An old town in the Czech Republic that you really want to visit if you like slow and peaceful places with spirit and a university and if you travel near by.

The town is located on one of the main east-west car routes and on the main east-west railroad route. It's about 250 km east from Prague, 100 km south-west from Ostrava and 100 km north-east from Brno, the other main Czech cities.

Places to go to

There are some places to go to in the town that just must be mentioned:

• the Upper and the Lower Square (the Upper is actually lower then the Lower) surrounded by and full of great architecture;
  
• Jazz Tibet Club with live jazz performances or just a cool atmosphere (usually the world-prettiest girls are sitting there with their boyfriends, not so usually with no guys around);
  
• the S-Club where every wednesday night students have their oldies-parties and where every saturday night kids go to a disco);
  
• lots of churches that will be detailed below;
  
• and just outside the town a small ZOO (no elephants there, they wouldn't fit).
  

Olomouc used to be (and probably stays) important for the catholics - an Archbishop resides here in the Archbishop's Palace, the Pope made an important stop here at the Basilica at Svaty Kopecek etc. The Basilica is visible from higher places as a distant church on a hill. (The ZOO is a little further behind.) Also the St. Wenceslal Cathedral can be seen from far away - it's a tall structure near the center. Anyway, there are lots of churches all around the center of the city.

When you get tired (or at any time, if you don't get tired) go to the center of the town (the two Squares) and then walk away in just about any direction - you are bound to pass through or by one of the city parks named after famous Czech artists. Ever saw the San Francisco Golden Gate Park? Now you're getting the idea of how pretty the parks are, and they are not nearly so huge, thus there are no hugeness-related drawbacks. The biggest of the three main parks - Smetana's - is also the location of the buildings of Flora - Olomouc's botanic exposition. Often special events take place here. The main would be the exposition of flowers sometime in the spring. But there are permanent expositions in some of the pavilions, too. Certainly worth visiting, preferably with a friend.

The best place to stay at in the summer is the student dorms - throughout the whole summer they serve as a hostel and they are located close to just about everything important. Right, with the exception of the ZOO.

Places to avoid

Of course there are a few places you should be warned about, only I don't recall any.