Getting to know new people in a city

It’s Wednesday, you’re new in the city and have nothing planned for the rest of the day. What do you do with the time left? Well, have you heard of Timeleft?

If you enjoy going out and grabbing something to eat but all your friends are busy, Timeleft has the perfect solution. It’s a concept that’s bringing strangers together in the fast-paced life of a big city. As stated on their website, they are "fighting big-city loneliness. One dinner at a time."

So, how does it work? Every Wednesday evening, a group of four to six people is randomly matched by an algorithm in over 300 cities. In the app you’ll fill in some basic information about yourself and you will purchase a ticket for a specific date, which costs around 250 CZK. After that, you'll complete a brief personality test to help matching you with people you have something in common with, ensuring some enjoyable conversations. Once that’s done, all that’s left is to wait for your Wednesday dinner.

A few days before the date, you start receiving the first pieces of information: first, the number of people you'll be dining with, followed by their fields of work and nationalities—the rest, you'll have to discover for yourself. On Wednesday morning, you’ll get the location of your dinner.

At that point, you’re all set and there’s nothing else left than just showing up, enjoying the experience, and having fun!

I’ve taken part twice - once with a Czech speaking group and the tother with an English speaking one. It was a great experience both times. Everyone is attending with the same goal as you are - meeting open minded people who live in the same city.

The international group and I went to Waldeska Restaurant in Vršovice and not only was the place very cozy, the company was great too. The algorithm matches people in similar age range of about 10 years apart and the conversations were always unique and people coming from different paths creates one of a kind stories.

Even though going out and meeting new people is exciting, please always be mindful and, most importantly, careful. If you'd like to read more on this topic, there's a great post from Lucie, so you should definitely give it a go:)