Author: Iiro Nerg (In the photo you can see me with my good buddy Radegast)
My name is Iiro Nerg. I’m a master’s student from Finland. At my home university, University of Oulu, I study statistics. During my exchange I mostly did language courses, since in OSU there is not many advanced statistics courses. And to be honest I focused more on travelling here, since I’m already done with all necessary courses in my home university.
Let’s not focus on me, but the adventure. Starting from Ostrava. When we were travelling with friends, we always had this joke that Ostrava is the “worst city in the central Europe”. In Ostrava there is not so much fancy architecture or other cool tourist attractions, like in so many other cities we visited. Ostrava is slow, quiet and mundane. Still we were always so happy to come back here to rest after our travels. It became home. For me, Ostrava reminds me much of Oulu, my home in Finland. So, I really enjoy being in Ostrava, even though we always joked around about it. (Compared to any other place, I love how good the public transportation here is!)
When I arrived here, it was a bit hard to adjust for the dorms, since I had always before lived alone. The thing that helped me around it, and I think also many others, was the friends that you make in the dorms and the great events organized by our ESN club. I have made many close friends that I don’t have a doubt in my mind will last me a lifetime. As I’m writing this, four months of my exchange has passed and it seems like it was yesterday when I met some of the crazy and funny people, that I already have had to say goodbye to, since they had to go back to their home countries.
One of the greatest things about Ostrava is the location. It is easy and convenient to travel from here. I have visited Poland, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. All the trips with my new Erasmus friends. I will recommend Ostrava as an Erasmus destination for my friends in Finland, and Czech Republic as a travel destination as I find Prague the nicest capital city that I have visited so far. I’m sure I will also visit Czechia and Ostrava again in the future.
I’m truly grateful for all my buddies from ESN. Showing me the secrets of Ostrava from Day 1. I remember on my first night in here they took us to the Absinth club. I have since been there few times and I really enjoy absinth and the good beers they serve. My buddy also introduced me to my favourite beer, Svijany. And of course, I must mention the famous Stodolni street. I think the best way to describe my feelings about is the good old love-hate relationship. I hate how much I and everybody else loves it. Many of my friends, including me have had something stolen there in the bars, but still we keep going back there to have some good times.
To conclude my incoherent story: Ostrava has become like a home to me and I love it like home. I will come back and recommend also my friends to visit.