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Skateboarding => Travel Guide => Topic started by: mattchew on August 10, 2020, 09:17:26 AM
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Hi PALS,
As the title suggests, I am looking to move to the EU from the US in about six to nine months.
I have Irish citizenship so I don't need to worry about immigration/visas/etc. and also have a decent chunk of change saved so I can take a month or two to find work after settling in.
I just don't know where to move!
I like skating, making art, playing music, being outside, and am looking for a place with:
a high standard of living/leftist government
decent weather
relatively inexpensive (i.e. I'd like to work as little as possible--making a lot of money isn't important to me, time off is)
english friendly while I learn the language
and ideally don't need a car (moped is fine): either city or countryside works for me.
I have been to a bunch of different countries in Europe, but only while on tour with my band so I don't have the best sense of all these places since it's such quick visits:
Ireland seems to make the most sense because they speak English but it's very boozy/catholic/dreary there...
Berlin seems cool and very English friendly
Barcelona for obvious reasons (haven't been there before though)
Scandinavia for their high standard of living (harsh winters though...)
Italy seems beautiful...
I am very open to ideas and any advice is welcome.
Thanks in advance homies!
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I've never been to Portugal, but it seems like a very cool place and ticks most of your boxes.
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^^this, or maybe Spain. Most of the EU is VERY expensive to live in...Italy probably the worst. There are definitely widely different cultural experiences as well.
Scandinavian countries are beautiful but you will likely have a harder time socially, especially if you are interested in dating, friendships etc...
Maybe look a little farther East towards Slovenia?
My personal favorites list based on actual experience in order: Scotland ( I love Scots and scenery is unbeatable), Germany/ Austria, northern Spain/ Basque Country, England, Lithuania.( rough around the edges but friendly people)
Maybe plan on staying more than one place.
Have fun !!
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Start from Malm�d go from there.
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^^this, or maybe Spain. Most of the EU is VERY expensive to live in...Italy probably the worst. There are definitely widely different cultural experiences as well.
Scandinavian countries are beautiful but you will likely have a harder time socially, especially if you are interested in dating, friendships etc...
Maybe look a little farther East towards Slovenia?
My personal favorites list based on actual experience in order: Scotland ( I love Scots and scenery is unbeatable), Germany/ Austria, northern Spain/ Basque Country, England, Lithuania.( rough around the edges but friendly people)
Maybe plan on staying more than one place.
Have fun !!
Had a job offer in Copenhagen before this pandemic and have been there a few times. Why is it hard to date there? The girls were all very pretty in Norway and Denmark.
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Dublin Ireland
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Barcelona is fantastic for skating and the vibe is really cool. You can just head over to Parallel or MACBA and just chill with other skaters. Everyone speaks English and I didn't use a car the entire time I was there.
London is super cool as well. I had great experiences at Slam City shop and it shares a wall with a bar.
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This is very difficult because each country is very different.
I live in Europe and traveled to most big cities, and if I would have to choose a city to live in it would be one of those :
- Copenhagen (lot of spots, very safe, very expensive, winter is complete shit)
- Berlin (lot of spots, very safe, very expensive, winter is complete shit)
- Barcelona (lot of spots, very unsafe, very cheap, winter is a dream)
- Valencia (there are some good spots, very safe, very cheap, winter is a dream)
- Lyon (I live 1h from here)
- London (weather is shit, spots are super rough, but the city is very nice. Also this is probably the most expensive of the list)
Hope it helps.
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I'm an american living in Italy and have been living here for the past 6 years. If you're moving to a place for skating and don't want to work too much, Italy is the last place I would look. Pay is shit, taxes are high, and you need a car to get around comfortably because the public transportation is absolutely abysmal. The few skateboarders I've met are cool, and there are little pockets of cool scenes sprinkled throughout the country, but nah, this ain't the place.
Slovenia, the closest neighbor to me, seems cool, but I've only visited there and don't know what it'd be like to live and work there.
I am hoping to move to Lyon soon, but now with all the shit going on, my plans have taken a slight detour.
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i am from europe. the last years i lived in copenhagen, berlin and in prague.
Copenhagen is a superexpensive posh pretentious shithole and does not even have alot to offer. has nice parts tho and good skateparks. but you will get over christiania and its charme in like two weeks and then the vibe of the city changes.
berlin is amazing but the jobmarked is tough, especially without higher degrees or a good vita. winter sucks tho. i left after 5 jears because it got a bit stale. but these years i was not really working and i was out skating everyday and partying every weekend. so i experienced and discovered way more of the stuff the city has to offer tin a short period of time han other people in their lifetime.
prague is cheap af. but its less englishspeaking compared to for example berlin. there are more jobs tho. especially nowadays in tech and for skilled fluently english speaking people. they just don´t pay very good if you are not really qualified. life is amazing aswell. good spots, bars, clubs, nice people. and i mentioned cheap as fuck already?
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I'm an american living in Italy and have been living here for the past 6 years. If you're moving to a place for skating and don't want to work too much, Italy is the last place I would look. Pay is shit, taxes are high, and you need a car to get around comfortably because the public transportation is absolutely abysmal. The few skateboarders I've met are cool, and there are little pockets of cool scenes sprinkled throughout the country, but nah, this ain't the place.
Dude! As an Italian, I feel that you have described the country situation perfectly. Kudos to you, hopefully we'll be able to hang around sometimes.
On topic, I've moved to Barcelona 3 years ago and honestly it ticks most of your boxes. Weather is a plus for sure.
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Ireland is crazy expensive. Rent has skyrocketed in the last few years. The weather is shite. The concrete is crap..I'm Irish.
I moved to a small city in the south of France. The government is pretty socialist here, great health care, great weather. More hoilday's than I like to admit. Great spots. I live an hour or so from Lyon, which is amazing also. Pre-cornona I'd even do day trips to skate there.
Personally if it wasn't for my job I'd be in Biarritz, as I love surfing also.
Just gonna learn French. But depending on what you do for a living loads of folk get buy with fuck all French (I avoid these people like the plague).
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I’m French, so here are some infos about living here.
First of all, I think most people are welcoming here, even if they don’t speak a proper English (older generations for example). I work in the music industry so I work with a lot of English native speakers but I don’t know for other work sectors…
If you need a decent weather I would recommend the southern part of the country. The north / north-west is rainy during winters, and I grew up in the east and it was fog / rain / cold / snow / ice for a few months. The south and south-west are the best for a decent weather all year long.
I think we have a decent standard of living, good hospitals for the most part, and considering you have a Irish citizenship you will have access to healthcare, employment systems I think.
— If you struggle to find a job, go to « Pole Emploi », it’s a governmental agency which registers unemployed people and help them to find jobs etc. They also provide free French lessons I think. French people always bitch and make jokes about French administrations, saying people working here are lazy etc, but they can really help you if you need. Don’t get discouraged by the waiting lines. You also have an unemployment allowance based on your previous work. There is also a recurring status for people working in the entertainment industry (music, cinema, tv, etc)
— When you rent a place, your salary must be 3x your rent, at least in theory. This is what the landlords ask for, but most of the people have photoshopped payslips, my ex boss made me fake ones to rent an apartment when I was younger…
— I think like in most places in the world the easiest jobs to get are in restaurants bars etc.
