New Year's in Brno

New Year in Brno was definitely different than I imagined it, which is not really a surprise because for me things simply never go the way I want/plan/fantasize. I should have known it would be like that from the moment I left home... So let me tell you how it all was.

While I was still at home, packing my bag at 9:30 in the morning (I couldn't pack it the night before because I had to go out, hihi), I was happy because I knew I won't go to Brno alone; my dear friend Ivana was going with me. I barely closed my bag, remembered I didn't put ajvar in it, opened it again and went through all that trouble of closing it once again. I could have definitely showered again after that, if my shower gel was not in the bag and if I had time. But it was and I hadn't, so.. Focus, Valentina, they get it.

Anyway, I glanced at my empty room, at my beautiful dog, huged with my mum, shaked hands with my dad (very weird, actually), said bye to Goran, my brother, and with a bit of sadness in my heart, I sat in the car. I was also angry somewhat because I lost my Czech SIM card. I totally knew I would lose it, like the first moment when I took it out of the phone I knew it. I’ve probably put it somewhere where I thought I would find it, where I would first look, but apparently I didn’t choose wisely. Of course, I spent at least half an hour searching for it, getting more and more frustrated. So, my brother Mario drove me to the bus and that was it. I was leaving my home once again.

When I came to Zagreb, I thanked God for the escalator and went to buy the tickets for Vienna. Except, there were no seats left for the bus at 3 p. m. . Shit, shit, shit. The next bus is at 5 p. m. and it comes to Vienna around 10:40 p. m. And guess what? Our last bus from Vienna to Brno goes at 22:40, but of course, from a different bus station. Wonderful. Perfectly knowing what the trip is going to look like, I sit and wait for Ivana. She comes, I tell her what the situation is like, we go again to ask about the tickets. In another bus there was one free seat, so we could wait to see maybe somebody would decide not to go. We thought about it and bought the tickets for the bus at 5, just to be sure. I was happy that Ivana was there, because if this happened to me when alone, I would go nuts. So we sat in a café, drank tea and talked, talked, polished our nails and talked some more. Then we took the bus to Vienna, met some guys from Zagreb (the one in the checkered shirt was sooo cute, the other was quite annoying, the third was kind of cute but silent while the fourth one swore constantly; I don’t know why, but I instantly had a feeling that he spits on the ground as well; I guess these things go hand in hand), one guy from Split who was going to meet his girlfriend from Brno in Vienna, we had a little chit-chat and came to Vienna at 22:20. Tony from Split was going to the other bus/train station as well (Präterstern), together with his mom’s friend at whose place he was staying, so we all went together, hoping we will get there in 20 minutes and that Ivana and I wouldn’t lose our bus. I bet we would have made it if I didn’t have to search for little Euros for the subway ticket. When I finally bought the ticket, the subway train left, right in front of our noses, and we had to wait for another one. Yeah, the next one came in 5 minutes, but it was exactly 5 minutes that we needed; we came to the other bus stop at 22:45. Fucking 5 minutes. I should have known, because this is just my luck. When I am late, the buses go exactly on time, not on the minute, but on the second; when I come on time or I come even earlier, the bus is late, at least 5 or 10 minutes. So, what to did? We checked if there is another bus (not forgetting that I lost around 20 Euros for the bus tickets) or maybe train. There was none. The first one was going in the morning, around 7 or so. For me, it would not be the first time to spend the night on a Vienna train station, but Ivana got pretty upset, she started crying and I could see in her eyes that she was seriously regretting going with me. I tried to comfort her somehow because for me this wasn’t the end of the world, I’ve already been in the same situation, but she isn’t the same kind of person like I am. And I get it. So, we had another option, thanks to Tony and his mom’s friend Željka. She told us that her apartment was small but that she will take us in, at least we would be in warm, sleep for a couple of hours and in the morning we would go to Brno. I didn’t really want it, the woman was already super-nice by going up and down Vienna with us searching for any possible connection to Brno, but seeing Ivana like that, I said yeah, why not. And that’s how we stayed at ms Željka’s place, with Tony and his cute blond girlfriend from Brno. Just to mention it here, Željka has an awesome apartment! Small, cute, modern, comfortable. I want to live in an apartment like that after I will have finished my studies.

