Living In Western Europe
- Thread starter Fiver
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Ahhh, ok... if you're a tourist just visiting, then yeah, Budapest is a beautiful city. Living there is a different story though, at least for me. How long were you there?
Remember the city? It's all grey, right? Every last building is grey. There's no color at all in that city. Remember the people while walking the streets? Nobody is smiling, right? Everyone is poor, pissed off, and miserable. Remember the number of homeless people? They're absolutely everywhere -- there's more homeless people than pigeons there (and there's a lot of pigeons).
Spend 6 months in Budapest, then go visit Prague. You'll be on cloud nine with a permanent smile for a week, because Prague is such a beautiful city. Vibrant color everywhere, it's wealthy, people are happy and doing good, etc.
Well, that and it's not exactly modern. Their tram and subway cars are the 30 year old pieces of junk that Germany is about to throw in the garbage.
Yeah, but you can't just flag taxis down off the street. Or did you? If so, how did you manage that? I tried a couple times -- didn't work so well. Hop in to find out my driver is a 240lbs skinhead, then sure enough, right when he finds out I don't speak Hungarian *beep, beep, beep, beep* goes the meter, and off we go at $10/km.
Budapest has awesome bike paths though. Not sure what that's all about, considering the state of the rest of the city, but they do have a top notch bike path system. You can go nearly anywhere in that city without having to ride your bike on the road, and it's all nicely paved, two lane bike paths.
^^^ I spent about 2 weeks there recently. There were some bums in the city center but I didn't see any in Buda. Definitely fewer than I see in LA. I recall them being concentrated in certain areas instead of all over the place.
They have some newer looking trams and some older ones, too. They were fine.
I'm sure it's not as colorful as Prague but the views of the city at night are amazing, especially from places like Buda castle or just overlooking the Danube.
East Europeans don't smile as much as Americans but they didn't give off any pissed off vibes. I think they think that idiots smile a lot. Lol.
I only grabbed a taxi once, around 1am. I just flagged him off the street.
I met other foreigners living in Hungary and they loved it.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxGHSX0KmAE"]Five Reasons to Visit Hungary - YouTube[/ame]
They have some newer looking trams and some older ones, too. They were fine.
I'm sure it's not as colorful as Prague but the views of the city at night are amazing, especially from places like Buda castle or just overlooking the Danube.
East Europeans don't smile as much as Americans but they didn't give off any pissed off vibes. I think they think that idiots smile a lot. Lol.
I only grabbed a taxi once, around 1am. I just flagged him off the street.
I met other foreigners living in Hungary and they loved it.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxGHSX0KmAE"]Five Reasons to Visit Hungary - YouTube[/ame]
And what about east europe? I am from Slovakia, and I cannot complain. Everything is pretty cheap here and the life here is just fine.
yup, just dont watch hostel movie or EuroTrip movie...
yup, just dont watch hostel movie or EuroTrip movie...
France is a beautiful country. Hard to make any suggestions without knowing what you like, personally I like the South. Language is going to be more of a barrier in the Romance-speaking countries than the Germanic ones.
Laws vary country to country. Some are more business friendly than others (France is one of the more socialist ones by the way.) Generally speaking Europe is pretty hard to emigrate to. Best to get over here and explore - both interrail and budget airliners make it pretty cheap and easy to get around.
Prague has been mentioned a lot, it's very cheap and a great place. Amsterdam is a cool city, but it's expensive (nearly on a par with London.) Barcelona is well worth a look.
Laws vary country to country. Some are more business friendly than others (France is one of the more socialist ones by the way.) Generally speaking Europe is pretty hard to emigrate to. Best to get over here and explore - both interrail and budget airliners make it pretty cheap and easy to get around.
Prague has been mentioned a lot, it's very cheap and a great place. Amsterdam is a cool city, but it's expensive (nearly on a par with London.) Barcelona is well worth a look.
My buddy tried to move to Sweden and couldn't. He has a phd and teaches at university here in the states, but couldn't get any work once he got to Sweden or permanent residency. He speaks the language and has tons of friends there/visits often.
That surprises me since they seem to let radical Muslims move there without a hitch.
PHP:
Probably easier to pull off the self employed visa with internet marketing, but that's the usual case here, even locals can have a hard time finding work out of university. He's better off in the States anyway, unless he's into high taxes and cold weather.
Prague is where it's at.
When I was there it wasn't uncommon to see an older guy with a younger girl...
When I was there it wasn't uncommon to see an older guy with a younger girl...
