It was an ordinary day in spring 2004 when my business partner and friend chatted with me in an art café from Kafka´s period  designed in the Art deco style in the New Town of Prague.  He passionately talked about a web page homeexchange.com that he did discovered the night before. He always saw things a little differently from other people and considered this trust based exchange as a great way how to travel. I signed up became a member of homeexchange.com in early 2006.

At that time there were only a few homes available for exchange in Prague, not more than 10 and a slightly different system regarding how to register a new listing.  Nowadays there are over 120 offers, but still the vast majority are not right in the Prague city centre, by which I mean Lesser Quarter area, the Prague Castle area , Old Town, Jewish Quarter and the New Town of Prague.  The original  web pages looked differently, there were no chatting systems or designed email accounts.

First friends from Berlin and Rome 

My very first home exchange partner arrived in Prague from Berlin in spring  2006. . Interestingly I don’t remember her name – well, until my friend arrived I thought that maybe a woman is coming to prepare a sweet cake. Actually a nice, witty and well travelled man came who did indeed have a  “sweet tooth”. He was kind enough to share his experience with me on how to prepare a flat description, the flat itself and advise me about how to arrange keys and welcome in my guests in my flat. He also talked about the great friendships he had established by home exchanging .  Later, in winter 2007 I swapped a flat with a family from Rome, they told me how they started with home exchanges before internet was commonly used. During that time an advertising book was printed and sent by post.

Experienced  Home-Exchanger and Blog Beginner

Well, in the past eleven years I realised over 15 homeexchanges and took my family and friends several times to Paris, Rome or Venezia, we spent a great time in Berlin, Madrid, Valencia, Edinburg, Alicante, Avignon, Stockholm, Bologna or Lisbon to name just a few. And indeed, now I am the experienced traveller explaining how it works to my exchange partners.

I began my career in business as an incoming tourist agency operator and I fully enjoyed it. I loved showing off the magical town of Prague on thematic walking tours. And yes, I learnt a lot from my customers, primarily to admire my home town and to observe it from a foreigner’s perspective. I am convinced that my business partnership with an English man and friendships with Expats play a vital role in this and have altered my relationship to Prague for the better. This is  the reason why I began with this blog. Currently I am envolved in a completely different business branch. I had previously only good memories, and experience of being a tour operator but I also wanted to capitalize on my knowledge of Prague and experience as a tour operator and central city dweller. I would love to share with you a passion for the Lesser Quarter area and the historical centre of Prague. I would like to  give you tips for walks in the immediate surrounding of my flat (that does include the Charles Bridge) and also tips to explore Prague, plus later, maybe some tips for trips outside of Prague. The main idea behind this blog is to  invite you to come to my flat to live like a local at least for a while J.