— Don’t live in Paris unless you have to. My wife and I have to work here, we like the city but damn rents are expensive. If we didn’t pay this rent, we could probably pretend to buy a house by the sea in Brittany haha.
— Smaller cities are obviously cheaper to live in. Tourist places (southwest, south-east etc) can be expensive too.
Skatewise, there are plenty of local skate scenes here. Also a lot of skateparks. The concrete skateparks craze started a few years ago so you can find em in some relatively small cities.
One city I would recommend here is Lyon, because :
— rents are way cheaper than Paris
— good transportation system
— from here you can go to the sea (around Marseille for exemple) or in the Alps in a few hours
— lots of restaurants / venues / art galleries / museums
— great skate scene obviously
We have a great railroad system (even though expensive…) so you can move easily within the country and around (Belgium, England, Swiss, Italy, Spain…). I suppose you are more accustomed to American distances, one thing i like in Europe is that different cultures / landscapes etc are within hundred of km perimeters.
For the government I would considering it right-wing, I’m not into Macron politic stances, but I have French standards I think.
I have friends living in Barcelona and they love it too. Also have a friend living in Italy and she made similar comments as some Pals here. Went to Germany a few months (Berlin, Hamburg and Mainz) 10 years ago but I mostly crashed on friends couches making music, partying and watching skate videos and life seemed cool in these cities, but I was 21 so that doesn’t count.
Hope this helps you. Europe has a lot of different cultures to offer, so I think you will find something that ticks all the boxes.
Good luck!
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This is very difficult because each country is very different.
I live in Europe and traveled to most big cities, and if I would have to choose a city to live in it would be one of those :
- Copenhagen (lot of spots, very safe, very expensive, winter is complete shit)
- Berlin (lot of spots, very safe, very expensive, winter is complete shit)
- Barcelona (lot of spots, very unsafe, very cheap, winter is a dream)
- Valencia (there are some good spots, very safe, very cheap, winter is a dream)
- Lyon (I live 1h from here)
- London (weather is shit, spots are super rough, but the city is very nice. Also this is probably the most expensive of the list)
Hope it helps.
I'm gonna copy the format above ^:
- Copenhagen (lot of spots, very safe, very expensive(unless you live there and earn a local salary), winter is complete shit) + amazing parks, good biking scene, everything close together
- Barcelona (entire city is a skatepark, city seems to embrace skateboarding, huge skate scene, cheap(most people say it's cheap but they mean it's cheap as a tourists. Local salaries aren't so good), perfect weather). I didn't ever feel unsafe there. Paris probably feels sketchier to me. Just use common sense and in most cases you're good.
- London (weather is shit, spots are super rough, expensive - local salaries tend to be low, depending on what you do, most diverse)
- Berlin. I'm currently living here now and it's chill but you'll run into a lot of aspiring techno dj's and people just here for the party scene. Kind of annoying depending on what you're into. Berlin reminds me of LA, just replace cars with bikes. You can't really skate around because the roads are mostly cobblestone so you bike from spot to spot. It's not uncommon to bike 10km one way to get to some skate spot. It ends up people kind of stay in their local hoods. Berlin itself is pretty cheap - I'd say cheaper than Barcelona or at least similar. The main difference is rent prices. If you find a cheap place to rent in Berlin, your golden, but that's not the easiest thing to do - especially if you don't speak German. If you venture out of the popular neighborhoods in Berlin then you're going to need some basic German. But really, you're going to feel a bit isolated at some point wherever you are if you don't learn some of the local language. You're also going to have a rough time finding a job here if you don't speak German unless you work in tech. Still easier if you speak some German. Berlin's got tons of parks/lakes/green space if you're into that.
If you have any Berlin specific questions, just give me a shout. I like Barcelona, personally, but Lisbon is also nice. Sofia, Bulgaria is also rad. Good skate scene and the weather's not complete shit. Hard question to answer though, man. You really gotta just roll the dice and see how you like the city you choose to try out first.
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I’m French, so here are some infos about living here.
First of all, I think most people are welcoming here, even if they don’t speak a proper English (older generations for example). I work in the music industry so I work with a lot of English native speakers but I don’t know for other work sectors…
If you need a decent weather I would recommend the southern part of the country. The north / north-west is rainy during winters, and I grew up in the east and it was fog / rain / cold / snow / ice for a few months. The south and south-west are the best for a decent weather all year long.
I think we have a decent standard of living, good hospitals for the most part, and considering you have a Irish citizenship you will have access to healthcare, employment systems I think.
— If you struggle to find a job, go to « Pole Emploi », it’s a governmental agency which registers unemployed people and help them to find jobs etc. They also provide free French lessons I think. French people always bitch and make jokes about French administrations, saying people working here are lazy etc, but they can really help you if you need. Don’t get discouraged by the waiting lines. You also have an unemployment allowance based on your previous work. There is also a recurring status for people working in the entertainment industry (music, cinema, tv, etc)
— When you rent a place, your salary must be 3x your rent, at least in theory. This is what the landlords ask for, but most of the people have photoshopped payslips, my ex boss made me fake ones to rent an apartment when I was younger…
— I think like in most places in the world the easiest jobs to get are in restaurants bars etc.
— Don’t live in Paris unless you have to. My wife and I have to work here, we like the city but damn rents are expensive. If we didn’t pay this rent, we could probably pretend to buy a house by the sea in Brittany haha.
— Smaller cities are obviously cheaper to live in. Tourist places (southwest, south-east etc) can be expensive too.
Skatewise, there are plenty of local skate scenes here. Also a lot of skateparks. The concrete skateparks craze started a few years ago so you can find em in some relatively small cities.
One city I would recommend here is Lyon, because :
— rents are way cheaper than Paris
— good transportation system
— from here you can go to the sea (around Marseille for exemple) or in the Alps in a few hours
— lots of restaurants / venues / art galleries / museums
— great skate scene obviously
We have a great railroad system (even though expensive…) so you can move easily within the country and around (Belgium, England, Swiss, Italy, Spain…). I suppose you are more accustomed to American distances, one thing i like in Europe is that different cultures / landscapes etc are within hundred of km perimeters.
For the government I would considering it right-wing, I’m not into Macron politic stances, but I have French standards I think.
I have friends living in Barcelona and they love it too. Also have a friend living in Italy and she made similar comments as some Pals here. Went to Germany a few months (Berlin, Hamburg and Mainz) 10 years ago but I mostly crashed on friends couches making music, partying and watching skate videos and life seemed cool in these cities, but I was 21 so that doesn’t count.
Hope this helps you. Europe has a lot of different cultures to offer, so I think you will find something that ticks all the boxes.
Good luck!
Sorry I my post wasn't clear, Marcon is a cunt and his government is definitely a bit more right wing than the last but nothing like the other right wing governments in the western world. I'd say France is a very socialist country.
