It’s eight years ago today that I woke up in Hotel Máchova in Prague, ready to start a six-month adventure living in the Czech Republic. I’d organised an apartment to stay in, in advance after a scary experience in Zurich, but it wasn’t going to be available for two days, so I had booked into a hotel a few hundred yards down the way.
First rule of expat life: Try and arrange somewhere to stay in advance! In Zurich, I had very little preparation time before I arrived and had found a B&B in advance, but they could only put me up for a few days. I had really underestimated how hard it could be to find apartments. Especially in the days before AirBnB!