What’s It Like to Live in Prague in Your 20s?

What’s It Like to Live in Prague in Your 20s?

I lived in Prague in my 20s and still live there.

Easy access to anywhere in Europe. Prague is quite central. If you are based in Prague, you can go just about anywhere. While I was here, I managed to accomplish a mega journey, a big item on my bucket list. I visited all 50 countries in Europe.

The Old Town and many of the neighborhoods in Prague, sometimes, make you feel as if you are living in a fairytale.

Although the pace of life in Prague isn’t as fast as in the other main cities from Asia or USA, it’s not slow either. You can feel the liveliness and vibrancy.

It was quite easy, at least in my case, to just come here, find something to do, and… stay.

You’ll likely get fit instead of being a couch potato. Czech people are active and outdoorsy. They always do something physical all year round: kayaking, biking, camping, hiking, skiing, swimming, playing squash besides team sports. If they don’t do sport, go to the gym or travel somewhere, they’re out drinking and hanging out in the parks. I admit that being here forces me to be more active, not only because it’s good for me, but also because of pure peer pressure.

Get to know another “faith”…or lack of it. It’s quite surprising to learn that a lot of Czechs identify themselves as atheists, and they flat out say that. Ok, so young people tend to be a bit more radical and don’t follow their tradition, so you think it makes sense that they call themselves “atheists.” However, you’ll find very young teenagers and old people claim the same thing. In other European countries, people might say that they are Christians, but don’t go to church or practice the religion. It’s very rare for me to find other Europeans who say to strangers that they’re atheists.

You learn to tune down your enthusiasm because Czechs are quite low-key, reserved and lethargic. (This statement may contradict my previous point about Czechs being outdoorsy and active.)

You might feel lonely because you don’t feel fitting into the Czech society. You might feel like outsiders. Although you might hear a different view from other immigrants, expats and foreigners, the general opinion is that Czechs are not quick to embrace foreigners. Many Czechs blame their stranger-wariness on their communist past and years of oppression from outsiders. Yes and no. I came from a communist country (was and still is) that until the 70s was ruled or controlled by one kingdom and regime to another.  We’re quite curious about foreigners. Also, I used to live in two and traveled to all other Eastern European countries, and I found people to be very warm there.

You appreciate the planning, and you might as well plan a lot. Maybe because I wasn’t that organized and not a planning type of person. However, living here for a few years and seeing how people plan their days around the weather, the seasons and public holidays rubbed on me.

Improve your time management skills and get better at being punctual. Public transportation runs on time and operates so precisely that you know when and how you need to go from A to B. After a few years; my brain got used to thinking in time. The Czechs have a lot of influence from the German culture and guess what, they took on the time precision of the Germans. I used to live in other Slavic countries and traveled to all Slavic countries. Time precision is not in their DNA.

You’ll be surprised at how quick you turn into a beeraholic even if you hate beer or barely drank before. You will once you live here. The 1st reason is that the Czech Republic is a beer country, forget about Germany. The 2nd reason is that beer is cheaper than water.

Dating here is quite simple. You don’t need to worry about the different kinds of relationship labels like in the US: just met, started dating, non-inclusive, boyfriend-girlfriend, have the key to come and go, just move in, long-term dating.

The coffee culture is excellent in Prague, despite this is a beer country.

I used to live in the US and kept hearing about diversity and ethnic groups. However, the US is way too big, so I didn’t get meet a lot of different people. While Prague can’t be compared to London, a truly diverse city, there is a lot of ethnic groups in this town. I’ve had colleagues from all over Europe and the world. Where else other than the United Nations that you can claim to have met or worked with people from Uganda, Senegal, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brazil, Chile, Peru. OMG, the list will go on.

It’s amazing.

What is it like for you to live in Prague, Europe or anywhere in your 20s?