For the rent 3x your salary this isn't a problem in Lyon unless your on minimum wage. Just be aware flats here are rented unfurnished (including appliances) and are a three year lease. You can get furnished apartments but usually the rent is stupidity over priced and they have a one year lease. I've rented some flats that were unfurnished but had some appliances.
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For me Barcelona is one of the best places to move (I could be a little biased as I was born and raised there) but here is some intel about the city:
-Best weather all around the year (winter is cold but they are lots of sunny days so is not that harsh)
-Rent is pretty cheap and even if you decide to move to any town by Barcelona i/e Badalona, you will still be near the city centre (30min train ride or even less)
-It is an english friendly city
-Lots of spots
-Lots of shate shops (some of them very friendly - some of them really not)
-Cheap and good food
-It is not a dangerous city, some places are kinda sketchy but if you know how to deal with it there is no problem whatsoever (we all have been in any sort of sketchy situation)
-Watch your belongings everytime
-Learn spanish as soon as possible and even catalan
Hit me up if you have any questions, I hope I helped you
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So much good info in here, thank you so much dudes. Gnars for everyone. Keep it coming!
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For me Barcelona is one of the best places to move (I could be a little biased as I was born and raised there) but here is some intel about the city:
-Best weather all around the year (winter is cold but they are lots of sunny days so is not that harsh)
-Rent is pretty cheap and even if you decide to move to any town by Barcelona i/e Badalona, you will still be near the city centre (30min train ride or even less)
-It is an english friendly city
-Lots of spots
-Lots of shate shops (some of them very friendly - some of them really not)
-Cheap and good food
-It is not a dangerous city, some places are kinda sketchy but if you know how to deal with it there is no problem whatsoever (we all have been in any sort of sketchy situation)
-Watch your belongings everytime
-Learn spanish as soon as possible and even catalan
Hit me up if you have any questions, I hope I helped you
Every time someone has told me "Barcelona is sketchy, I had my phone stolen there. Watch your shit" I'm like, "Oh yeah, how'd that go down" They say something like it was NYE and they were blackout drunk on La Rambla. Or they just had their phone sitting out on the table eating food at a busy street then all of a sudden it was gone.
I'll admit that, and maybe it's because people always mention BCN being sketchy, I keep an eye on my shit more there if I put my bag down to skate or something. But in actuality I've never had any issues at all or felt unsafe in BCN.
Some parts of the world are definitely a different kind of sketchy but I think when you here people say BCN is sketchy they're comparing it to wherever they come from in Europe. Like Frankfurt or something. Anyway, that's my 2 cents on people saying BCN being sketchy.
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Vienna pretty much ticks all your boxes and is also very low-key compared to the other suggestions here. Can’t really elaborate further though cause I’ve only visited.
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Just wanted to correct that by "unsafe" about Barcelona, it was much linked to pickpockets in transports, or people stealing your camera bag while you are filming. This never happened to me but happened to a few friends.
It feels 10 times more safe to be in Barcelona than in Paris though.
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Prague is the answer.
Easy to find a job, lots of expats, everything is super cheap except rent. You can easily find a flat share tho.
Local skateshop is nuts, Stalin had everything to skate.
City is gorgeous, I lived there for 3 years and I can't wait to come back next year.
Can't think of a better place.
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Hi PALS,
As the title suggests, I am looking to move to the EU from the US in about six to nine months.
I have Irish citizenship so I don't need to worry about immigration/visas/etc. and also have a decent chunk of change saved so I can take a month or two to find work after settling in.
I just don't know where to move!
I like skating, making art, playing music, being outside, and am looking for a place with:
a high standard of living/leftist government
decent weather
relatively inexpensive (i.e. I'd like to work as little as possible--making a lot of money isn't important to me, time off is)
english friendly while I learn the language
and ideally don't need a car (moped is fine): either city or countryside works for me.
I have been to a bunch of different countries in Europe, but only while on tour with my band so I don't have the best sense of all these places since it's such quick visits:
Ireland seems to make the most sense because they speak English but it's very boozy/catholic/dreary there...
Berlin seems cool and very English friendly
Barcelona for obvious reasons (haven't been there before though)
Scandinavia for their high standard of living (harsh winters though...)
Italy seems beautiful...
I am very open to ideas and any advice is welcome.
Thanks in advance homies!
I am German and currently living in Frankfurt Main. Two of my skate friends are expats from the US. If you have to work I actually wouldn‘t really recommend moving to Berlin. Apart from its great nightlife and all the good spots it has become pretty expensive and wages are fairly bad. I would recommend Leipzig if you want a low cost of living and a young creative place. Wages there are just as bad as in Berlin for the most part, but life is much cheaper.
For work the bigger cities in the west are much better: Cologne for example is a great place to live with great skateparks and many young women (due to its universities and it being the center of much of the German marketing and advertisement industry). Rent is not cheap, but it is easy to find work.
I personally like Frankfurt obviously. It is easy to find a job with decent pay. It is probably the most international place in the country and it is not a problem to live and work here if you only speak English. street skating is almost as good as in Berlin. It is however super hard to find an affordable place to live.
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Vienna pretty much ticks all your boxes and is also very low-key compared to the other suggestions here. Can’t really elaborate further though cause I’ve only visited.
The place I want to visit most. Before Sunrise made me fall in love with that city lol.
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Travelled a fair bit in Europe and from what I have seen I'm a little surprised there aren't more people saying Lisbon or Portugal here. Big love for Marseille too.
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I gotta get out of the US... various factors but most of all cost of healthcare make me weary of the future. I speak Spanish so Ive been looking into teaching english in Spain, although I assume that market is fairly saturated...
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ummmmmmm VATICAN CITY anyone? dude hottest fucking girls dopest spots u never get kicked out of TONS of weed and booze and u might even see the POPE!
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I gotta get out of the US... various factors but most of all cost of healthcare make me weary of the future. I speak Spanish so Ive been looking into teaching english in Spain, although I assume that market is fairly saturated...
Not shure. In general I find most Spanish people do not speak english well at all. I have met some English teachers in Santander, Spain, who made it seem as if it was fairly easy to find work teaching English in Spain. Since the Spanish economy has not been doing so well, there must be alot of young adults interested in leaving the country, which would mean they would have to improve their English first....
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ummmmmmm VATICAN CITY anyone? dude hottest fucking girls dopest spots u never get kicked out of TONS of weed and booze and u might even see the POPE!
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French dude here obviously. I love mediteranean cities like Marseille or Toulon, but it's quite hard to find a job there. Economically that area is pretty dead apart from tourism. Plus I'm quite willing to bet it's almost impossible to get by if you don't speak French. Generally latin countries like Portugal, Italy, Spain, France, you need to speak the language....
I love the Paris region (my hometown, "banlieue" south) but it's true rents are crazy af. Quite surprised by the "unsafe" comments here though? I saw a lot more petty crime in Barcelona. Maybe it's just "hometown bias", ie being street smart in the city you grew up in.
Now I've been living in Brussels for about 15 years and I think it ticks a lot of your boxes: cheap, english-friendly, good standard of living, no car needed. Very central in Europe so travel to anywhere is easy....weather is shit though :-X :-X
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did you decide @mattchew ?
