I loved Berlin so much I went twice. And I’d go again and again. And if I felt the need to be an expat in a country, I’d choose this city. Is it the most beautiful city in the world? Not in the traditional sense. Berlin’s beauty comes from its vibe, history, and people.

Graffiti. It’s everywhere. The moment you step into the city center, you’re greeted with spray painted murals, nonsense, crude pictures, inspirational quotes, and whatever else you could think of tagging. It covers every building from bottom to – somehow – the top, doesn’t matter what the building is underneath whether it’s an apartment, shop, restaurant, etc.

The buildings are relatively new since the city had to be built from the ground up after World War II. A city that doesn’t shy away from its dark past, there are reminders of the war all over the city: the Berlin Wall still stands in pieces in random areas and memorials to the Jewish people are spotted all around the city (seen below – Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe)

The people are as diverse as any major American city and they dress artistically/athletically/sharply. Their tattoo, piercing, and goth culture is prevalent. And their English is just as clean as their German. Their thrift stores – even though expensive (!!!) – were filled to the brim with clothes from all over the world.

And their food culture is just as diverse as their people. I had Indian, German, Middle Eastern, vegetarian-Persian food, and I had a hamburger at a Mexican restaurant. I sat in a punk-rock themed restaurant where all the patrons and workers were covered in black clothes and tattoos. Our waitress regaled us with stories of the insane clubs Berlin has to offer while serving us burgers and piña coladas. Basically, what I’m saying is you can get whatever food experience you please.

The vein of rebellion and freedom of expression ran through the heart of the city; no one looked at anyone strangely no matter how many tattoos were on their face or how colorfully they dressed.

I felt the need to indulge in their 5:00 to 9:00 happy hours and giant thrift stores. I almost bought a camo jacket with a German flag on the sleeve, but I felt that would be unsavory in many American public spaces.

They celebrated street art with the Urban Nation Museum and an exhibit for Banksy in a mall that was solely pop-up shops.

It was the first country I visited where I actually had conversations with locals.

It was the only country I felt the most at home. I’ll be back Berlin. I’ll be back.

Prepare yourselves, because this is a long one.

When I was telling people I had chosen Prague to study for my spring semester the response was always “Oh cool …. Where is that?” The geography nerd in me was always confused about why no one knew about this city which is the capital of the Czech Republic. But I suppose it isn’t normal to think of this until recently communist country as a destination spot. Also, a ton of older people still refer to the Czech Republic as Czechoslovakia even though that hasn’t been the country’s name since 1989. But I digress.

There are many reasons I chose to study there:

1. I wanted to go where I wouldn’t know anyone else in my program or in the city
2. I wanted the ease of country hopping
3. It was weirdly inexpensive to survive there and the cheapest of AIFS programs
4. Who goes to Prague?

So, after a fall semester of a lot of almost missed deadlines, crying, and gathering funds, I was set to go.

BUT THEN. Due to my slight error, I sent my visa application in late. I was waiting around for it to show up…. down to the very last day. Tears were shed and phone calls were made and it looked hopeless leading up to it y’all. And thanks to God and the lady at the Czech Embassy, my visa got approved the DAY I was supposed to leave on January 26th. But then FedEx messed up the delivery to my house 🙂 so I didn’t get to go on the optional excursion to London with my program. Now to be quite honest, I’m not even mad I didn’t go. I believe that London was not supposed to happen because clearly there was something there I wasn’t supposed to see – and now I have slight anxiety about London as a whole. Anyway, on January 29th I headed for Prague. And after two flight changes, 11 hours of flying to Europe, more crying from happiness and stress, and a lot of praying, I arrived on January 30th.

As soon as I arrived I hit the ground running – I figured out how to get from the airport to my dorm at Charles University to meet with my program. As much as I just love attention, I wasn’t particularly fond of receiving attention as the “late girl.” But I ran with it. Thankfully my roommate was dope, and so were all of the people that were empathetic to my stressful journey. And without missing a beat, in normal fashion, I went out that night with everyone and bonded with people instantly. God bless my social skills.

I’m not going to give you a day by day because that’s boring. But I will give a quick rundown on a few of the things that stood out to me the most:

School

I had the honor of attending Charles University, one of the oldest colleges in the world. I took Czech Language for two weeks, Urban Sociology, Landscape Sociology, and Czech History during their protests in history. Here’s what I learned academically:

1. Nothing.

But that’s my own fault. When you’re jetlagged basically the whole time and the school is 20 minutes away and the classes have no true format, you have a tendency to fall asleep a lot. Or maybe it was just me. I don’t know. I enjoyed getting to know the professors and roaming through the halls of the main building. But my learning came from experience, not the academics. Even the finals were easy. I took two tests where the professors gave us all the answers and I had to write 3 papers that only had to be max 2000 words. I didn’t even have to excel, I just had to pass. And I don’t even feel bad, because a girl I talked to that studied abroad before me told me “the hardest part about studying abroad is getting there.” And WOW was she right.

