Geeky in Czechia

If you’re a geek who loves things like Star Wars, Star Trek, the Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones or any other fandom imaginable, you might wonder if the Czech Republic is the right country for you. After all, studying abroad isn’t only about cramming for your degree—you should have some fun as well! So… how geeky is Czechia?

Videogames

Fans of videogames can rejoice because they’ll have it very easy here. There’re are two prominent stores that sell games, consoles and merchandise—JRC and Xzone. You can count on them to have the newest games and hardware; shop assistants are usually really knowledgeable and like chatting. Xzone has stores in Prague, Brno and Ostrava while JRC basically in every bigger city.

If you’d like to play some retro games, there’re two excellent places for that in Prague. ArcadeHry is actually located in a small village outside Prague but since our public transport is among the best in the world, you can get there easily by bus from metro Zlicin. It offers a wide selection of good old arcade games, most of them you can play together with your friends. And they also make pizza if you get hungry.

Don’t be confused, even though MuzeumHer means literally the museum of games in Czech, this place wants you to play on their machines. Located at Ruzyne shopping centre, it’s near the airport which means you can enjoy some leisure time before your flight. Or just visit anytime, of course. At both places, you pay only once for the whole visit so there’s no need to feed coins to the machines. You can easily spend the whole day there and still crave to come again.

Books and comics

Avid readers might be pleasantly surprised that almost every bookshop has a section of English books. Luxor at Vaclavske namesti in Prague has a whole floor dedicated to books in foreign languages and you can count on them to have the most recent titles. Luxor at the main train station in Prague is also well-stocked should you desperately need a last-minute book before your departure.

As for specialised shops, a place to go is definitely ComicsPoint which has three huge stores in Prague. They offer mostly comics and graphic novels in Czech translation but they have a section of English comics as well. And tons of merchandise! They specialise mostly in superhero and popular stuff, though, so if you want something more medieval and fantasy-like, go to Drakkaria. Alternatively in Ostrava, there’s Imago.

Cinemas

Not much to say in this area, all big cinema multiplexes—CineStar, CinemaCity, Premiere—offer movies in the original with Czech subtitles so go for those. Still, make sure to check out small independent cinemas as well since they often play old classics or artsy movies. Beware that all animated movies are always with Czech dubbing so should you want to see the newest Disney, Pixar or DreamWorks, the only cinema that plays them in English is CinemaCity: Slovansky dum in Prague.

Conventions

Last but not least, for those of you who are very active in fandoms and love visiting conventions and making their own cosplay, you’ll be astonished how many geeky conventions there are in the Czech Republic. Still, you have to watch out for their programme because lectures are almost always in Czech. Cosplay is definitely a thing here so don’t feel embarrassed dressing up!

The biggest events that are foreigner-friendly are Comic-Con (Prague), Festival Fantazie (Chotebor) and AnimeFest (Brno). Again, don’t be afraid of some travelling as you can reach Chotebor and Brno easily by train. If you like LARP and board games, there’re groups/clubs in almost every bigger city but that would require some effort looking for them and finding a group that doesn’t mind playing in English. But there certainly are some!

Be geeky in Czechia!