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Expand Quote
For me Barcelona is one of the best places to move (I could be a little biased as I was born and raised there) but here is some intel about the city:
-Best weather all around the year (winter is cold but they are lots of sunny days so is not that harsh)
-Rent is pretty cheap and even if you decide to move to any town by Barcelona i/e Badalona, you will still be near the city centre (30min train ride or even less)
-It is an english friendly city
-Lots of spots
-Lots of shate shops (some of them very friendly - some of them really not)
-Cheap and good food
-It is not a dangerous city, some places are kinda sketchy but if you know how to deal with it there is no problem whatsoever (we all have been in any sort of sketchy situation)
-Watch your belongings everytime
-Learn spanish as soon as possible and even catalan
Hit me up if you have any questions, I hope I helped you
Every time someone has told me "Barcelona is sketchy, I had my phone stolen there. Watch your shit" I'm like, "Oh yeah, how'd that go down" They say something like it was NYE and they were blackout drunk on La Rambla. Or they just had their phone sitting out on the table eating food at a busy street then all of a sudden it was gone.
I'll admit that, and maybe it's because people always mention BCN being sketchy, I keep an eye on my shit more there if I put my bag down to skate or something. But in actuality I've never had any issues at all or felt unsafe in BCN.
Some parts of the world are definitely a different kind of sketchy but I think when you here people say BCN is sketchy they're comparing it to wherever they come from in Europe. Like Frankfurt or something. Anyway, that's my 2 cents on people saying BCN being sketchy.
I think Frankfurt has the highest crime rate per 100k inhabitants in Germany. Never to Frankfurt or BCN though I guess it depends on the area.
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Expand Quote
Expand Quote
For me Barcelona is one of the best places to move (I could be a little biased as I was born and raised there) but here is some intel about the city:
-Best weather all around the year (winter is cold but they are lots of sunny days so is not that harsh)
-Rent is pretty cheap and even if you decide to move to any town by Barcelona i/e Badalona, you will still be near the city centre (30min train ride or even less)
-It is an english friendly city
-Lots of spots
-Lots of shate shops (some of them very friendly - some of them really not)
-Cheap and good food
-It is not a dangerous city, some places are kinda sketchy but if you know how to deal with it there is no problem whatsoever (we all have been in any sort of sketchy situation)
-Watch your belongings everytime
-Learn spanish as soon as possible and even catalan
Hit me up if you have any questions, I hope I helped you
Every time someone has told me "Barcelona is sketchy, I had my phone stolen there. Watch your shit" I'm like, "Oh yeah, how'd that go down" They say something like it was NYE and they were blackout drunk on La Rambla. Or they just had their phone sitting out on the table eating food at a busy street then all of a sudden it was gone.
I'll admit that, and maybe it's because people always mention BCN being sketchy, I keep an eye on my shit more there if I put my bag down to skate or something. But in actuality I've never had any issues at all or felt unsafe in BCN.
Some parts of the world are definitely a different kind of sketchy but I think when you here people say BCN is sketchy they're comparing it to wherever they come from in Europe. Like Frankfurt or something. Anyway, that's my 2 cents on people saying BCN being sketchy.
I think Frankfurt has the highest crime rate per 100k inhabitants in Germany. Never to Frankfurt or BCN though I guess it depends on the area.
The crime rate in Frankfurt is relatively high (for Germany), because it includes the largest German airport and alot of small crime (like the smuggeling in of all kinds of things) is registered there. Apart from the district around the train station (lots of illegal drugs and legal as well as illegal prostitution) I think it is one of the safer large cities in Europe. I have been living here half of my life and I have never been robbed or even stolen from. Of course that might just be my subjective point of view, though and there is lots of crime happening I just don't ever see or experience.
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i just moved back to paris, come hang
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did you decide @mattchew ?
I have yet to decide. So daunting.
Tried to buy a ticket to BCN for Feb to check it out for a few weeks but the ticket got refunded twice in a row so I took it as a sign to wait a few months until it’s closer.
Would really appreciate more posts from anyone! Any information is super helpful!
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This thread made me reconsider moving to Italy from the US haha
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Dublin Ireland
Absolutely not.
The smart move, like other people have said, might be to move to a smaller mainland Europe city like Leipzig, Mannheim or Innsbruck.
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Absolutely not.
The smart move, like other people have said, might be to move to a smaller mainland Europe city like Leipzig, Mannheim or Innsbruck.
Why ?
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Hi PALS,
As the title suggests, I am looking to move to the EU from the US in about six to nine months.
I have Irish citizenship so I don't need to worry about immigration/visas/etc. and also have a decent chunk of change saved so I can take a month or two to find work after settling in.
I just don't know where to move!
I like skating, making art, playing music, being outside, and am looking for a place with:
a high standard of living/leftist government
decent weather
relatively inexpensive (i.e. I'd like to work as little as possible--making a lot of money isn't important to me, time off is)
english friendly while I learn the language
and ideally don't need a car (moped is fine): either city or countryside works for me.
I have been to a bunch of different countries in Europe, but only while on tour with my band so I don't have the best sense of all these places since it's such quick visits:
Ireland seems to make the most sense because they speak English but it's very boozy/catholic/dreary there...
Berlin seems cool and very English friendly
Barcelona for obvious reasons (haven't been there before though)
Scandinavia for their high standard of living (harsh winters though...)
Italy seems beautiful...
I am very open to ideas and any advice is welcome.
Thanks in advance homies!
Spain is the answer:
- right now i think we're the only government positioned somewhere on the left (but compared to the US, education and National Health Systems in any euro country could count as "leftie" somehow)
just come to Andalusia (southern Spain). Particularly the Málaga area (málaga itself could be a good option but rent is kinda expensive for Spanish standards):
- english friendly
- skate friendly
- museums and galleries (picasso museum, pompidou museum, "russian/eastern europe" arts museum...)
- moped/bike friendly
- one of the best airports (connection wise) to whole Europe and russia too (since a lot of wealthy Russians seems to enjoy a particular town nearby called Marbella)
i'm originally from another part region inside of andalusia and lived in Barcelona for 12 years. After moving back south a couple years ago for job reasons... boy i really don't know why i did stay that long up in Barcelona haha.
PS: don't know where are you originally from but in case you don't mind a little rougher winters (rain wise) Bourdeaux in france is a pretty cool option too,Valencia or Madrid in Spain as well. Good luck and in case you consider moving somewhere in Spain don't hesitate to hit this Pal up. cheers!
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^^this, or maybe Spain. Most of the EU is VERY expensive to live in...Italy probably the worst. There are definitely widely different cultural experiences as well.
Scandinavian countries are beautiful but you will likely have a harder time socially, especially if you are interested in dating, friendships etc...
Maybe look a little farther East towards Slovenia?
My personal favorites list based on actual experience in order: Scotland ( I love Scots and scenery is unbeatable), Germany/ Austria, northern Spain/ Basque Country, England, Lithuania.( rough around the edges but friendly people)
Maybe plan on staying more than one place.
