🚌☕ Brno

I arrived by bus from Prague €9, sleepy and squinting through the windows 🪟 as we pulled into a city that felt more lived-in than staged. I wandered without a plan that first afternoon ⛅️ past crooked alleys and Art Nouveau 🖼️ facades, down into the heart of the city where the Astronomical Clock ticks like a bullet casing on Náměstí Svobody ⏱️🔘. Locals were gathered around it like they were in on a joke no tourist would ever quite get. 🍝🍻 Brno fed me well and cheaply. A heaping plate of svíčková with cream and cranberries cost me €7 at a student-favorite spot tucked down a side street, I sat under dim bulbs with mismatched chairs 🪑 and the hum of quiet conversations all around 🍽️ The beer culture? Effortless. Everywhere had it, and it was always good. I found a microbrewery where a half-liter of pale lager cost €1.80 and came with a smile and no questions 🍺🫶. One night I ended up in a late-night vinyl bar, the kind where you order a drink and they hand you a record sleeve to flip through. Bowie, Zappa, Czech rock. It was all blurred and warm. 🌃🎭 In the evening, I climbed Špilberk Hill ⛰️ just before sunset, not to do anything, really, just to sit. The city stretched out below, copper roofs and tram wires, the cathedral rising like a sketch in the fading light 🏞️⛪. A group of teens were playing guitar near the edge, and their music floated out into the blue. I had a pastry from a bakery I passed that morning (€1.20), and it was still good flaky, sweet, touched by time. Brno didn’t try to impress. It just was. And in the way it opened slowly, gently, it ended up staying longer in my head than I expected. #europeonbudget #budget #travel