I’m a Czech student who grew up in the UK and now lives in Prague.
After some travelling, I’ve found that Germany feels the most natural to me, because culturally it’s somewhere in the middle, which matches how I feel identity-wise. I can speak the language well enough for most everyday and official scenarios, but for socializing I still feel the most comfortable with English (because I don’t have to actively think about what I’m saying). Are there any places in Germany with communities that speak English by default? I’ve been thinking about trying Berlin or perhaps an Erasmus-heavy city like Heidelberg…
Berlin for sure. In my experience, most major cities in Germany have international islands, where speaking English is the default, but they quickly get more provincial and less welcoming to non-Germans once you move off of that island. Berlin is special in that even the old-school parts of the city often don’t feel that way (the suburbs still do though). Hamburg may be a close second.