Have fun !!
If you don't mind rain that much and love nature, best food and people down to skate+beers with anytime of the year Bilbao then should also be up in your list
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One way ticket to Valencia man.
Go to Cinquanta or plaza de la virgen and they’ll look after you.
Best people best life, part of me still wish I never left.
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Can I ask what you're planning to do for a living? Because from my perspective (Copenhagen) salary is extremely important to have in mind if you are looking for freedom.
For instance Copenhagen is pretty expensive, but we have this market model, where the unions are super strong (used to be stronger), which means that salaries are constantly being renegotiated and therefore you will have a high living standard if you get any non-precarious work. Also there's laws that forbid your workplace to demand more than 37,5 hours work per week and you are forced to take 5 weeks paid vacation each year - this makes Denmark very nice if you have a stable job.
On the other hand - if you live of art, freelancing etc. Denmark can be tough (only for rent - healthcare and shit are taken care of). I know quite a few musicians who have relocated to Lisbon because I think that's the cheapest big city in western Europe - but it can be hard to get a job there! I used to live in Berlin and that can be rather inexpensive compared to other cities in the same scale (Paris or London especially), but it is no longer one of the cheapest locations.
To sum up: if you want to work a regular stabile job, I would stay north of the Alps, and if you are looking for a bohemian based lifestyle I would go for the Iberian peninsula
EDIT: As a rule of thumb most cities in Europe are very old and this means that a lot of skate friendly architecture are prominent in most cities.
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Hi PALS,
As the title suggests, I am looking to move to the EU from the US in about six to nine months.
I have Irish citizenship so I don't need to worry about immigration/visas/etc. and also have a decent chunk of change saved so I can take a month or two to find work after settling in.
I just don't know where to move!
I like skating, making art, playing music, being outside, and am looking for a place with:
a high standard of living/leftist government
decent weather
relatively inexpensive (i.e. I'd like to work as little as possible--making a lot of money isn't important to me, time off is)
english friendly while I learn the language
and ideally don't need a car (moped is fine): either city or countryside works for me.
I have been to a bunch of different countries in Europe, but only while on tour with my band so I don't have the best sense of all these places since it's such quick visits:
Ireland seems to make the most sense because they speak English but it's very boozy/catholic/dreary there...
Berlin seems cool and very English friendly
Barcelona for obvious reasons (haven't been there before though)
Scandinavia for their high standard of living (harsh winters though...)
Italy seems beautiful...
I am very open to ideas and any advice is welcome.
Thanks in advance homies!
Spain is the answer:
- right now i think we're the only government positioned somewhere on the left (but compared to the US, education and National Health Systems in any euro country could count as "leftie" somehow)
just come to Andalusia (southern Spain). Particularly the Málaga area (málaga itself could be a good option but rent is kinda expensive for Spanish standards):
- english friendly
- skate friendly
- museums and galleries (picasso museum, pompidou museum, "russian/eastern europe" arts museum...)
- moped/bike friendly
- one of the best airports (connection wise) to whole Europe and russia too (since a lot of wealthy Russians seems to enjoy a particular town nearby called Marbella)
i'm originally from another part region inside of andalusia and lived in Barcelona for 12 years. After moving back south a couple years ago for job reasons... boy i really don't know why i did stay that long up in Barcelona haha.
PS: don't know where are you originally from but in case you don't mind a little rougher winters (rain wise) Bourdeaux in france is a pretty cool option too,Valencia or Madrid in Spain as well. Good luck and in case you consider moving somewhere in Spain don't hesitate to hit this Pal up. cheers!
Spain is english-friendly? oh man I don't think we have the same definition of english-friendly haha..... :o
IMHO you're pretty much going nowhere in Italy/Spain/France if you don't speak the language.
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Hi PALS,
As the title suggests, I am looking to move to the EU from the US in about six to nine months.
I have Irish citizenship so I don't need to worry about immigration/visas/etc. and also have a decent chunk of change saved so I can take a month or two to find work after settling in.
I just don't know where to move!
I like skating, making art, playing music, being outside, and am looking for a place with:
a high standard of living/leftist government
decent weather
relatively inexpensive (i.e. I'd like to work as little as possible--making a lot of money isn't important to me, time off is)
english friendly while I learn the language
and ideally don't need a car (moped is fine): either city or countryside works for me.
I have been to a bunch of different countries in Europe, but only while on tour with my band so I don't have the best sense of all these places since it's such quick visits:
Ireland seems to make the most sense because they speak English but it's very boozy/catholic/dreary there...
Berlin seems cool and very English friendly
Barcelona for obvious reasons (haven't been there before though)
Scandinavia for their high standard of living (harsh winters though...)
Italy seems beautiful...
I am very open to ideas and any advice is welcome.
Thanks in advance homies!
Spain is the answer:
- right now i think we're the only government positioned somewhere on the left (but compared to the US, education and National Health Systems in any euro country could count as "leftie" somehow)
just come to Andalusia (southern Spain). Particularly the Málaga area (málaga itself could be a good option but rent is kinda expensive for Spanish standards):
- english friendly
- skate friendly
- museums and galleries (picasso museum, pompidou museum, "russian/eastern europe" arts museum...)
- moped/bike friendly
- one of the best airports (connection wise) to whole Europe and russia too (since a lot of wealthy Russians seems to enjoy a particular town nearby called Marbella)
i'm originally from another part region inside of andalusia and lived in Barcelona for 12 years. After moving back south a couple years ago for job reasons... boy i really don't know why i did stay that long up in Barcelona haha.
PS: don't know where are you originally from but in case you don't mind a little rougher winters (rain wise) Bourdeaux in france is a pretty cool option too,Valencia or Madrid in Spain as well. Good luck and in case you consider moving somewhere in Spain don't hesitate to hit this Pal up. cheers!
Spain is english-friendly? oh man I don't think we have the same definition of english-friendly haha..... :o
IMHO you're pretty much going nowhere in Italy/Spain/France if you don't speak the language.
i was talking about the malaga area (there's soooo many british people living here plus loads of foreigners / "expats" from other euro countries as well living in that region) but yeah, anywhere else beside bcn or madrid is pretty much non english friendly ::)
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Barcelona unsafe? Yall afraid of non-white people hanging out at macba?
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Absolutely not.
The smart move, like other people have said, might be to move to a smaller mainland Europe city like Leipzig, Mannheim or Innsbruck.
Why ?
Why not Dublin? Matt's looking for somewhere with a leftist government, cheap rent, low cost of living and decent weather. Unfortunately Dublin doesn't really have any of those things right now. A big allure of Dublin is the nightlife, but Matt's not a drinker. For a decent sized city it's also pretty crap for skating. I don't think there'd be much here for him (but if you ever fancy a visit @mattchew let me know!).
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Some have already mentioned it, you might want to take Vienna into consideration as it ticks of most of your boxes. Really high standard of living and you don't have to work a shitload to enjoy it! Public transport is exceptionally good and only costs 365 euros a year for the whole of the city. Weather-wise I'd say southern/mediterrean cities are better - it all depends on your preferences...
