How Prague taught me how to live

I moved to Prague 2 years ago, by chance, my husband was invited to work. However, I always liked this city, we have been here many times before moving. But here we are and … I am recruited by a company creating quest excursions. They needed a Russian screenwriter. I was delighted, but did not know that this was only the beginning - the beginning of the absorption of me by the city. With great trepidation, I ran along these thousand-year-old streets, as if on a date. A date with the city? With myself? What was my leisure time in Moscow? I read books, getting me to the center was almost impossible. People? No, thanks, the books are more interesting, next to the best son, husband and cat in the world. “But what is going on?” I thought. “Why do I fall into spleen if I don’t run through these old stones at least several times a week?” What do I care about them? «What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba…»

The city opened up to me gradually: I found the narrowest streets, real ones, and not made for tourists, I, an adherent of home-made food, discovered old beer houses for local residents who do not drink as much as they talk and share news - a culture forever lost for Moscow. Then I realized that I needed people (Lord, what is the matter with me?!) I can no longer cope with my emotions, knowledge, discoveries. And if I don’t start to drag new people into my whirlpool right now, I’ll be torn into a million little Maries.And google was the first to take on my emotions. And then friends and relatives came to us. Once every 5 weeks, my husband and I received guests. And we walked … Ah, how we walked! Through ancient stones, along young streets, local pubs and flooded quarries, through crowds of tourists and through deserted nooks … And then I realized: I do not show people to Prague, I show Prague new people. And it sometimes opens, sometimes it doesn’t … You know how the Mona Lisa, who chooses herself whom to hit and who to leave indifferent … And I’m happy, Prague taught me how to live differently.