10 ways to have fun and make friends during your Erasmus study period

Are you afraid of the five months you are about to spend in Brno? Stop! Thousands of young people have had the same feelings before but now they have great experiences! Brno Now will guide you trough the best months of your academic life.

1. Rent a room in a hipster quarter

Renting a room instead of a flat is a good way to save some money and to find some friends. Renting a room in a hipster quarter is another good way to save some money – and also to learn why is Brno nicknamed “the Czech Manchester”.

Try quarters Židenice, Královo Pole, Černá Pole, Staré Brno, Juliánov, Žabovřesky, Komín and Jundrov. Avoid Cejl (too much criminality) and suburbs (lack of social life).

2. Attend events organized by your school and research, research, research!

Every faculty has its way of making the students know each other. Don’t be a loner and don’t be shy – the other people usually come to the party only to become friends with you!

It’s also useful to explore materials published by your university and even by other colleges or publishers – it will make your relocation easier:

• Erasmus at Masaryk University (MUNI)
• International Students Club at VUT Brno
• Information for incoming students (VUT)
• The official page of the Czech republic

With a little research, you will find important information about your programme, contact for a study advisor and other knowledge that will make the stress go away.

3. Become a hockey fan

Ice hockey is the Czech national sport and the club “Kometa Brno” has a cult following in the town, even though it participates “only” in the second league. A ticket costs only about CZK 60 (€2.15) and the atmosphere is just great.

4. Taste the local specialties

Go to a pub and order pickled camembert (“nakládaný hermelín”, CZK 60 per serving) and blue cheese balls (“nivové koule”, CZK 12 per serving)…

5. Visit the most popular pub

…or taste the specialities at “Bláhovka”, old-fashioned little pub near the the city. Many people swear by the quality of their Pilsner Urquell. Early afternoon is the only time there is a chance of getting a table.

Zvětšit mapu

6. Have a romantic date in a park

There are two beautiful parks right in the the city: around the Špilberk castle and around the St. Peter cathedral. Czechs are very liberal and they don’t mind pairs of people kissing in public. (I think that holding hands is OK for homosexual pairs, but I’ve never tested that.)

7. Learn to speak hantec

There is a quite funny jargon spoken in Brno – actually only in its pubs and, sadly, in the TV shows made in Brno, which makes the rest of the country think that we are dorks. Anyway: nothing is as cute as a foreigner being able to use some basic words:

English	Czech	Hantec
beer	pivo	škopek [shkopak]
city	střed města	štatl [shtatl] (only used for Brno)
hello	nazdar	zdár
tramway	tramvaj	šalina [shalinah]

Caution: speaking hantec in front of people from Brno may make you look cool. Speaking hantec in front of anybody from Prague will certainly make you look retarded!

8. Sail or bike to the Veveří castle

The dam in the west part of the city is popular for bike paths and also for excursion ships, departing every 30 minutes. About 8 km northwest from the harbour, there’s a castle called Veveří.

Because the dam will undergo a massive cleaning in 2009, there will be no ships this season – I recommend biking or walking to Veveří and back. Sailing will return in 2010.

9. Rent a bike and drive trough vineyards

Wake up early, go to the main train station, buy a ticket to Břeclav (a town near the austrian border), rent a bicycle and enjoy driving trough magnificent nature. Tourist Information Centre Břeclav has a great webpage with all the information you need. Beware: biking under the influence of alcohol is illegal in the Czech republic, fine may be as high as several hundreds Euro.

10. Add Brno Now to your RSS reader, weblog and Facebook wall

We will be here to bring you news and another lists of freewheelin’ ideas like this one. Are you here for the first time? Then read recent article on shopping in Brno.

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Credits

The beautiful girl in the headline photo was portrayed by karpov the wrecked train. Wordle was used to get the tag cloud.

Tagged as: Brno dam lake, Brno University of Technology, community, leisure time, Masaryk university, nightlife, travelling