Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, Brno, Czech Republic. April 2019
Pivovar Lucky Bastard, Brno. April 2019
When I was kid, I think in the 6th grade, I had to write one of those encyclopedia-copied reports on a foreign country. I picked Czechoslovakia and many of the city names of the now Czech and Slovak Republics are still burned in my memory. Brno always stuck out because as a kid I wondered how it was even pronounced!
On my blow-through trip in Eastern Europe near the end of my first RTW adventure, I only visited Prague and Bratislava. Some of that had to do with limited travel options in the Eastern Bloc those days and some of it just out of rushing through Europe to see as many different big cities as I could. It's a shame I missed out on Brno at the time, but Prague had so blown me away I think it wasn't even on my radar.
Fast-forward to my time in Northern Iraq and one of the few direct flights to Europe from Erbil was Vienna (due to the high concentration of UN offices there). I found myself in Vienna more often than I ever expected. On my first big Vienna visit, not only did I give a lot of attention to that glamorous Hapsburg capital, but I also took day-trips to nearby cities, taking advantage of Schengen travel. One of those day trips was Brno.
There are multiple daily trains to Brno (Brünn in German) from Vienna, so it was easy to take the 90 minute journey and come back on the same day. Most unfortunately, the main train station was being totally renovated and I ended up detraining at the penultimate station and had quite a distance to cover to make it to the old city. Since the Czech Republic has not yet joined the Euro, I had to find a money-changer to get Czech koruna for my euros. Fortunately, the walk took me by a new shopping mall with a lot of proper money changers. and I found later that I was lucky because the ones in the city center did not give as favorable rates.
I finally walked by the old train station, crossed the tracks, and found myself in the old city. What totally dominated town was the cathedral and the castle on the hill, so I headed toward them both. The castle had a magnificent view over the city and a great little pub for a beer to savor the view. The cathedral was, as most are, a gothic gem set just below the castle. In addition, there was a monastery to tour where some old monks' bones were on view. Those were the highlights of Brno. No worries - after a few rainy days in Vienna , I just appreciated the good weather.
Historically, Brno had been the capital of Moravia (the Czech Republic being made up of Bohemia and Moravia) and was an old, important city with a long history. Like many cities of the pre- WWII era, its core used to be German-speaking and the periphery Czech-speaking. It had a large Jewish minority prior to the Holocaust. After the war, the entire German population was forcibly marched to the Austrian border - an event that was repeated throughout Eastern Europe where German migrants had lived in cities there for centuries. An ethnic-cleansing of sorts, it was never talked about perhaps because the Germans were the defeated villains? I was only partially aware of this from my ethnic German neighbors in Pennsylvania who were "removed" from Serbia (Yugoslavia) to a camp in Austria.
When it came time to eat lunch, I went online and searched for "brew pubs" and found Lucky Bastard. It was in a courtyard down in the old city and ended up being one of the most memorable meals of that entire vacation. The service, the fresh beer, and the food were excellent. I appreciated eating the daily special that was amazingly prepared and presented minus the overly ostentatious adjectives attached to most dishes served in similar American establishments. Good beer, good grub, great service, great atmosphere - yes, the trip to Brno was made better just because of that!
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