8 Things I Miss About Living in Prague

Sitting at my desk in my Vancouver apartment, it’s easy to forget that I spent almost a whole year living in Prague. Truly, 2019 wasn’t that long ago, but anything pre-pandemic feels like another lifetime.

But every now and then I stumble upon a photo or a memory pops up that transports me back to my expat life in Prague.

I still pinch myself when I’m reminded of our year abroad. How lucky that we got to live in Prague and that we went when we did – any later and covid would have ruined our entire year.

And when our expat year in Prague feels particularly far away, I’m filled with nostalgia for all the things I miss about life in Europe. Which is what inspired this post!

Below I’m sharing eight things I miss about living in Prague; if you’ve ever lived abroad or visited Prague, you may miss these things too.

I’m also sharing six things I don’t miss, because as awesome as Prague was, it wasn’t perfect!

Living in Prague was absolutely one of the highlights of my life.

I can see Colin and I on our rockers in a nursing home many years from now. I’ll say, “Remember that time we lived in Prague?”

And he’ll respond, “What?” because, inevitably, both of our hearing aids will be turned down.

After repeating myself a few times, he’ll finally hear me and we’ll spend a few moments reminiscing about our amazing year spent living abroad in Prague!

To that end, here are eight things I miss about living in Prague:

1. I miss seeing all of the beautiful buildings as we walked around

It’s easy to fall into a routine when you live abroad. And there were definitely days that felt just like life in Vancouver – working at my desk all day, ordering takeout for dinner and watching Netflix on the couch with Colin.

But every day when I went out to walk Ellie, I was reminded of the beautiful new place I got to call home.

Our neighbourhood of Vinohrady was known as one of the most beautiful in Prague, with stunning pre-war buildings on every block.

I would make a mental note every time I walked Ellie to look up, to find a new favourite building and to take notice of a new detail.

I knew our time in Prague was limited and I wanted to commit as much of it to memory as possible.

My favourite view in Prague was from the top of Riegrovy Sady, the local park where I’d often walk Ellie. From the top of the hill, you could see all the way to Prague Castle, a view that lit up at night.

As much as I loved that view at sunset with the castle glowing in the background and dozens of other Penguins (the affectionate term for Prague residents) drinking beer on picnic blankets around us, I loved it best in the morning.

On my morning walk with Ellie, we had that view all to ourselves and I got to marvel at what a beautiful city we had found ourselves in.

2. I miss easy access to all of Europe for travel

While Prague and the Czech Republic are often counted as part of Eastern Europe, any Czech person (or person with a map), will tell you that Prague is firmly part of Central Europe.

And being central, it was so easy for us to visit so much of Europe during our 10 months living in Prague.

From Prague we were only a few hours on the train away from Dresden, Vienna and Bratislava. A quick plane ride found us in London, Copenhagen or even Morocco.

We could visit so many other countries (or even other continents) within a matter of hours. I miss having the ability to easily hop from one place to another!

Not only was Prague central, but so was our apartment. We were within a 10 minute walk of the train station, an even shorter walk to subways and trams, and an easy bus ride from the airport.

I can still picture us walking down the street from our apartment, backpacks on and Ellie’s leash in hand, headed to Praha Hlavní Nádraží (the main train station) for our next adventure.

3. I miss living our travel lifestyle

I think the thing I miss most about living in Prague is our travel lifestyle. While I loved exploring Prague and having a home base, we were mainly there in order to travel around Europe.

Our goal for our year abroad was to experience as much of Europe as we could. And we did a pretty great job at it!

ICYMI: Check out our travel superlatives from our year abroad!

After Colin quit his hotel job, we had the freedom to travel as often as we liked, since I work remotely. We ended up spending about half of each month on the road, usually on two separate trips, coming back to Prague in between.

While I don’t think travelling for 50% of the year is sustainable for us long term, it worked well for our limited time abroad.

I loved always having a trip on the go. We were always either travelling, just getting back or just about to go. There was always another trip on the horizon.

Some of my favourite parts of travelling are before and after the trip, so I was in my element doing lots of itinerary planning beforehand and lots of blog writing afterwards.

I miss the ease at which we could book a trip and take off. I miss having a calendar full of travel plans.

And I miss the ability to take advantage of whatever flight deal or train seat sale came our way without having to worry about vacation days.

4. I miss hearing other languages

I didn’t realize how strange it was to not hear English all of the time until we returned to Vancouver. It was odd to be able to understand almost everyone walking down the street.

In Prague, anytime I heard English, my ears would immediately perk up. I’d stare at the person, trying to telepathically say, “Hey, I speak English too! Do you live here? Let’s be friends!”

