Hello All, I'm originally from Europe, currently living in the NYC, and about to get a job offer for a position in Brno. (2 year?) I have a few specific questions: - What's best/cheapest way to fly in and out to Paris, Amsterdam or Brussels? Prague or Vienna or are there small local companies in Brno that fly into these cities? - How long does it take to get from Brno to Vienna by car? It's 115km, which is not to far, but how much time does it take to cross the border? (Somewhat related to the question above. I'm assuming that it's faster to fly to Vienna than to Prague and I'm planning to go to Belgium once or twice per month.) - I was in Prague 12 years ago as a tourist and roads were so so in those days. Have they improved a lot? It's fair to assume that you can drive at 120 km/h on highways (I'd like to get an idea how long it will take me to drive around the country during weekend trips...) - Can I get reliable high-speed internet connections at home? I guess I can live pretty much anywhere I want, so center of the city is fine. (Assuming that there I'll have the highest chance of a good connection.) - I'm quite into wall/rock climbing? Are there indoor climbing gyms or rocks in the area? - I speak a bunch of Western Europe languages (E/F/G/SP), but have no experience with Czech, Polish or Russian. I do have the intention to learn it. How hard is it? Is it possible to have a decent social life without initially speaking the local language? - Are movies dubbed or with subtitles? (I'd like to go to the movies after all...!) - How is cultural life? Concerts (classic/rock/anything)? Movies (std. Hollywood/alternative) ? Are there multiplexes with large selection or just a few theaters? - What's the closest place for good skiing? - How is your expat experience? That's it for now. I just found out about this site. Looks like a great place to start assembling information! Tom
Use Vienna, Bratislava or Prague. No flights from Brno except charters and one line to London, afaik. What border? Well, there is one, but as EU citizens now cross it freely (show ID and go), it should be a matter of minutes or even seconds for you. There are no flights from Brno to Vienna nor Prague, if that is what you ask. You have to use bus, car or train. There has certainly been some improvement. Yes, you can go 120 on highways, there are just "work-on-a-road"s here and there You should be able to drive Praha - Brno in something over two hours. Define high-speed You can get ADSL (around half a megabit), cable-tv internet (about the same speed) or wifi (from 64 kb to 2Mbits). It will cost you about a thousand CZK per month (wild guess). Not necesarilly. Some block-of-flats areas have better offer of connection, as there is high amount of potencial customers per square meter Yes, several of them. Rajče looks good (image). Or Boulder. Very hard, nearly impossible You can get around with English a German quite well, but learning some Czech is definitely a good idea. But young girls are quite good in English Children and family movies are usually dubbed, the rest is usually with subtitles. Example - Harry Potter dubbed, Lord of the Rings subtitled. Quite a lot of local music. Not many big, star concerts like Rolling Stones, these are usually in Prague only. And of course, many unknown great musicians in unknown small clubs There are two multiplexes, one in centre, one in shopping area in suburb. There are small art cinemas. There is a student cinema with some movies you can see nowhere else. Whatever you wish, you can get The Alpes Or Slovakia.
I've heard that this company is one of the best options (fast+cheap) to get internet in Brno: http://www.netbox.cz/ They don't seem to speak English, though.
