Saturday morning, October 7th, Bill and I decided to venture into Brno to see if it was true that it was not much more than a glorified suburb. One of Bill’s coworkers, who was married to a Czech woman, had actually described Brno in that way. He implied there was nothing to see there. Maybe his negative opinion was formed in part because his wife recently passed away from the illness popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. It’s officially known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and it’s a pretty horrible disease.

In any case, in spite of the articles I’d seen describing Brno as an up and coming Czech destination, the guy Bill worked with had led us to believe it was not going to be a very inspiring place to visit. Well… if you read last week’s post about what happened last Saturday, you’ll know that we found out that Brno was anything but boring for us. In fact, I think we’ll be talking about that day for years to come.

Our visit to Brno started out in an ordinary way. We had breakfast at the JesteBrno Hotel, then got in the Volvo and parked on the fifth floor of a garage. We walked out of the garage and I noticed an interesting sculpture near the garage, along with bars, businesses, and historic buildings. No, it’s not as beautiful or charming as Prague is– few cities are. But Brno was kind of handsome and workmanlike. I thought I might find it fascinating in its own right.

We walked down a hill and looked to the left as we entered a main drag. There was a street food fest going on. It all looked and smelled really good, and I was interested in what they were selling there. But it was too early for lunch, and there weren’t many places to sit. We decided to walk around for a bit and take in a site or two.

We found our way to a Saturday vegetable market, and saw Brno’s own Astronomical Clock, which was built in 2010 looks like a black pickle… or maybe something else. 😉 We bought tickets to explore Brno’s Labyrinth under the vegetable market, which is one of a few underground attractions in the city.

We had time to kill before our Labyrinth tour, so we climbed yet another tower and got some photos of the city views from above. On the way up, we ran into a woman who looked a bit like retired Czech supermodel Paulina Porizkova. I thought she might be the only interesting person we’d run into that day. I was definitely wrong about that. Below are some views from the tower.

The Labyrinth tour was interesting, but I thought the tour group was a little too large. There were times when I couldn’t see the guide. And since the tour was done in Czech, seeing the guy was kind of important. It was a little too dark in the underground structure to easily read the information they gave us in English. That was where my phone’s light came in handy. I don’t regret taking the tour and seeing the Labyrinth, but I would have gotten more out of it if the group had been about half the size it was… and, of course, if it had been conducted in English. But, as we were in Czechia, of course that wasn’t going to be happening! Below are some Labyrinth photos…

After we toured the Labyrinth, we decided it was time for lunch. At first, I thought we’d find a restaurant. But then I remembered the cool looking street food fest. Bill agreed that it would be a good place to have lunch, so we headed back to that area and after a short wait, managed to find a place under the shade of an umbrella at one of the long fest tables.

I stayed at the table and saved Bill’s place while he went to get some food and beer for us. I thought he knew what I wanted– a skewer of either chicken or pork that was being cooked over an open fire. Bill came back with a big potato pancake. It was good, but not really what I wanted. I did eat some of the pancake, but Bill could see it wasn’t what I wanted. He asked me if I wanted chicken or pork, and I said I didn’t care. He went back to the line and came back with sausage in a pepper and onion sauce.

I was a little annoyed, because again, it wasn’t what I wanted. I don’t like sausage that much. I have to be in the right mood for it. Bill got frustrated. So did I. I didn’t understand why he kept bringing back things I didn’t want. He later told me he’d brought both items because other people ordered them and said they were local. In retrospect, the sausage had been good… but I had my tastebuds set on the skewers. In spite of how I look, there’s only so much I can eat.

So Bill went back to the line and brought me chicken on a skewer. It came with two big pickles, two pieces of farmhouse bread, horseradish, and mustard. It was pretty good, but more than I could eat. We were sitting there picking at the food, talking about tossing it out. Neither of us likes to waste food, so that was a bummer.

All of a sudden, this very thin woman in dirty clothes appeared out of nowhere. She had short brown hair, and appeared to be missing big patches of it. She had kind, brown eyes, and leathery skin that didn’t reveal her age. I’m 51, and she could have been older than I was… or she could have been younger and looked older because of what appeared to be a long, tough life lived on the streets of Brno. She was clearly missing a lot of teeth.

The woman pointed at my plate. I had eaten a lot of the chicken, two bites from the pickles, and hadn’t touched the bread at all. There was also a lot of horseradish left over, and some mustard. I said, “You want this?”