The People

Czech people aren’t rude, they’re just reserved. Something I had to remind myself very often when the waitress wouldn’t smile at me, no one would try to make conversation, or no one would look me in the eye. I learned that when you’re on the metro, being loud is rude and so is looking at people. God forbid if you’re a girl and you look a man in the eye; that’s considered flirting. And if you smile at him too? You’re inviting something you really don’t want.

However, once you get used to how reserved the people are and let go of perception based on negative things you’ve heard about them, you’ll learn that they’re actually nice people. You can’t judge a society that’s vastly different from yours solely because of what you’re used to, and I learned that every day. People would help me when I needed it, they’d laugh at my very poor attempts at the Czech language, and they would smile once they learned I am an American. Shoutout to that bouncer at Lucerna who bought me a mojito and asked me to teach him some English. But that probably wasn’t out of the kindness of his heart… I might have smiled at him.

Food

People tell you that Czech food is meat with potatoes and very little vegetables or fruits and you’ll drink a beer at every meal. As a matter of fact, their “vegetarian meal” is a solid block of fried cheese with tartar sauce on the side (seen above). People will tell you that all you’ll eat in the Czech Republic are meat and potatoes, and that you’ll get little if any vegetables or fruits. That’s not true in Prague, but it is true in other cities in Czech Republic. It is true that you will drink beer at every meal. I have unfortunately developed a taste for beer, and I would like to curb that craving as soon as possible.

However, I was pleasantly surprised at the vast array of international food options. As an Asian food enthusiast, I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun trying so many varieties so often in my life. I almost lived off of Vietnamese food on a regular basis because there were so many different restaurants in the city. I got to try Indian, Chinese, and Japanese foods too. But Vietnamese reigned supreme because I needed a bowl of Pho at least twice a week. And they had the tried and true American fare: pizza and burgers. If pizza was more than $2 I didn’t want it and it probably wasn’t good anyway. And burgers were good everywhere I went.

Partying

Beer gardens man. All you did is sit in a park with friends. Beers flow for $2 and hot dogs cost $1. A great concept.

We went out a lot and I spent more money than I should have. A rundown of the nightclubs and bars:

2. Roxy: the definition of a Euro club that only played weird techno music. The club was filled with 90% men who gave creepy vibes under strobe lights. 0/10 – I don’t recommend.
3. U sudu – a favorite if we wanted a chill night. Or it was where we went before going to the next club. It was in a cave, so the deeper in you went the farther underground you went. And each level had different music and different activities. A lot of international groups would come and talk or sing as loud as possible. Also, they allowed cigarettes inside (as a lot of European places did) so once you came up for air your hair and clothes would smell like smoke. A small casualty for a fun night.’
4. Chapeau (Chateau? who knows.) Rouge – went here my first night and fell in LOVE with
5. A bar with three levels: chill level, hip hop level, and then weird techno-they’re- probably-doing-something-illegal level. (I went down there once and then immediately went back up.) All the American kids were there so you weren’t getting an European experience. But at least you didn’t have to keep saying “I can’t understand you.”
6. Retro – Rowdy and American. That’s all I have to say.
7. Radost – a cool swanky club where Rihanna filmed her “Please Don’t Stop the Music” video.

Don’t worry; I didn’t just party all the time.

I saw Prague Castle, the landmark that is famously depicted in almost every picture of Prague’s skyline. I walked the old Charles Bridge and marveled at Old Town Square which is beautiful, old, expensive, and filled with annoying tourists (Technically, I was a tourist too, but I lived there so I had every right to be annoyed.) The Astronomical Clock, unfortunately, was out of service so all I ever got to see was a hologram of it, but not seeing an old clock wasn’t the most disappointing thing that could happen. The John Lennon Wall was smaller than I anticipated but still cool due to the fact that people would tag it every day, so it was constantly changing. There was a park that had several peacocks in it and no one explained to me how they got there. I even went to the opera “Don Giovanni” and I managed not to sleep through most of it. See, I immersed myself in the culture too. Of course that’s not all it, but for the sake of keeping this somewhat condensed those were the activities I enjoyed most.

It’s surreal being able to look at pictures and say: “wow I stood there.” I don’t want to be the girl that talks about studying abroad in all my conversations. But I probably will end up being just that.