What We Love About CZ (and Europe)

Living in a foreign country can be challenging at times. You are constantly learning new things and often feel out of place. However, if you are open to new adventures, you get to meet amazing people and obtain invaluable life experiences that might not happen in your country of origin. Here are a few things we love about this area of the world: 

Slower Pace of Life: There are many things that contribute to the slower pace of life, sometimes it’s necessity and sometimes it’s choice. For example, we don’t have a car here so we use public transportation (metro, trams, and buses). This means that we are at the mercy of their schedule. At first, it can be an adjustment but it can also be very freeing to realize that only so many things can be accomplished in one day and therefore over-scheduling is futile. Getting groceries for the week or even a few days can be the accomplishment of the day and that’s just fine. 

When you make plans to meet someone for dinner, coffee, or to simply hang out, the expectation here is much different than is often the case in the states. We don’t do dinner reservations very often here, but when we do they are offered in 3-hour increments. There is no rush to leave the table; servers aren’t circling the table, even when no reservation has been made. 

Simple Living: I never really realized how much more stressful it can be to own more stuff until I sold or donated a good deal of stuff the first time we came to Prague. More clothes means more outfits to choose from and more time spent picking “the right” outfit. Let’s be honest, we tend to migrate toward the same pair of jeans or t-shirt anyway so why have eight others that we don’t even use? I don’t consider myself a minimalist exactly, but a more streamlined closet certainly makes an already complicated life that much simpler. 

Fresh bread and cheese: Basically every grocery store here has a fresh bread and cheese section. The selection of breads is amazing, from baguettes to pastries. Not only is the selection great but the prices are too. We’ve gotten a dozen or so breadsticks for about a dollar. The same chocolate pastry sold at Panera Bread for around $3.00 can be found here for less than $1.00, which leads to the next category….

Cheaper Prices: Now, I do want to emphasize that in general we do buy way less here since we use public transport instead of a car and because we only have so much space in our refrigerator. However, even though we buy less in any given trip to the grocery store we don’t really skimp on the things that we do buy, and we find that we often spend far less here than we would in the U.S.  

Architecture and Walk-Friendly Cities: It’s hard to believe that some of these structures were built in the 1300’s. One of my favorite markets has been up and running since 1232! Not to mention the fact that Prague is one of the most beautiful places in the world; seriously check out some pictures. Also, I love that we can walk to various places such as grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, and public transit with relative ease. 

Cheap, Varied, and Reliable Public Transportation: We can travel to other countries often for cheaper than we could travel within our own state in the U.S. For example, we once took a train to Hungary for approximately $50 round trip. Another time we flew to Venice and returned from Milan for approximately $150 round trip, for both of us!! Now you know why we’ve had the privilege to travel so much!

We take buses, trams, and the metro daily and they are all exceptionally clean. I haven’t traveled as much via public transit in the U.S. but I can’t imagine it would be nearly as clean. 

Work/Life Balance: People are expected to take vacations here. It’s almost strange if you don’t. In fact, one new company just launched this year without offering vacation days because they are unlimited! People love and value the outdoors so much that students will often ask to have class outside once Spring hits, so it’s not surprising that many families have summer cottages in the countryside. 

You are expected to stay home when you are sick, regardless of the number of days it takes to get better. Sick doesn’t necessarily mean the flu or something life threatening as is often the expectation in the U.S. Students and members of the work force often miss due to a cold. A doctor’s note may be requested, depending on the number of days absent, but that is easily obtained. 

There are certainly things we do not like about living here, but why dwell on negative things? A recent sermon series has encouraged us to count our blessings and to be grateful for what we have, and these things we’ve listed are certainly some of the wonderful things Europe has to offer. 

Next time....what we miss about the U.S.