Prague is touristy and expensive compared to other parts of EE.
Budapest is becoming Prague but is still a little cheaper.
Pro business, look at Estonia. Everything can be done online and it's still cheap. For women, look at the ex Yugoslav countries, especially Bosnia. They're also some of the cheapest.
Budapest is becoming Prague but is still a little cheaper.
Pro business, look at Estonia. Everything can be done online and it's still cheap. For women, look at the ex Yugoslav countries, especially Bosnia. They're also some of the cheapest.
I'm leaving Germany a.s.a.p. Crazy fuckers want the equivalent of nearly $1000 U.S. a month for health coverage. It goes against my taxes, but even so. That's insane.
Worse, I think it tells my unconscious mind to make my body sick just so that I feel like I'm getting my money's worth ...
Worse, I think it tells my unconscious mind to make my body sick just so that I feel like I'm getting my money's worth ...
I'm in germany right now, i'm the only black guy everywhere I go. The public transportation is pretty awesome compared to florida but yeah taxes seem a problem and they are strict about torrenting and downloading so yeah. definitely not germany... although the views are pretty impressive.
I lived in Bulgaria for 4 years and visited Sofia very often. Stilll one of my favorite cities.
You'll be alright there if you go full-tourist route and spend a lot of money for hotels/apartments. ("a lot" = moderate)
PM me if you need anything, I might help or give you the necessary contacts.
edit: there might be actual Bulgarians here, so I'll definitely give the floor to them, but I think they're all banned.
kekeke
Thanks. I'll probably go in June for a couple weeks. I noticed some nice places on airbnb.com for $25-35/night. (I like to travel on the cheap.)
Do women under 30 generally speak some English in Sofia?
I checked out about every other country in the region and met the locals. Sofia's pretty ok compared to most large cities there but not that different to Belgrade if you want to party, in fact belgrade is probably the better destination as far as vibrancy if you're visiting during the cold months. Everyone seems to flock to the coasts in the summer, lots of foreign tourists including. Bulgaria has the advantage of being in the eu, so you can spend some serious time there if you're into it.
Here's what you can expect from developing countries in the balkans:
- crazy amount of friendliness from the locals: people inviting you to a home cooked dinners minutes after meeting you and a genuine interest in showing you the "real" side of their countries, as most are portrayed badly in the west. just about all young people speak english
- plenty of natural beauty: think alps-like mountains but not as much tourism
- everything cheap: getting around, great local food, booze.. you still got the odd mcdonalds at an airport though they're a lot less common
- feels a lot safer than most western european capitals if you're white. the "no-go" areas inc certain cities only apply to locals.
- the women are exactly what you think/as would expect, one night stand culture is almost non existent though
- corruption is common though you probably won't have to grease anyone, the taxes are usually fixed and you might get overcharged on taxis if you're not using the official ones. if they detect a north american accent, you're a lot better off with a local friend to avoid being overcharged 10-20 eur on average.
- people are just as educated and aware of their portrayal in the west. if you want to run an internet company, you won't have trouble finding qualified local talent.
- no matter where you decide to settle, the locals will be open to it and down to help you out. they're mostly pleasantly surprised
Basically avoid greece anytime but the summer due to obvious reasons (not to mention it's a hell of a lot more expensive and developed by comparison), zagreb is great to visit and the adriatic coast is amazing in the spring/summer, slovenia is a lot more developed and expensive, serbia=bulgaria=romania=macedonia=bosnia=albania basically equal as far as cost of living unless you're completely scraping by. If you're american, I wouldn't publicly advertise it in places like serbia due to the '99 nato bombings but you can still have a great time on your own and the same things I listed above apply there. The balkans are weird in that way, drive a bit down to a place like albania and they're not just neutral, most people seemed extremely pro-american. You also won't notice much of a difference between the EU and candidate countries, unless you visit greece or slovenia.
The downsides and things to avoid tho:
- Standing out too much with status, try not to attract a lot of attention unless you're partying.
- Soccer hooligans (call it football)
- Being openly gay, if you are to whoever is reading, I would't recommend it and you'd be better off keeping to yourself there. Most countries are very conservative/religious and not nearly as liberal.
- The general mindset. A lot more people smoke and drink because it's so cheap and not frowned upon so if you make more than the average (which shouldn't be that fucking hard to!) you can basically be a wreck for months and it won't even put a dent on your budget.
Yeap - give it a try for sure. I got tons of my US friends coming to Prague to stay and see me here. They all loved the city + Czech rep has fantastic girls and night life in Prague is incredible.