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What's the Czech Republic like to live in?

Sights with sighs

By Karol Leannah DeLongePublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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Prague

Of course Prague (the capital) is beautiful and everyone is always putting a lot of effort into making your stay here amazing but what is it like for the Czechs? Let's start with the thing yo might have noticed when if you ever visited - people here are so nice and welcoming - WRONG! They are welcoming because you are from a different country and tourism is what they live off of. It isn't the same in every city though because the further you get from Prague the more you can start noticing how inconsiderate people here really can be even as a foreigner.

If you are a Czech person it is a very different story (of course I am not saying everyone is actually mean and miserable, but the vast majority of people isn't their best self around other Czechs). For example if you ask a shop's assistant a question they will probably answer it with a slight hint of them thinking you are stupid and it's a thing you should just generally know - especially in small towns and no matter what your question is. Sometimes you might get spoken to in a very rude tone about things that you have no way of knowing.

But not very welcoming cases of customer service aside - what about getting jobs and things like that? Well if you ever happen to be unemployed here get ready for a very long ride full of struggle. First of all you need to register with your local labor office that will pay your insurance for you until you find another job. And yes! You do need to be insured and pay a monthly fee to an insurance company that you chose, this hit me really hard after getting used to UK's NHS free health care.

It does sound really good that they will pay your insurance for you though, right? Right, but what if you are in a really tough finance situation and you would like to claim some benefits for the duration of your unemployment?

Well I've personally experienced this and it doesn't only take hours of your time waiting at the offices, it also takes a lot of your patience as every single labor office person will tell you something else. Welcome to a world where you cannot trust anyone that works in a labor office as most of these people don't even really know the law and it might even take you two months of going there at least once a week to even get your application ready. By this time you've probably sorted everything out and found yourself a new source of income and none of this was worth it.

What about Czech paychecks? Let's check! The minimum wage in here is 87,30 Kč (Czech crowns) which is about £2.96. Based on that you'd think that things must be really cheap in here but you would be wrong as the prices of food, travel, electronics and most of other things are pretty much like the prices in England. However it is a bit cheaper to get a Prague's version of an Oyster card. Rent on the other hand is very similar to what it looks like in smaller towns in the UK which for an English person is a really good price, but keep in mind in here if you're making £4 an hour it's considered a good pay. Then again the further you get from Prague the cheaper your rent will become. And no you don't get paid more when you live in the capital, the minimum wage bar is set for the entire country.

The really good thing about the Czech Republic is how dog friendly the country is though! It's the perfect place for dog owners because you can take your dog almost everywhere with you which is great if you don't mind making just about enough money to join your four-legged companion for a bowl of their delicious meal.

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