Turkish Intern: My Arrival to Prague

Hello! I am Buse, newly graduated from my bachelor degree, the new intern at Prague office of Foreigners.cz. Here is the story of my first days in the wonderful Czech capital. Enjoy!

After I left Istanbul with rainy weather Prague welcomed me with further rain. Now it’s been two weeks since I moved to Prague. Not surprisingly, I adore the city, who can’t??? And I had an instant revelation when I had a chance to see the city in the first place, that is to say, now I can understand how a city can be an inspiration for writers and poets for centuries. For me, it is a great experience to see the place where famous Turkish poet Nazım Hikmet wrote his poems.

 

Pace of Life

I must say that the one and a very important issue I met was the social life and the pace of life. It was my first time in Prague but not in the continent. I am used to seeing a lot of people around me, crowded streets, to do the shopping and other routines after work. Most of the European cities are not like this. When I was abroad before I felt disappointed as I couldn’t find a place to drink a coffee after 7 pm or any proper place to eat other than one or two fast food restaurants on Sundays. I know Sundays are for families but there should be a couple of alternatives to socialise, right? I mean, about the pace of life you can find more than you expected in Prague.

Events

I am not going to make a list because in Prague in every time you can find an event according to your preferences. Even when you’re not looking for one 😀 The city is constantly busy with new events occurring and there’s no room for boredom. For me, for instance, the Signal Festival was a good occurrence. In different places of the city, I had a chance to see many unique events. There are several festivals taking place along the year, theatre and music events. I was lucky to come here in autumn because there was no excessive tourist crowd and besides Prague is so beautiful displaying the colours of autumn that I cannot find the words to describe.

People

People are nice and kind but still very different from my culture. I wasn’t expecting a Mediterranean culture with its cheerful people and I didn’t find one. One of my expectation about this internship was to observe closely a different culture. At the beginning, I felt a small empathy from the people around me and I thought it was my fault. Then I realised that they can understand me, just they weren’t reacting to me as I expected. They don’t want to get involved because they don’t know you. After I understood that everything gets easier.

Location

I’m really impressed by the ease of travelling from here to other countries where I can meet my friends. It is amazing because from Prague visiting a neighbouring country is like travelling to another Turkish city. Anyway, it is a benefit that almost everyone knows, I know I didn’t reinvent the wheel 😀

Food

Now people tend to move away from me when I start complaining about food 😀 I am sorry but please remember that I am coming from a country that has very tasty cuisine 😀 Well, I still admit that in Prague there is huge range of food for everyone but I couldn’t find which one is for me.I figured it out, though: Everything is fine when you eat while you’re drinking incredibly good Czech beer. Yes, I think I can live with that 🙂 Even though I couldn’t find my favourite restaurant or meal. I found my favourite beer so here is the key for you too. Just find yours 😉