For three years, Brno Now has been the only source of news from Brno in English. The time has come to rethink the website – so it can be useful for another three years. You can help me with that right now. It will only take two minutes.

Thank you for being so helpful! I am looking forward to be in touch with you in 2012.

Don't let Brno suprise you! (photo by Alberto Fernandez)

As far as I understand the press release filled with buzzwords, the centre offers free consulting for anyone who wants to move, is moving or has moved to work in Brno. So if you want to set up a bank account, health insurance or find a school for your kids, feel free ask Brno Expat Centre.

Contact

• Don Sparling (cool guy, btw!)
• 9 Veveří st., office open every Tuesday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and every Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m
• (+420) 541 128 998
• sparling@brnopolis.eu

A non-profit Brnopolis has prepared an interesting event for the foreigners living in Brno: Brnopolis Expat Meeting. It takes place in the atrium of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Masaryk University, 10 Joštova st. on Thursday, June 10, from 5 p.m.

Don Sparling will shortly introduce the Brno International Club vision and its services that should help you to overcome the usual difficulties. You will be able to exchange experience & contacts with your peers and representatives of both as international companies as the local institutions. The meeting will also mark the opening of the Brnopolis photo exhibition Brno through the eyes of expats & award the contest winners and Lukáš Morávek (the first Czech employee in Google and a Masaryk University graduate) will share his story of how he was an expat in Dublin. Last, but not least, don’t forget to taste delicious Moravian wine and buffet :)

If you want to take a part in the meeting, you have to register by sending a pure e-mail with your name, nationality and profession at events@brnopolis.eu.

Map

Larger map

Rainbow flag, symbol of gay pride (source: Wikimedia Commons)

There are hundreds of gay or lesbian readers of Brno Now – I actually feel sorry for not having published this short guide earlier.

How gay/lesbian friendly is Brno?

Czech republic may be one of the most liberal countries in Europe and it legalized the “registered partnerships” of same-sex couples four years ago. However, south Moravia is probably the most conservative part of the country. This means:

• Holding hands on streets is generally OK for women, as this is recognized as a sign of a good friendship. I have never seen two men holding hands; it would probably look weird for some conservative folks.
• Generally speaking, same-sex kissing is OK on parties in clubs.
• Most gays and lesbians I know are not shy to tell their co-workers or schoolmates about their sexual orientation.
• You can still face homophobia but this kind of behavior is getting rare. Czech republic has a strong anti-discrimination policy (you can not be fired or disadvantaged for being a homosexual) and I do not know about any acts of homophobic violence in Brno. However, the first gay pride parade in Brno was harrased by skinheads several years ago, and the town refused to donate the GLBT film festival Mezipatra (although mayor’s son was acting in a gay porn) last year. So: the battle for equal rights is not over.

Gay or gay friendly clubs and restaurants

Of course, you can have a date in every restaurant in the town. However, there are venues that call themselves “gay friendly”, which means (among other thing) that it is somehow easier to find a mate there.

As far as I know, there is no “gay hotel” in Brno. I’ll let you know if that changes.

• Richard Club is, according to its website, the oldest gay club in the Czech republic. (Richard Club on a map.)
• Áčko is a nice café located right in the centre. It is one of the most popular places among the GLBT community. (Áčko on a map.)
• Some of my straight female friends love to party in Red Cat gay club, because there are no sleazy straight men harrasing girls that just want to have fun. (My friends are pretty clever.)
• I have spotted many gay and lesbian pairs in Salon Daguerre, although the café does not advertise itself as a GLBT venue. The same with café Spolek.
• My friend recommended me Depo Club at 7 Pekařská st., “the biggest gay disco in Brno”. I have never heard about it, just try it out for yourselves.
• Las Palmas is a gay wellness club, offering sauna and similar attractions.
• Feeling horny? Gibon club is a place to pick up some boy or man to have sex with. (Gibon club on a map)
• Dave’s club opened at 8 Hybešova st. in June 2011.

I would be glad for any feetback, further tips and so on. Let us know in the comments.

The OpenCoffee Club was started to encourage entrepreneurs, developers and investors to organise real-world informal meetups to chat, network and grow.

If you want to meet me or any other (more) interesting creative people from Brno, feel free to attend “OpenCoffee” on Wednesday, 9 a.m., in Café Falk at 12 Gorkého st.

OpenCoffee is a networking event that takes place in many towns all around the world. It helps freelancers, businessmen and geeks to find new contacts and develop the old ones.

In Brno, the event is organised by a non-profit Brnopolis; since February, I have been the editor of Brnopolis weblog, which is by the way an interesting source of articles about Brno written in English.

I discovered this video of powered paragliding, taken at (or rather above) the water reservoir in Bystrc, and I knew I had to share it:

Later I discovered somebody who is recording his downhill biking accomplishments and uploading the stomach-rising videos to Vimeo:

I absolutely adore these young fellas, jumping and skipping at park “Denisovy sady”. Actually I think that this sport, called “le parkour” is the most dangerous one out of the three sports mentioned in this article:

If you know about any other extreme sport achievements captured on film anywhere in (or near) Brno, let us know in the comments.

