So, what it was like moving to Brno?
Well for me it was pretty much painless. I lived before in Bratislava, which is capital city of Slovakia roughly 2 hours away. I had a lot of stuff to move, including a newly bought mattress but thankfully, I had help. I managed to convince my mom to help me move with her car for 2 days back and forth. To be honest, it was quite stressful near the end but overall the experience was like any moving. Nothing special, but also no complications. However, if you are considering moving by yourself, you might encounter a problem of lack of parking spaces in Brno.
The fact that I am from Slovakia helped me to integrate in Czech Republic, way more quickly than other foreigners. If you didn’t know, Slovak and Czech languages are quite similar. I can say from my own experience that I even grew up watching Czech dubbed cartoons, or books translated into Czech. This means that I can’t really speak that properly, but I can understand almost 100% of any conversation or interaction. Because of this fact, living in Brno doesn’t seem as foreign to me. I sometimes honestly feel like in some Czech movie. Hearing phrases I used to hear in movies I grew up with is pleasantly bizarre experience.
Other than that, I really do enjoy the musical culture or any artistic experience in this city. It seems that artists here don’t adhere to what audiences want as much. This is quite game changing for me in regard to consumption of art. Before living in Brno and experiencing this wild, experimental or avant-garde wave of artistic expression, I didn’t even know on how much I was missing out. I was on a way to become next pessimistic critic of modern culture. Just putting it in a box labelled “not good”. But honestly, that changed quite drastically after attending many musical experiences here in Brno. I do mean experiences in every word. These acts are always something between a show, party and art exhibition. In short – breath of fresh air for my subjective reality.
This, however, is not only positive aspect of living in Brno. If you fancy fancy food, or just food in general, you will fit right in. Brno is filled with unique restaurants, bars and other establishments where you can spend various amounts of time and money. As I mentioned before, Brno is very artsy and cultural city. This attribute also bleeds into any establishment you go into. Every place has its charm and majority of interiors can make your mind wander.
And let’s talk about the big question. How does living in Brno affect my wallet? To me, a Slovak, prices a bit higher but only on some products. But, on the other hand, the quality of goods in supermarkets is way higher than in Slovakia. What I like the most is how even chains of supermarkets do support small businesses like for example bakeries by selling their goods at convenient place. So, every day you can grab freshly baked pie, to enjoy with your morning coffee and enjoy some great music. All made locally and most importantly, with love.