In Prague, it was usually Czech we heard all around us (duh!).

But not only Czech – there were lots of other languages too like German, Vietnamese (Prague has a huge Vietnamese population) and Slovak being spoken.

While I missed hearing a language I could understand, I also kind of liked it. It was cool to feel more anonymous and unknown in my city.

It was also exciting whenever I overheard a word in another language that I actually understood!

Of course, there is lots of English spoken in Prague. You’ll hear it a lot in the tourist areas and many Czech people in Prague can speak English.

But just walking around our residential neighbourhood on the day to day, it was rare to catch an English conversation.

It made it so every time I walked outside, my ears knew right away we were living somewhere different and exciting.

5. I miss the cheaper cost of living in Prague!

One of the reasons we chose to move to Prague was because of the more affordable cost of living. In fact, it was about half the cost of life in Vancouver, which was very nice for us.

Unfortunately, costs are on the rise in Prague and many locals are being priced out. Local salaries don’t make Prague affordable for locals, so expats with foreign employers have a huge advantage.

The rent on our furnished, pet-friendly, one-bedroom apartment in a nice part of town was about $1200 CAD per month in 2019/2020. That’s a little high by Prague standards but unheard of in Vancouver.

We got transit passes that allowed us unlimited rides on all forms of public transport in Prague for a year for about $200 CAD per person.

And my Prague monthly phone plan included 100 minutes, 100 texts and 10 GB of data, for about $25 per month. They would also often give us unlimited data every now and then just because!

Perhaps the most surprising price in Prague was the cost of beer.

At the grocery store, big cans or bottles of beer were available for less than $0.50. And at almost every restaurant, beer was cheaper than water!

It was thanks to Prague’s lower cost of living that we were able to make it on one salary and spend so much of the year travelling. Sadly, that’s not an option for us living in Vancouver.

6. I miss the history all around us

Growing up in Canada, anything over 100 years old feels ancient. In Europe, 100 years old is practically newborn!

On our first week in Prague, we walked across the famous Charles Bridge, which was built in the 1300 and 1400s.

Many of the buildings all around our neighbourhood were hundreds of years old and St. George’s Basilica at Prague Castle was actually built in 920.

Many times Colin and I would remark to one another, “This building is older than our country!”

It was so cool to walk through the streets of whatever European city we’d find ourselves in and truly feel like I was walking through the pages of a history book.

Many things we had learned about in school or seen in movies actually came to life for us on the streets in Europe.

And I really loved how connected all of the history felt. We’d learn about a royal family on a walking tour in Munich only to have their story picked up on our next tour in Vienna or Budapest.

But it wasn’t just ancient history we experienced living in Prague. We were in Prague for the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, when the Czech Republic broke out of communist rule.

It was incredibly powerful to gather in Wenceslas Square with so many local residents, hear the jangling of keys and know what had happened in that same spot 30 years ago.

It was even more powerful to remember that many of the people around us were there that day and responsible for ending the communist regime.

You can hear me chat more about our year abroad in Prague on The Thoughtful Travel Podcast with Amanda Kendle!

7. I miss seeing the impressive monuments

Like the beautiful buildings and rich history, Prague’s impressive monuments are another thing I miss. While Vancouver has some great views, there’s really nothing like stumbling upon a gigantic church or statue you’d expect to see in a museum.

One of our favourite walking routes with Ellie was to nearby Namesti Miru where the imposing Church of Saint Ludmila sits – and whose clock bells went off at weird times of day for far too long.

The spires of the church stand almost 200 feet tall and were incredibly detailed. It was such a thrill to walk our dog around this impressive building each day.

Of course, Charles Bridge is one of Prague’s most famous monuments. This historic bridge is covered in statues but, as we learned, most of the statues on the bridge are fake.

The real statues (taken down to save them from the effects of weather) are housed in the casemates at Vysehrad. It was so cool to tour this underground area and be met with giant, impressive statues.

Don’t miss my 3 day expat itinerary for Prague, which includes the casemates at Vysehrad Castle!

One of our first sights in Prague was Wenceslas Square where the Statue of Saint Wenceslas sits astride his horse at the top of the square. Behind him is the beautiful National Museum, which looks like it should be a palace or parliament building.

Both completely blew us away when we got off the train and first arrived in Prague. Clearly, we were not in Kansas anymore.

8. I miss how dog-friendly Prague is

One of the final things I miss about life in Prague – and life in Europe – is how dog-friendly it was.

When we first planned to move to Europe, we had considered leaving Ellie behind with family in Canada. We thought it would be such a hassle to travel with her.

But turns out, Prague made it really easy!