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I would recommend vienna and leipzig, both cities have a lot of potential, more or less leftist local governments, and are pretty cheap (friends of mine are paying less than 200€ for a room in a re-newed shared appartment in leipzig; vienna has a socialist history with appartments that have a rent limit). I also hear lots of good stuff about lisbon, but never been there with a board (and it was winter)
viennas located pretty southern, so sommer is very warm, winters are rough in vienna and leipzig, though.
berlin is pretty close to leipzig (1:10h by train) as is dresden (~1h by train), prague is not that far away, too (3h by car)
vienna is very close to other (very cheap) eastern european capitals (bratislava 1h by car, budapest 2:30h by car)
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Backing Vienna - incredibly high quality of living and a vibrant skate scene.
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I haven't lived in any of these places, but based on other people's comments and considering what you're looking for, it comes down to places like these:
- Barcelona and Berlin (despite high rents, obviously tick many of your boxes)
- Vienna (similar to Barcelona and Berlin in many respects)
- Leipzig (cheap rents and could be what you're looking for, but the local government is rather right-wing; Leipzig is a leftist island in Germany's most conservative/right-wing state, but the city is still a Neo-Nazi stronghold)
- Bilbao (never been, but sounds great!)
- Lisbon (maybe the city that offers everything you're looking for; great place!)
- Lyon (similar to Bilbao and Leipzig: smaller city with great skate scene and lower rents than the big cities/capitals)
This comes from a German who's based in Cologne, which is also a great city (as has been mentioned before), but cost of living is as high as Berlin. Only looking at Germany, I'd say going all the way (Berlin) or saving money on rent (Leipzig) makes the most sense in your situation. Cities like Frankfurt, Hamburg or Cologne - as great as they are - have nothing to offer compared to Berlin (most cosmopolitan/international city, biggest skate scene, best nightlife) or Leipzig (up-and-coming, many young people, bustling alternative scene, still cheap, but rough around the edges).
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I am a us citizen and have been thinking more and more about moving to Europe. Spain specifically, possibly Portugal or France. Last year I went to Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona and honestly could see living in any of those. I don’t have any family members that we’re EU citizens so getting a Visa is the main issue. But I just learned folks from Latin America (wife’s Mexican) can get citizenship in Spain in just 2 years. So we’re leaning heavy on Spain.
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I'm born and raised in Barcelona, as mentioned here Barcelona, Valencia would be a great option but right now I wouldn't recommend you to move to Spain.
Covid is hitting hard here, there's a lot of people getting subsidies because their jobs are closed. The country is based in tourism and tons of business are shut down until everything gets better.
If the situation was normal you wouldn't have any problem to land a job fully in English. You could find a job on hotels, Restaurants, teaching English or in call centers.
Maybe another pals from the rest of Europe can help you to find a place that has a better situation right now.
In any case if you move to Europe bring much skate stuff as you can because shit is expensive here!
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Moving to Roma on Monday :)))
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Good to see all the love Vienna gets. I am German and moved to Vienna few years ago and dont want to live elsewhere anymore. Rents are ok/low in comparison to other european cities/capitals of the same size, great skate scene, great summers, rough winters (hardly any place to skate indoors). Public transport is incredible and only 365 euros for a whole year. If you are having kids, it is even better. Kindergarten and schools are very cheap and well subsidised by the "leftist" government (social democrats). Whole country is ruled by stupid conservatives though who recently formed a coalition with right-wing fascist. After this blew up they are now with the green party. Viennese people are not too much into english speaking, many of my colleagues made bad experiences in daily life situations. Still, I can fully recommend moving here. Let me know if you are having more questions.
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Absolutely not.
The smart move, like other people have said, might be to move to a smaller mainland Europe city like Leipzig, Mannheim or Innsbruck.
Why ?
Why not Dublin? Matt's looking for somewhere with a leftist government, cheap rent, low cost of living and decent weather. Unfortunately Dublin doesn't really have any of those things right now. A big allure of Dublin is the nightlife, but Matt's not a drinker. For a decent sized city it's also pretty crap for skating. I don't think there'd be much here for him (but if you ever fancy a visit @mattchew let me know!).
I will definitely be visiting family sometime in the next year and we shall link up! :) I just got issue two of Goblin and it got me super hyped on y’all! That mag is fucking dope.
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Hi PALS,
As the title suggests, I am looking to move to the EU from the US in about six to nine months.
I have Irish citizenship so I don't need to worry about immigration/visas/etc. and also have a decent chunk of change saved so I can take a month or two to find work after settling in.
I just don't know where to move!
I like skating, making art, playing music, being outside, and am looking for a place with:
a high standard of living/leftist government
decent weather
relatively inexpensive (i.e. I'd like to work as little as possible--making a lot of money isn't important to me, time off is)
english friendly while I learn the language
and ideally don't need a car (moped is fine): either city or countryside works for me.
I have been to a bunch of different countries in Europe, but only while on tour with my band so I don't have the best sense of all these places since it's such quick visits:
Ireland seems to make the most sense because they speak English but it's very boozy/catholic/dreary there...
Berlin seems cool and very English friendly
Barcelona for obvious reasons (haven't been there before though)
Scandinavia for their high standard of living (harsh winters though...)
Italy seems beautiful...
I am very open to ideas and any advice is welcome.
Thanks in advance homies!
Spain is the answer:
- right now i think we're the only government positioned somewhere on the left (but compared to the US, education and National Health Systems in any euro country could count as "leftie" somehow)
just come to Andalusia (southern Spain). Particularly the Málaga area (málaga itself could be a good option but rent is kinda expensive for Spanish standards):
- english friendly
- skate friendly
- museums and galleries (picasso museum, pompidou museum, "russian/eastern europe" arts museum...)
- moped/bike friendly
- one of the best airports (connection wise) to whole Europe and russia too (since a lot of wealthy Russians seems to enjoy a particular town nearby called Marbella)
i'm originally from another part region inside of andalusia and lived in Barcelona for 12 years. After moving back south a couple years ago for job reasons... boy i really don't know why i did stay that long up in Barcelona haha.
PS: don't know where are you originally from but in case you don't mind a little rougher winters (rain wise) Bourdeaux in france is a pretty cool option too,Valencia or Madrid in Spain as well. Good luck and in case you consider moving somewhere in Spain don't hesitate to hit this Pal up. cheers!
Spain is english-friendly? oh man I don't think we have the same definition of english-friendly haha..... :o
IMHO you're pretty much going nowhere in Italy/Spain/France if you don't speak the language.
i was talking about the malaga area (there's soooo many british people living here plus loads of foreigners / "expats" from other euro countries as well living in that region) but yeah, anywhere else beside bcn or madrid is pretty much non english friendly ::)
I feel like that's kind of obvious if you think about it. It'll be easier to get by with English in larger cities - and more touristy places - generally speaking. Small town wherever, people probably only speak the local language.
