Considering starting a new life in Europe...

Yeah. So lately, I'm toying with this idea of just leaving and going to Europe with no intentions of coming back immediately, or soon, or possibly ever. In all reality I probably wont do it. But in a few months if I have money and a few "bad things" happen, I may just up and leave.

Now, I've never been to outside of the US and Canada before...But what cities are "good" as far as prices of rents/homes and neccesities, and what are some "unique" things that you enjoy? Here's a few impressions that I have already, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong:

London: Expensive. But seems vastly interesting. Probably alot like NY in parts. But probably too expensive for me.

Paris: Expensive. Locals miiiight be kind of rude, although, what city doesnt have people like that? Probably also too expensive for me. And most likely too touristy...

Copenhagen: Probably the front runner. I've heard pretty much nothing but good things about this city as far as everyone riding bikes and people being pretty pleasant on the whole.

Please, add on. Build with me...

london is supposedly one of the most expensive cities in the world.

Certainly the idea of moving to another country and having to live in a suburb

far away from the action doesn't seem to be all that appealing.

Greece probably has lots of housing because of the last Olympics.

As 'Our Man In Greece' about that one, because I'm just guessing.

I hear Athens can be expensive too.

Yeah, I'm definetly looking to stick to a city as opposed to the 'burbs go since I plan on taking full advantage of public transportation.

I've heard that Athens/Rome has some pretty bad areas of town. I'm not sure how they would compare with bad areas of NYC and stuff, but I'm guessing theres alot of muggings and stuff that go on. Maybe its mostly tourists though....

Although I'm sure every city has its less-than-stellar areas, I'd rather not get robbed on a consistant basis.

If you're looking for a euro experience without quite as

serious a plunge, take a look at Montreal. It certainly doesn't

feel anything like your average american city. Just a thought.

Are we only talking major cities here? Are smaller cities/towns out of the question?

Yeah. I live in the NY metro area and I've been considering making the drive up there. I think its only 8 or so hours.

The Europe thing is really more of me just leaving everything and going far, far away....Montreal would probably be way too close.

Originally posted by Dr. Dazzle@Sep 6 2005, 04:18 PM

Are we only talking major cities here? Are smaller cities/towns out of the question?

Quoted post

Smaller cities/towns could work. Or areas that are on the outskirts of decent sized cities. So long as theres good mass transit.

Also, I'm very interested in Scandanvia. Most of my family is Norwegian (Great-grand parents/grand father are "off the boat"...). My father took a trip back there when he got out of college and said it was an incredible area. The only drawback I could think of with Scandanavia would be the climate. Winters here are bad enough. I'd very much prefer someplace that doesnt get below 20 degrees (farenheit...) on a regular basis...

everyone i know seems to fall in love with spain. ive got a friend whose lived there on and off for a while now.

madrid being the obvious big city

"if some bad things happen"

thats the summary of your life.

For 'Quality of Life' Scandanvia is it.

But as for living there permantly as a regular citizen,

its more expensive than London or Paris.

After the shit that went down in sweltering Orleans,

the cold nights, with a couple o shots a vodka will seem bearable.

i recomend these and surrounding areas such as barcelona ( very dope city as long as your "wise"), amsterdam( same goes here ) , dublin ( can be pricey ), glasgow ( easy access to the rest of uk and cheaper to live brilliant atmosphere and not in england < no offense btw.... great city :king: )

hope this helps

dont go to Poland..

I've been considering this for sometime myself.

Berlin isn't too expensive and it's really fucking dope. also, Budapest is cool and pretty cheap as well. that's probably where I'd gravitate towards but, once you get out there, you tend to find yourself where you totally weren't expecting to be. shit's dope. hope things works out.

the LDN is expensive but that doesnt mean cheap dweals aren't to be had, its just a case of looking in the right place

the LDN is expensive but that doesnt mean cheap dweals aren't to be had, its just a case of looking in the right place

Originally posted by beardo@Sep 6 2005, 04:08 PM

everyone i know seems to fall in love with spain.

Quoted post

I'd move there in a hearbeat. One of my boys is currently living in Barcelona. Absolutely gorgeous women.

from my experience...I'd say every city is affordable...you just have to figure out how to make it that way.

i thought americans were only allowed to stay in europe for X amount of time, via a working visa. If one were to get "caught" after the time expired, what would typically happen?

scatporn

Originally posted by dowmagik@Sep 7 2005, 07:28 AM

i thought americans were only allowed to stay in europe for X amount of time, via a working visa. If one were to get "caught" after the time expired, what would typically happen?

Quoted post

I think if you visit a non EU country every 90 days you get 'refreshed' upon returning.

spain is awesome

friendly, beautiful, accessible

italy is also awesome, but things move slowly there compared to new york..you might get annoyed with their pace of life...compared with nyc, no, this is not a dangerous city at all. coming from baltimore, i have never felt any sense whatsoever of insecurity or danger in any european city

paris is an amazing place (ESPECIALLY) for a graffiti writer. culturally, they've got it over almost everywhere else in the world.

i did not find parisians to be rude, and i openly admit to being american..then again, i did make attempts to speak french

you might really want to consider where you could get a job

which might limit you to places where english is the national language

but overall, i'd say DO NOT MOVE THERE UNTIL YOU HAVE VISITED

it has all the same shit as the u.s., except different

it's hard to explain and really needs to be experienced to be completely understood.

if you move to a major city, pretty much anywhere in europe, you won't need a car and you will eat good fucking food.

i love it there.

i keep getting angsty pangs of nostalgia reminiscing about amsterdam

i loved it ..LOVED IT there.

