My weekend trip was a lot of fun.  I thought that I’d procrastinate less if I wrote a few short entries than one long one.  So let’s get started - BRNO!

After a 3 or so hour bus ride, we got to Brno.  Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic and seems to be the most important city in Moravia.

We first went to composer Leoš Janáček’s house.  Although, Dvořák is probably the most well known Czech composer, the Czech people feel that Janáček better represents Czech music and ideas.  Or at least that’s what my professor of my Topics in 20th Century Music told us last week.  After watching a brief documentary on his life and music, we moved into another room where Janáček’s original piano was.  The two piano performance majors each played a beautiful song for the rest of us, which was just so incredibly nice.

Then we had 2 free hours for lunch, so a bunch of us went to a farmers market and also picked up some burčák.  Burčák is young wine that tastes like juice, but if you drink it like its juice it can get you really really drunk.  However if you drink a glass or two at your picnic in Brno, its pretty great.  In the Czech republic it is currently Burčák season, so the whole country appears to be a bit burčák crazy.  If you buy it in a store, often you bring your own container, or if you buy it at a stand they’ll just fill up a big plastic bottle.  I find this kinda charming.

After our relaxing picnic, we met up with the rest of our group and the tour guide.  We took a small walk through the town and learned that no one in Brno paid anyone properly.  A bunch of times our tour guide said something like “oh you see that messed up thing on the building? yeah they did that on purpose because they weren’t getting paid.”  The middle column on the gate of the old city hall is an example of this, but there were a few others along the tour.  There was also a stuffed aligator in the gate of old city hall.  Our tour guide says that its a symbol for Brno but no one knows why or how it came there.

Then we climbed up a bunch of steps and gawked at how pretty the buildings look from up there.  What else is new

Its a nice little town and we had a nice little time in it, but we had another town on our agenda for the day so we hopped back onto the bus and made our way to Vranov nad Dyji!

More photos on flickr!