She nodded and before I could say a word, she grabbed my plate and took a seat at the table next to ours. As a couple of people watched in shock and horror, the apparently unhoused woman chowed down on my leftovers. It was obvious we were total strangers. I gave Bill a bemused look as the woman happily wolfed down my food with much relish. She completely cleaned the place, not wasting a single crumb. She gave me a big “summer teeth” smile– some are here, some are there. 😉

As she was polishing off the last of the chicken, she noticed that Bill had mostly finished the sausage. I said, “You want this too?” She nodded eagerly and took the sausage dish, which by then was mostly peppers and onions in tomato sauce. She cleaned that plate, and ate the half of the potato pancake we hadn’t eaten.

Bill went to get more beer. While he was gone, the woman said “Water…” She repeated it a couple of times, obviously realizing we are English speakers and soft touches.

“You want water?” I asked.

She nodded aggressively. When Bill came back with the beer, I said, “The lady would like some water.”

Without a word, Bill walked away to get the water. I was left alone with our new Brno acquaintance. I tried not to stare at her, even as I noticed a few bystanders. That was probably why I didn’t see the man come up. He was cleaner than she was. He wore a jacket and had a clean shaven face and short hair. But, like her, he had swarthy skin and dark eyes. I suspected the lady who ate our leftovers and the man knew each other.

The guy started speaking to me. I didn’t understand what he was saying, but by the tone of his voice, I understood that he wanted money. I didn’t have any money to give him, nor was I interested in engaging with him. He made me nervous. I got worried at that point, because Bill was taking a long time. I wondered if maybe there were other people in their community who had detained him somehow.

The woman who ate our leftovers was a keen observer of my body language, as I turned away from the guy who had invaded my space. She immediately started yelling at the man who was bothering me. He said something back to her. The whole time, I’m getting more worried about Bill. I hadn’t expected it to take so long for him to buy a bottle of water, and I didn’t see him in any of the lines near us.

The guy finally stalked off, looking angry. He traded a few more harsh words toward the lady who had eaten our leftovers. I didn’t know what to think, but I continued to nervously scan the crowd, looking for Bill. I even sent him a text, which went unanswered. I started formulating a plan in my head as to what I should do if something had happened. I noticed a police station nearby, obviously set up for the live music that was planned for later. But at that point, it was unmanned.

Then, much to my relief, I saw Bill. He had a six pack of water for the woman. He walked up to her in that determined soldier’s stride and presented her with the water. She accepted it gratefully bowed, smiling, as she touched her heart. Then she took the trash, threw it away for us, and disappeared.

We were left sitting there in shock. There we’d been with a bunch of extra food we didn’t need and were only going to throw away. This woman, who had obviously noticed us, appeared to solve that problem. And then this man came up to ask for more. I hated to be judgmental, and yet I was alone in a strange city, not understanding the man’s language, and not wanting to get into trouble or be a crime victim. I’d only just wanted to eat lunch. I was clearly nervous, with good reason.

Then, the whole thing was over… and we were left there with our beer. Soon, the live music started, and we enjoyed it for awhile before we decided to leave. As we were about to go, Bill went to get more Czech money. As I was listening to yet more buskers, I turned and noticed a familiar face. It belonged to the awesome banjo player we’d seen in Cesky Krumlov earlier in the week! We went up to him and asked if he’d been in Cesky Krumlov. He said he had, so Bill gave him ten euros (which he can use or exchange). I wish he’d had a CD. He was really good!

It was quite an interesting day… and now I’d like to go back to Brno and see more. It seems like a mysterious place that begs for more discovery.

As for the incident with the people who spoke to us, I suspect they may have been members of the Roma community. I looked up Roma in Brno and discovered that they do have a large presence there. Our previous interactions with Roma haven’t been particularly pleasant. The last time we met them, it was in Beaune, France. A couple of them popped our tire on our then new Volvo as we were trying to get home to Germany. That incident delayed us a day and cost us over $1500. But at least no one was hurt. I don’t want to think ill of anyone or any group, and generally speaking, I don’t. This time, our interaction was relatively positive. And, for all I know, the people we ran into weren’t Roma, either. But I think they probably were.

Thanks to that interaction, I learned that Brno has a museum dedicated to members of the Roma community. If we go back there, we’ll have to visit it. I’d like to learn more about them and how so many of them ended up as they are. I was also reminded of how much food we waste, and how there’s always someone out there who might appreciate what we throw away without so much as a second thought. If the interaction hadn’t been so sudden, maybe we might have just bought the woman some food of her own. But she probably still would have wanted our leftovers.

Below are a few “artsy” photos of Brno, taken with my big camera.