Brno
October 26, 2004
The trip to Brno went smoothly and once we arrived, we found info on a bus to Vienna
the next day, at which point we met a guy from Singapore. His English was pretty
good and had no fear to talk to anyone, unfortunately with this came an irrational
fear of everything and he needed to know every detail.
We decided to find a hostel, but Derek and I wanted to see the city first while
the man from Singapore wanted to make sure he had accommodations so we separated,
but agreed to meet up at the hostel. It didn't take long before Derek and I were
too tired to see the city so decided to find a hostel.
We took a tram to our hostel and as soon as we got off, we found our Singapore friend,
who said that there was no room at the hostel. We decided to go anyway and ask if
they knew of any other hostels where there might be room. As we entered the hostel
the woman began yelling at us, but we asked anyway in a calm and controlled manner
if they had room, she yelled “Nie ma, nie f*cking ma!” We then asked if she knew
of any other place that had room, but she became violent and we seriously thought
that she would begin throwing stuff as she swore in English in her Czech sentences…
in short this was the rudest woman I’ve ever met in my life.
We then went next door to the hotel to ask if they knew of other places to stay,
but the woman from the hostel came in and began swearing at us again although we
didn’t even say a word to her. The woman in the hotel was nice enough and tried
to help, but the hostel woman jumped in and refused to let us forget that she hated
us and then told the hotel woman to say they had no phone; I understood a little
due to my Polish. I still don't know if she thought we were someone else, or what
her problem was.
Back in town I started calling every hostel and hotel we could find until we got
a place on the complete opposite side of town. The three of us went there and found
the place where we paid too much, but needed a place to stay. She also assumed that
Derek and I were gay (which we're not) so tried to give us a room with one bed,
we asked to have a room with two beds and she helped us with this. When she charged
us she asked if we needed a recipe and when we said no, she said that then we didn’t
have to pay tax, so we accepted the compromise. She also told us of a couple restaurants
to eat at, but both were closed so we just went to sleep.
I know people who have lived in Brno and they loved it, but it rubbed me the wrong
way. We broke out of this prison at 7:30 the next morning, which wasn't earlier
enough. I bought some food for the trip, but the driver said in English that “this
is coach and so brunch is not allowed.”
It seems odd to me that bus drivers in this part of the world are the most aggressive
drivers; we were passing people constantly and his greatest motivation was to finish
his job as soon as he could... not that I complained seeing as how we were escaping
Brno.