Prague is a very dog-friendly city with lots of parks and dog-friendly spaces. There were always other dogs out when we were walking Ellie and our local park, Riegrovy Sady, even had an off-leash dog area.

But it wasn’t just parks where dogs were allowed. Many restaurants, shops and public buildings allowed dogs too.

Ellie would come to dinner with us, join us at the post office and often accompany us on trams, subways and trains. In many places, she was greeted warmly and even brought a dish of water!

Perhaps the most dog-friendly part about Prague was the free poop bags. I’ve seen free poop bag dispensers in other cities, including in Vancouver. But they’re usually just located in dog parks.

In Prague, these dispensers were everywhere! Not in parks, but out on street corners all throughout the city.

And while I have some criticisms about the design of the bag (a paper bag with a cardboard sheet you’re supposed to fashion into a shovel), I can’t fault a city for helping its dog owners clean up their messes all over town.

6 things I don’t really miss about living in Prague

While I miss living in Prague and having the rest of Europe on our doorstep, there are a few things I certainly don’t miss!

1) I don’t miss being far from the ocean

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country. And while Prague does have a river, it’s nowhere near an ocean.

Living in Vancouver, I’ve taken having an ocean in my backyard for granted. It also made me a little leery of seafood in Prague since I knew it couldn’t be that fresh!

2) I don’t miss Czech food

I make no secret of the fact that I’m not a fan of Czech food.

I find it very heavy and lacking in vegetables and colour. It’s a lot of meat, potatoes or bread they call dumplings, and gravy.

While I did find a few Czech dishes I liked – and loved the amount of Vietnamese food available – I certainly don’t miss Czech cuisine.

3) I don’t miss being bad at the language

Czech is a very hard language! It’s one of the hardest languages in the world; they say it takes 2+ years of hardcore studying to become fluent.

And since it’s only spoken in the Czech Republic, unlike Spanish or French that are spoken more widely, it’s hard to practice.

We learned a few Czech phrases while we lived in Prague but certainly never devoted ourselves to studying the language properly.

We were able to get by, but did run into a few issues. If we were planning to stay longer, I definitely would have prioritized learning Czech.

4) I don’t miss being far from family

One of the hardest parts of our expat year in Prague was being so far away from our friends and family in Canada.

Christmas 2019 was the first time Colin or I had spent a Christmas not in Canada and not with family. (Though a European Christmas Market road trip helped to make up for that!)

While we were so lucky to have some of our family members come out to visit and travel with us around Europe, it was tough being so far away for so long.

5) I don’t miss feeling lost at the grocery store

Grocery shopping in Prague was a fun experience. I liked seeing new things, I loved the cheaper prices, and I was not mad at the large and affordable selection of cheese!

But, mostly due to the language barrier, it was also confusing.

Trying to bake was almost impossible (I was never certain which flour was the right one) and we often went home with not exactly what we thought we were buying.

The mistakes were mostly funny and forced us to be creative in the kitchen, but it’s nice being back in Canada where I know how it all works.

6) I don’t miss being the sole earner for our family

This was one of the toughest parts of our year abroad. Because we wanted the freedom to travel, we decided Colin should quit his job at the hotel in Prague while I continued working remotely.

This was hard for both of us. Colin missed having coworkers and a sense of purpose.

And I disliked the pressure of being the breadwinner and guilt I felt whenever I wasn’t working. We had many conversations and agreed this arrangement wasn’t something we’d want to do long term.

But it did give us the freedom to travel around Europe, which I am so grateful for.

Wrapping up: Remembering the pros and cons of living in Prague

Looking back on the eight things I miss about living in Prague (plus the six things I don’t miss so much) just reminds me how lucky I am to have had the experience to live abroad in Prague. What an epic adventure!

I’m so glad we chose Prague, settled in so well and made the most of our year abroad. Especially since our year was cut short thanks to covid, I’m really proud of us for travelling and getting out into the city as much as we did.

All in all, I definitely really miss our Prague life. And as much as I love life in Vancouver, I can’t wait until we’re travelling in Europe again soon or on our next long term adventure!

Check out these posts to learn more about our expat life abroad in Prague:

• Guess What? We’re Moving to Prague!
• Expat Life: The Moment Before You Go
• Expat Life: Settling into Prague
• 17 Things I Didn’t Know Before Living in Prague
• 19 Things No One Tells You About Being an Expat
• Expat Life: Finding the Balance
• 3 Days in Prague – An Expat’s Itinerary
• Expat Reflections: 6 Months of Living in Prague
• Expat Life: Taking a Break
• What NOT to Do in Prague
• Leaving Prague (Almost Three Months Early)
• Looking Back at Our Expat Year in Prague
• Is Prague a Good Place to Live?