their meals could feed at least 4 people. The pub was only a short walk from Spilberk Castle. So we hiked up the hillside towards the castle and just walked around the outside and got a great view of Brno. It was later in the afternoon so the castle was no longer open to go inside, so we left and walked around Brno a bit more. We found a lot of churches and the town was a lot busier with people when compared to Olomouc. We were all a bit tired from the day so we went back to the hostel to nap. Once everyone was back up and going again we went out for drinks.

Sunday we hiked back to the Spilberk Castle and toured the inside. It was used as a prison so there were a lot of dungeons and cells. It was really creepy because you toured it just within your own group, so sometimes those creepy dark cellars weren't very fun, especially when you have a couple pranksters in the group. Afterwards we went out for lunch and then we needed to switch hostels. Got that taken care of and then it was off to the Capuchin Crypts. Probably one of the coolest things I have seen yet. These crypts are located below the Capuchin Monastery and because of the location of the crypt and the system of air holes all the corpses were mummified and preserved perfectly. You could see the details of some of the corpses, some of their faces were even visible. Very creepy, but so cool. Then we went to the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul. We were able to go up into the bell tower to get another great view of Brno. Then we all ended up napping again before we went out for dinner. After dinner it ended up being an early night and we all went to sleep.

Monday we all woke up and got packed to leave. A few of us went to an outdoor market where I had the most amazing strawberries, so red and sweet. After the market we found a small Czech bakery where we all bought pastries. I got a kolache, best one I've had yet. Then it was back to Olomouc for a short 3 days of school.

Overall, I am glad I went to Brno, just because it was different from Olomouc. It definitely was more of a city with more shops and restaurants. More people with different style too. Kind of like a wanna-be Prague, If i can say that. However, I wish I would have only done a day trip instead of two.