Once upon a time, before I became Edinburgh’s best free tour guide, I lived another life as an English teacher in Prague. It was formative. I would not be the same person had I not experienced it. I learnt poverty, humility, patience. And it all started due to a collection of mistakes. This is the story of how I went from Fraser, University of Edinburgh graduate working a collection of wildly inappropriate jobs, to Fraser, master performer.
It’s how I learnt to listen when the world tells you what to do.
Prelude to Prague Adventures
For a time, I worked in hospitality. Most particularly, a glamping campsite in one of the most gorgeous parts of the world – the Scottish Highlands.
What experiences in life helped you grow the most?
Cleaning toilets, picking up cigarette butts, becoming a seasonal alcoholic with guests. I worked in the shop. I cooked bacon rolls. One boy asked me to burn the bacon for him. He was on an adventure of his own as his dog only had months to live. I hope he has found peace since then.
It was supposed to be a temporary thing. 3 months up there in the West Highlands during the Summer to make a bunch of money and figure out what was happening next. In the end I did 6 months and still had no more idea of what to do.
“You should become a tour guide.”
Ridiculous, they don’t make any money, I reasoned. Instead I’ll go into a famously well-paid job: teaching.
English teaching as a foreign language, like a linguistic tour guide
I started doing a TEFL course online. It also had a few days of real class and I made some friends there. It was not horribly expensive but did take up a bit of the money from my Highland work. It was cheap compared to the proper courses some people do they take a month or more. (Warning: some schools do not hire people without longer courses and more prestigious certificates).
I passed with 90 odd per cent. So with the qualification in hand did I immediately set off? Ha, no.
Indecision
It might seem strange to those that know me now but for a time I felt paralysed. Indecision crept up like a horrible spider that caught me in a web and prepared for dinner. The desire to not do anything wrong was greater than the desire to do anything potentially great.
“Maybe you should become a tour guide,” said someone else. Too risky, I thought.
So there I was. Trapped, working as a temp waiter at Christmas events.
Roisin
I got chatting to my friend, Roisin. I realised we had missed our yearly quota of two meetings. She was teaching abroad and I’d missed her window home to work some stupid shift.
I decided to book a trip and then fate intervened. I accidentally booked 3 months instead of 5 days.
How does that even happen? I don’t know but what followed was just the best.
Prague as Europe’s Other Most Beautiful City
I took to Prague like a seasonally migrating bird takes wing. The city impressed me around every corner. I was never bored, the city was much cheaper than Edinburgh. I walked the streets exploring alone. This was novel to me as I’ve always loved people. Doing new things is good.
I made friends with a collection of English teachers and tour guides. I met my wife on the day I was suppose to go home.
I stayed for three years.
Relative abundance and relative poverty
It’s hard to say quite how well I was doing in Prague. In part because I forgot exactly how much I was generally making and also because looking up statistics in a country with another language is quite tricky. What I can say is this: I ate well, drank excessively, went to restaurants at least a couple times a week, wore fairly new clothes, and had no issues with transport or travel in general. I performed poetry, badly. This is all tinged by nostalgia. My poetry was probably much worse.
When I was actually there I felt poor and vulnerable. Rent was a huge expense. At one point our washing machine broke and we didn’t think we could afford to replace it (by the way, we probably could have and it would’ve worked cheaper than the laundromat visits). Savings were non-existent for us and every week my wife and I went to the supermarket with cash and budgeted hard.
If we couldn’t make an item fit into a £30 (600 CZK) budget it didn’t go.
Opportunities
The city was full of opportunity however as everyone wanted better English skills. I frequently found people paying well for what I offered. I learnt how to maximise these opportunities.
“Extra lessons? Help with a presentation? Any friends looking for a teacher?“
It didn’t always work but essentially I learnt a bit about how to market and make a bit of extra money.
It was enough to part finance my wedding anyway. Then we went home.
Edinburgh: a great city to be a free tour guide
On returning home, I found English teaching opportunities pretty dry. There is already a surplus of talented English teachers here, with better qualifications. Lost, I returned to my first love as a temp waiter at events.
“You should become a tour guide,” said my wife, and so I did.
The Lesson of Prague
While over there, I learnt how to budget very tightly. I learnt how valuable it is to have friends. It taught me that friends can become clients, clients can become friends, and treating people well is the best way to get through it.
It taught me how to be alone but then it let me be with someone. Nothing is more important in life than a good partner and companion. Sometimes you should listen to them, especially when it echoes what the world is telling you to do.
The writer of this piece has theories on the world.
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