I'll say that people in Spain were friendlier than in Germany, for instance, if they didn't speak English. Even in Berlin, I've had bouncers not let me into bars for not speaking good enough German and doctors/nurses who, even though they spoke English, told me "You're in Germany, we speak German here. It's our native language." Usually something along those lines. Before moving here I couldn't have imagined that so many Germans seem to have a very Trump like mentality. My German's better now so I don't experience things like that as much but, damn, if all those experiences didn't leave a sour taste in my mouth.
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Hi PALS,
As the title suggests, I am looking to move to the EU from the US in about six to nine months.
I have Irish citizenship so I don't need to worry about immigration/visas/etc. and also have a decent chunk of change saved so I can take a month or two to find work after settling in.
I just don't know where to move!
I like skating, making art, playing music, being outside, and am looking for a place with:
a high standard of living/leftist government
decent weather
relatively inexpensive (i.e. I'd like to work as little as possible--making a lot of money isn't important to me, time off is)
english friendly while I learn the language
and ideally don't need a car (moped is fine): either city or countryside works for me.
I have been to a bunch of different countries in Europe, but only while on tour with my band so I don't have the best sense of all these places since it's such quick visits:
Ireland seems to make the most sense because they speak English but it's very boozy/catholic/dreary there...
Berlin seems cool and very English friendly
Barcelona for obvious reasons (haven't been there before though)
Scandinavia for their high standard of living (harsh winters though...)
Italy seems beautiful...
I am very open to ideas and any advice is welcome.
Thanks in advance homies!
Spain is the answer:
- right now i think we're the only government positioned somewhere on the left (but compared to the US, education and National Health Systems in any euro country could count as "leftie" somehow)
just come to Andalusia (southern Spain). Particularly the Málaga area (málaga itself could be a good option but rent is kinda expensive for Spanish standards):
- english friendly
- skate friendly
- museums and galleries (picasso museum, pompidou museum, "russian/eastern europe" arts museum...)
- moped/bike friendly
- one of the best airports (connection wise) to whole Europe and russia too (since a lot of wealthy Russians seems to enjoy a particular town nearby called Marbella)
i'm originally from another part region inside of andalusia and lived in Barcelona for 12 years. After moving back south a couple years ago for job reasons... boy i really don't know why i did stay that long up in Barcelona haha.
PS: don't know where are you originally from but in case you don't mind a little rougher winters (rain wise) Bourdeaux in france is a pretty cool option too,Valencia or Madrid in Spain as well. Good luck and in case you consider moving somewhere in Spain don't hesitate to hit this Pal up. cheers!
Spain is english-friendly? oh man I don't think we have the same definition of english-friendly haha..... :o
IMHO you're pretty much going nowhere in Italy/Spain/France if you don't speak the language.
i was talking about the malaga area (there's soooo many british people living here plus loads of foreigners / "expats" from other euro countries as well living in that region) but yeah, anywhere else beside bcn or madrid is pretty much non english friendly ::)
I feel like that's kind of obvious if you think about it. It'll be easier to get by with English in larger cities - and more touristy places - generally speaking. Small town wherever, people probably only speak the local language.
I'll say that people in Spain were friendlier than in Germany, for instance, if they didn't speak English. Even in Berlin, I've had bouncers not let me into bars for not speaking good enough German and doctors/nurses who, even though they spoke English, told me "You're in Germany, we speak German here. It's our native language." Usually something along those lines. Before moving here I couldn't have imagined that so many Germans seem to have a very Trump like mentality. My German's better now so I don't experience things like that as much but, damn, if all those experiences didn't leave a sour taste in my mouth.
while I understand why it left a bad taste in your mouth, you also have to understand so many english-speakers act like they own the world and everybody should adapt to them.....Just don't adress people in english right away when you're in some non-english speaking country. And I don't mean you btw! English-speakers in general. Try to blurt out at least one sentence in the local language to show people you respect them and their culture. This has nothing do with Trump IMO, just a reaction to the fact English has become the world's lingua franca, for better or worse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfUmW_Mf5qc
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Hi PALS,
As the title suggests, I am looking to move to the EU from the US in about six to nine months.
I have Irish citizenship so I don't need to worry about immigration/visas/etc. and also have a decent chunk of change saved so I can take a month or two to find work after settling in.
I just don't know where to move!
I like skating, making art, playing music, being outside, and am looking for a place with:
a high standard of living/leftist government
decent weather
relatively inexpensive (i.e. I'd like to work as little as possible--making a lot of money isn't important to me, time off is)
english friendly while I learn the language
and ideally don't need a car (moped is fine): either city or countryside works for me.
I have been to a bunch of different countries in Europe, but only while on tour with my band so I don't have the best sense of all these places since it's such quick visits:
Ireland seems to make the most sense because they speak English but it's very boozy/catholic/dreary there...
Berlin seems cool and very English friendly
Barcelona for obvious reasons (haven't been there before though)
Scandinavia for their high standard of living (harsh winters though...)
Italy seems beautiful...
I am very open to ideas and any advice is welcome.
Thanks in advance homies!
Spain is the answer:
- right now i think we're the only government positioned somewhere on the left (but compared to the US, education and National Health Systems in any euro country could count as "leftie" somehow)
just come to Andalusia (southern Spain). Particularly the Málaga area (málaga itself could be a good option but rent is kinda expensive for Spanish standards):
- english friendly
- skate friendly
- museums and galleries (picasso museum, pompidou museum, "russian/eastern europe" arts museum...)
- moped/bike friendly
- one of the best airports (connection wise) to whole Europe and russia too (since a lot of wealthy Russians seems to enjoy a particular town nearby called Marbella)
i'm originally from another part region inside of andalusia and lived in Barcelona for 12 years. After moving back south a couple years ago for job reasons... boy i really don't know why i did stay that long up in Barcelona haha.
PS: don't know where are you originally from but in case you don't mind a little rougher winters (rain wise) Bourdeaux in france is a pretty cool option too,Valencia or Madrid in Spain as well. Good luck and in case you consider moving somewhere in Spain don't hesitate to hit this Pal up. cheers!
Spain is english-friendly? oh man I don't think we have the same definition of english-friendly haha..... :o
IMHO you're pretty much going nowhere in Italy/Spain/France if you don't speak the language.
i was talking about the malaga area (there's soooo many british people living here plus loads of foreigners / "expats" from other euro countries as well living in that region) but yeah, anywhere else beside bcn or madrid is pretty much non english friendly ::)
I feel like that's kind of obvious if you think about it. It'll be easier to get by with English in larger cities - and more touristy places - generally speaking. Small town wherever, people probably only speak the local language.