LOVED IT!!!

Copenhagen is a great city, dope graffiti (im assuming this plays a part in your decision) great people and most of all.. EVERY SINGLE CHICK IS HOT.. or just about anyway.

I have just come from my second visit to Denmark , its an awsome country on the whole.

Language is the most common problem for most americans in europe. That and the fact that it seems hard for you people to forget the 'thats not how we do it back home' attitude. Besides that, Barcelona is awesome (way better than madrid) London is totally expensive indeed, Germany is cold and Athens is a really bad market for foreigners to find a job.

I've been thinking about the language barrier quite a bit. I would never go into someones country and expect them to speak my language.... I took french all through school and remember parts...probably enough to be able to get around and survive, and I would try to learn it as fluently as possible. However, A few people have told me that not all, but a good portion, of European countries offer english as a second language in school and that its not uncommon to find people who can speak english well. Is there any truth to this statement?

I've met some people around here from Germany and Scandanavia while they were on vacation and they all spoke english very well. Although I'm sure they could all well be exceptions to the whole of people.

I was looking around and found out about Malmo, a city on the south tip of Sweden, its the current location of the brand new 16km bridge to Copenhagen, all the stuff I read was saying how the city is supposed to really blow up now that theyre officially connected to Copenhagen and stuff. That looks fairly interesting....

im form quebec so for me france was no sweat (it seems those fuckers really live up to thier stereotype though, they just wont talk to you unless you talk to them in french.. a good majority of them) so its a good idea to keep learning french which is easy when surrounded by them.. generally the western part of europe is for wusses if your a man like me stay in any eastern european citybifuck it make serious.. i think the cheapest decent sized city to live in europe would be budapest.. just reasoning from what differnt peopel tell me inlcuding some peopel i know that lived there.. but im not so sure how hard it is to get by being english there though... every city i went to is ill in its own way but for you if you prefer not to get hasseled i wouldnt take the other persons advice about rome.. maybe it was the neighborhood i was staying in but people were commin up to me at least twice a day lifting my shirt.. evevn downtown and near the bus station.. was never robbed tho its kind of the norm to show aggression and they go away they mainly look for tourists as the city is pretty poor with a shit load of tourists so perfect combo for them.. graffiti wise its fuckin killed.. any city from rome southwards youl probly get harrased much more often then most north american cities.. i know som1 in naples says its really dangerous there.. i guess all the cities in italy north of rome though are fine you dont need to worry aobut being harrsed and seems virtually everyone knows basic english.. actually the only countries i went to where its a bit hard to get by with english only is was poland and czech (actually retriving memorise of enlgish speaking locals still) but for me it seemed once i got to germany berlin etc there way more locals spoke english and was a bit better and berlin is a fucking live city, maybe it was a rare experience but i found prague to be a bit sketchy maybe i was a wrong place wong timw but had a couple little incident s there but that diesnt match what most peopeltell me aobut the city.. warsaw my experince was surprisingly nice peacful freindly people (sounds gay but its nice not to wory about that kind of sstress when you traveling on our own) cause i was waned it was a rough little place but i was staying in the ghetto (praga) for a bit etc and it was fine.. obvioulsy holland is very easy to get by with english but too expensive.. i dont know why but i loved belgium that was the country that thought would be the least appealing but felt like i could have been anywhere like somewhere far east and europe yet was ok to et by in english (i try to learn there languges btw but just sayin for where be easier for you) copenhegan is fucking beutiful people are ver freindly met some rela chill peopel there a lot of english but very expensive.. imwish i remebered my freinds were saying a certain town or small cit actaully a bucnh oin a cetain region of france are suprsingly cheap to live in for that country but i forget which part it was.. landscape wise i found a lot of denmark and south west france to be too exotic cartoony fields felt like i was in a cartoon when compared to the dull dark forsets seems like most of germany poland n alot of belgium north france etc has.. im ot even sure what characteeistic people/n non human envirnent you were looking for im caught in a sugar low so will stop typing

i'm moving to portugal w/ the wifey i think. dual citizenship's a nice privelage of marriage.

to add, copenhagen's really not cheap. in terms of cheap i'd go anywhere the euro isn't established yet. budapest, prague or that sort of stuff.

Originally posted by Tesseract@Sep 8 2005, 01:06 AM

That and the fact that it seems hard for you people to forget the 'thats not how we do it back home' attitude.

Quoted post

ha thats all i hear from other americans and westerners in japan. i find out more about my own culture by living in another country.

also you should check the embassy of the country that you`re interested in going to. from my looking around through spain`s and italy`s web site you can aquire a visa rather easily it seems.

In my experience, it is true about many Europeans being fluent (or at least passable) in English. If you seem to be making a genuine effort to approach them and speak in their native tongue, they will generally reply with English or point you towards someone who can help you.

get some friends who speak foreign languages to move with you

that's my long term plan..