Zlin

Easter- ate far too much, spent far too much money, had an amazing time!

I was back in Brno sooner than I imaged. I wasn’t quite ready to leave London again and the first few days were pretty tough. But soon I was back in swing of things, and happy to be in Brno. The weather helped somewhat. The sun just hasn’t stopped shining. I wake up every morning thinking… today it must be grey, whatever happened to April showers?? Hence I have spent a lot of time outside, lapping up those rays. The first weekend back in fact, we went to a lake just on the Brno borders. I had no idea it even existed. We all brought some food and drinks and we had a very international picnic. There was all sorts of different gastric delights. It was lovely to see everyone again, I think there are quite a few people here I am really going to miss!

The following week was an interesting one. Our tutor had organised with his friend, who is also an art tutor, that Kirstie and I visit his faculty. Kirstie and I are always happy to visit new places, so we jumped at the chance. We were put in touch with one of the students from the faculty, Hana, who was to be our guide. The faculty was in a city called Zlin, 2 hours from Brno. It is famous for one thing… Bata shoes. The whole city was basically a factory for the shoes, most of the architecture was designed and built by Mr Bata himself. Therefore the city has a very distinctive look.





On first arriving into Zlin, Hana drove us to the university (for the next few days Hana drove us everywhere). Where we joined an English class. We were in the class for about 2 hours. It was tiring stuff, but I like to think that we were quite helpful. The girls were practicing for their English exam in a few weeks. They were encouraged to ask Kirstie and I questions. Annoyingly, most of the questions were 'how can we get a job in England'. This resulted in some tactful replies, but it was still difficult not to give them too much hope.

We stayed the night at Hana's flat. It was an interesting experience. We had already met her British Bulldog when she picked us up from the train station, but we were yet to meet her other animals. Now Hana is the sweetest person, and I am very thankful for her generous welcome that she showed us, but sadly, she has some really smelly animals! The hamsters, fish, dog all accumulated into a smell that I am not at all accustomed to.

The next day we continued the tour to Olomouc and a nice stately home with some beautiful gardens. Having been to Olomouc before I was happy to return and see the town again.