We talked a bit, checked again when is the bus, and went to sleep. In the morning, Željka went with us to the station (really, that woman saved us, such a nice, nice woman) and after that, we were on our own. Our bad luck continued, because the first bus was at 5 in the afternoon. Tired, irritated, we went to the train station. Finally, there was a train in an hour or so. Although it was like 3 times more expensive than the bus (seriously, 30 euros? ), we bought the tickets and only in the train, Ivana got calmer. I was happy to see that, so I literally knock out in the train and woke up one station before Brno.

Oh dear Brno, I’ve never been more happy to see it! I guess Brno was happy to see us as well, because a couple of people offered to help me with my huge suitcase. So nice. We got to my room without a problem, there was a nice old gray guy at the reception. When we showered and rested for a moment, we went to Dimitris’ room to meet him and Ivana. Poor guy, we woke him up. God, I missed him so much in just 2 weeks. Later we went to the centre and to buy alcohol for the party. The whole day we had no idea how it was going to look like, where we are gonna go, nobody knew anything. Perfectly normal for Erasmus people, I guess.

And how did we spend the night of 31stto 1st, the last night of 2012 and the first night of 2013? We had an international dinner in the corridor on the 2nd floor, then we were drinking and planned to go out to the main square before midnight. Some people went there while some, like Ivana and me, missed the bus (really, I don’t know what’s this thing with us and missing the buses? ). Then it turned to be funny. We were going back from the bus station to the dormitories, she in a good mood, me in a mood of a lot of whiskey-coke, and we realized we have like 5 or 6 minutes before midnight. And I really had to pee. We started to walk really fast, almost running, rushed into the dormitories, I was running to my room yelling “I don’t want to welcome New Year in my bathroom, nooo”, I never peed so fast in my whole life, and then we ran to the second floor where the rest of the people was. We got there just a minute before midnight. We made it! Half of the people were on the balcony, watching the fireworks, kissing and saying “Happy New Year” one to each other. After all the endearments, we went out to Livingstone. That was shit. They tricked me for 100 crowns at the entrance, gave me a sad smiley (for New Year’s, seriously? ) and there was no place for the jackets. I guess because I was drunk, I got mad, and for like half an hour I was just standing in one place, holding the jacket in my hands and refusing to dance or to smile. Thank God, I came to my senses soon, so I put the jacket somewhere on the fence, went to the bar and ordered another whiskey-coke. Then it got better. I really need to stop being the drama queen. All in all, the night was nothing special. But then again, it was fun. That’s all that matters, right?

The next day Ivana and I had an excellent lunch at McDonald’s and we were walking around the town, visited the cathedral, in the evening went to see the fireworks at Špilberk and then back to the dormitories. We played a drinking game in Dimitris’ room, then we went to the tea house and continued there. Dimitris and me had our hands covered in Dimitris’ artistic drawings with the marker, which was kind of funny when I had to go to the bar in the tea house and ask for something. The waiter looked at my hands (as well as some guy sitting near) but said nothing. Czechs, such a lovely people. We were drinking tea and alcohol that we smuggled in and we were developing our own drinking game, which turned out to be funnier and funnier with every moment. Later we went back home, played for a while until Dimitris got upset (I don’t even remember why anymore) and then we went to sleep. In the morning, I accompanied Ivana to the bus. Too bad she went home so early, I wanted her to stay longer. I really loved having her here, I miss my friends from Croatia.

Here are a couple of pics, the rest I will upload when Ivana sends me hers, she has a lot more pictures...

Mikolaj had birthday on 1st of January, so sweeet!

Dimitris, Ivana, me and my present which I got from mr. Gonzalez (who, as I found out, had stolen it underneath the Christmas tree in the lobby; but hey, a gift is a gift, right? )

Macedonia!

Slovakia!

Gossiping

Yeah. You know.

My beauty on the path around the cathedral

Špilberk castle at a distance.

My beauty in front of the cathedral

<3

Fireworks

My dearest devil Dimitris

On the streets of Brno

Gamblers

Grece in the tea house

So there, this is how I spent my New Year’s in Brno. What about yours? Any funny stories?

Photo gallery