I'm in Europe, too. Certainly the gas prices have increased, but not as much the food, yet, especially if I buy Czech made or from farmer's markets. As I drive a hybrid car and often only locally, the gas increases don't affect me as much as others. Ultimately it will, since it isn't just auto-related.

Czech Republic does have Nationalist types, like everywhere else, but I don't notice nearly as much conflict as in the US (I'm American). Perhaps I just keep myself well enough separated from them. I don't know if crime is up here. Crime doesn't seem nearly as bad in CZ as in the US. Guns are not nearly as worshiped in CZ as they are in the US. Never heard of many mass shootings here as in the US. Something is terribly terribly wrong in the US, and no efforts to fix the problem are ever implemented. Or the wrong ones are.

I feel that the pace and stresses in life are much lesser in CZ than in the US. I'm glad to be where I am now. Never been so mentally stable, despite language difficulties.