I'm living in my husband's native country of Czech Republic now, in its second largest city of Brno in the region of Moravia, know for its wines. We are kind of on the outskirts in a more village-like environment with forests and Moravian hills and meadows nearby. Across the street are the latter two. A beautiful view! Many mornings when I wake up, I hear the call of a pheasant that lives there. My city is only 140 km (87 miles) north of Vienna, Austria (52 km/32 miles from the Austrian border) and 205 km (127 miles) southeast of the capital city of Prague, which is in the Bohemian region (known for its beer). Brno is barely further east than Vienna. Prague is a bit further west than Vienna. I live a bit closer to Paris, France than to Moscow, Russia. Many don't know this about Czech Republic's geography. We're in Central Europe, geographically. The "Eastern" aspect is that Czech is a Slavic language speaking country, but one that uses the Latin alphabet (Western Slavic) like Polish and select others. Not cyrillic, like Russian and most Eastern Slavic family languages.

I'm a native of Central New Jersey in the US. Deeply rooted there. I will always have a love for it, even if I am not living there.