I just discovered a gallery of wonderfully talented 18 y.o. photographer Helena Brunnerová. This picture taken at the Špilberk castle is sooo sad and beautiful – thanks to the pale colors and strange composition:

With a dog in fog. Photo by Helena Brunnerová

I still don’t know if I prefer this photo or the one called Misty morning. Anyway: keep on doing great job, Helena!

Let´s party!

Interested in finding out in which Dutch city the best cheese market is held? Would you fancy hearing a Brazilian tell about the Rio de Janeiro carnival? Are you on the look for tips where to go fishing in Norway? If you prefer a relaxed and informal atmosphere, you might enjoy country presentations held every Wednesday from 8pm at the Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, Brno. They are organized by the International Student Club (ISC) and prepared by foreign exchange students. Traditionally, the students bring samples of their national cuisine, too. After each presentation, there is a thematic party in Mandarin Club.

Are you a foreign student yourself, and are you interested in learning what more the ISC does? Have you just recently moved to Brno and do you wonder where to meet new people and join in the social life? The ISC has more to offer. If you become a member, you have plenty of options how to spend your free time in Brno and surroundings. Often, you get a nice reduction as an ESN card-holder.

For instance, there are cultural events organized, such as visiting exhibitions together, and regular cinema evenings, which are held every Monday in Clubwash. Here you can taste not only beer but also something from the Czech cinematography. A personal tip of ours is The Primary School (November 30th). Tuesday is the day for board games in the Travellers’ Club. You can immerse yourself in the world of Poker, Settlers of Catan or Bang! there.

For both foreign and regular students of Masaryk University, language courses are offered every semester. You can learn Czech or other languages you dream of, always from a native speaker. For the current schedule, and all further information and contacts, see isc.muni.cz.

What is actually the ISC?

The International Student Club Masaryk University (ISC MU) was founded in 2003 with the aim of integrating foreign students coming to Masaryk University. From 2004, it is a member of Erasmus Student Network (ESN), a non-profit, non-political organization that integrates volunteers, especially university students, and that works on the basis „students help other students“. The ESN was set up in 1990 with assistance of the European Commission. The aim was to help the integration of both international and domestic students all around Europe. A lot of young Europeans got interested in the idea and by now the ESN has over 300 member clubs. Nine of them can be found in the Czech Republic, ISC MU included.

The ISC MU has currently around 600 members, 300 of those are exchange students from more than 40 countries.

brněnské siluety 2 - brno's silhouettes 2

Tom Křišťan is a talented photographer and you can meet him in the streets of Brno. He captured so beautiful photo of Parnas fountain at Zelný trh sq it’s making me jealous. What a simple idea and pure beauty.

Brno's Posterous

Have you ever discovered something cool about Brno but had no opportunity to pass it to other people? Have you taken a nice picture or written a poem about the town and wanted to share it? Brno Now offers you a solution: join other bloggers at brno.posterous.com.

Here is how to contribute:

1. Share your e-mail address in the comments of this article (or mail it to kasparek@brnonow.com if you want to keep it private).
2. I’ll add your address to the list of contributors in several hours.
3. Since a confirmation comes to your mailbox and you click the link in it, anything you send to post@posterous.com will be posted to the blog immediately.
4. Yes, it’s that simple. The subject of your e-mail will be a title of your post and the body of the e-mail will be a content of the post. You can leave the body empty and just add an attachement — a picture or a video. If you add multiple pictures, Posterous will generate a nice gallery. It’s really cool.

If you change your mind, just ask me and I’ll delete anything you’ve posted.

It’s a funny social media experiment — so don’t think about it too much, just play nice.

I think the place should be billingual. Jestli neumíte anglicky, klidně dávejte fotkám české popisky.

Tip: use your cell phone for taking and sending the pictures, so we all can enjoy a live crowd-sourced broadcasting from Brno.

Logo of the contest

Non-profit Brnopolis is running an interesting photo contest for expats living in Brno:

We are opening a contest for the best photographs displaying the city of Brno seen through the eyes of our expats.

There is no strict limit in terms of genres. Take pictures of architecture, nature, people, events or anything else, make it arranged or documentary, just think of the relevance to Brno (each picture needs to be described by a short text specifying the place) and be creative. The photos will be judged by the jury consisting of three professional photographers: Rostislav Košťál, Roman Franc and Monika Tomášková.

The prizes are not known at this moment but as I’ve seen the soirées organised by Brnopolis I guess the awards will be delicious :)

Our blue cheese balls with paprika at Café Steiner (café's staff in background)

Café Steiner (9/38 Gorkého st.) is running a cool benefit: during this week, home-made food of its guests is sold to customers and the received money will support nearby maternity home at Obilní trh sq.

Today you have a great opportunity to taste blue cheese balls with paprika made by my wonderful girlfriend (who should receive a Ph. D. in making blue cheese balls!). I contributed by cutting the rolls and driving a car to Steiner :) There is only 25 of the balls, so hurry up!

Via: Chilli Julie