I'll say that people in Spain were friendlier than in Germany, for instance, if they didn't speak English. Even in Berlin, I've had bouncers not let me into bars for not speaking good enough German and doctors/nurses who, even though they spoke English, told me "You're in Germany, we speak German here. It's our native language." Usually something along those lines. Before moving here I couldn't have imagined that so many Germans seem to have a very Trump like mentality. My German's better now so I don't experience things like that as much but, damn, if all those experiences didn't leave a sour taste in my mouth.
while I understand why it left a bad taste in your mouth, you also have to understand so many english-speakers act like they own the world and everybody should adapt to them.....Just don't adress people in english right away when you're in some non-english speaking country. And I don't mean you btw! English-speakers in general. Try to blurt out at least one sentence in the local language to show people you respect them and their culture. This has nothing do with Trump IMO, just a reaction to the fact English has become the world's lingua franca, for better or worse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfUmW_Mf5qc
Posting that video is just like me posting a video of someone in the USA saying, "We're in America, we speak English here". Not sure what point you're trying to prove with it but I think it makes you, that reporter, and Chabal all look like dicks. Unless that was a conference taking place in all French, but I have no clue.
For me, I always learn basic phrases for wherever I'm traveling to. I asked if people spoke English in Thai in Thailand, Mandarin in China, Japanese in Japan, etc... Do you think French people do that? German people? I'd wager that most people from most countries don't, especially if they're there as a tourist. If they spoke English, they probably tried in English. And either way, my experiences in Germany that I mentioned all took place speaking German which tells me the other person's coming from a point of prejudice or assuming something of me based off of previous experiences.
It doesn't have anything to do with Trump, per se, I'm just talking about the mentality. Same shit, different place. English didn't just "become" the lingua franca, that has to do with a number of things that happened throughout history politically. Google it if you want to know the specifics.
I just can't imagine being in NYC and having someone come up to me speaking in French, Mandarin, German, or whatever language asking if I speak it. I'd just say no. Especially if they're trying and ask in broken English...and my response is "We're in America, we speak English here, learn it or leave". One of the issues is that I don't know if they're a tourist, how long they've lived there, or really anything at all about the person. Do you think someone should learn the local language if they're there for a weekend or passing through the airport on transfer? That's just impractical.
If someone responds that way, that's on the bad end of nationalism - it can quickly become synonymous with fascism, Nazism, racist/biological nationalism. I can understand how Native English speakers can get more flack but it can also be someone who's from another country that knows English, they're just trying a language they think you might now. I honestly just can't fathom telling someone to speak my language or get out of my country over them asking if I speak a language. I know that in the current state of global affairs a lot of people can and it personally bums me out.
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If skateboarding means a lot to you, go somewhere south of the alps. Alternatively, make sure to have a lit underground parking lot with low security standards nearby. That, or access to a private underground parking. I’m in Switzerland and it‘s been raining/snowing the last two weeks and it‘s not about to stop, temperatures around freezing. I‘ve been skating in our private underground parking which serves several apartment houses. The neighbours are cool so far but how long...
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Really seems like Valencia might be the spot...going to try to visit this winter, depending on travel restrictions.
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Absolutely not.
The smart move, like other people have said, might be to move to a smaller mainland Europe city like Leipzig, Mannheim or Innsbruck.
Why ?
Why not Dublin? Matt's looking for somewhere with a leftist government, cheap rent, low cost of living and decent weather. Unfortunately Dublin doesn't really have any of those things right now. A big allure of Dublin is the nightlife, but Matt's not a drinker. For a decent sized city it's also pretty crap for skating. I don't think there'd be much here for him (but if you ever fancy a visit @mattchew let me know!).
I will definitely be visiting family sometime in the next year and we shall link up! :) I just got issue two of Goblin and it got me super hyped on y’all! That mag is fucking dope.
Definitely man let's skate
Yeah Goblin is the business
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Really seems like Valencia might be the spot...going to try to visit this winter, depending on travel restrictions.
I had a blast there in 98 or so....There's an old skatepark near the center with a banked section and some tight mini ramp/vert combo that was super fun. and the skate scene was rad!
->sexualhelon
Lighten up man....I was simply trying to explain the people you had a bad experience with might have a bad experience themselves, with other english speakers before you. I thought I made that pretty clear.... Anyways since you feel people who disagree with you must trumpist fascist nazis, no point in discussing this further. Well done on applying godwin's law very very fast though!!
Also you gave me a good laugh when you told me to google why English has become the lingua franca...Like I need google for that come on. ;D ;D
and I posted that Chabal vid just cause I thought it was funny in the context...and again you judge without having any clue, as you said yourself. Chabal was actually getting back at that journalist, who had told him to speak English in England, when Chabal was playing for Sale.
Finally don't you see Spaniards are way more used to dealing with english-speaking foreigners than Germans? Tourism drives Spain's economy. Anyways....viel spass in Deutschland.
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Really seems like Valencia might be the spot...going to try to visit this winter, depending on travel restrictions.
I had a blast there in 98 or so....There's an old skatepark near the center with a banked section and some tight mini ramp/vert combo that was super fun. and the skate scene was rad!
->sexualhelon
Lighten up man....I was simply trying to explain the people you had a bad experience with might have a bad experience themselves, with other english speakers before you. I thought I made that pretty clear.... Anyways since you feel people who disagree with you must trumpist fascist nazis, no point in discussing this further. Well done on applying godwin's law very very fast though!!
Also you gave me a good laugh when you told me to google why English has become the lingua franca...Like I need google for that come on. ;D ;D
and I posted that Chabal vid just cause I thought it was funny in the context...and again you judge without having any clue, as you said yourself. Chabal was actually getting back at that journalist, who had told him to speak English in England, when Chabal was playing for Sale.
Finally don't you see Spaniards are way more used to dealing with english-speaking foreigners than Germans? Tourism drives Spain's economy. Anyways....viel spass in Deutschland.
I get being frustrated, but does that make it permissible for someone to say, "get out of my country, foreigner" when you ask if they speak a language? I think that's showing your true colors more than just being frustrated. It seems like we're disagreeing in that you think it's an acceptable thing to casually throw that slur at people. I'm not saying that you're a Trumpist, fascist, or Nazi but I think finding that acceptable is pretty twisted and teetering towards what their ideologies stand for.
Nah, you weren't really clear about what you were getting at which is probably why I was admittedly a bit irritated. Why would you even assume I knew the context of that Chabal video? Now that I know the context, sure, it's kind of amusing. But out of context in relation to what I'd written, I didn't think so.
I'm not just talking about English speaking foreigners. That's the assumption you keep making. I'm talking about foreigners trying to learn the language. Either way, still pretty wack.
Huh? So not being used to foreigners makes this an acceptable thing? I can assure China as a whole is not used to foreigners - they definitely don't care about you being there as a tourist. It's the second largest economy, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language, and it houses the largest population in the world. Not once when I lived there did anyone ever say, "you're in China, speak Mandarin or leave foreigner". I guess I'm not sure what justifies when this is "acceptable".
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Really seems like Valencia might be the spot...going to try to visit this winter, depending on travel restrictions.
I had a blast there in 98 or so....There's an old skatepark near the center with a banked section and some tight mini ramp/vert combo that was super fun. and the skate scene was rad!
->sexualhelon
Lighten up man....I was simply trying to explain the people you had a bad experience with might have a bad experience themselves, with other english speakers before you. I thought I made that pretty clear.... Anyways since you feel people who disagree with you must trumpist fascist nazis, no point in discussing this further. Well done on applying godwin's law very very fast though!!
Also you gave me a good laugh when you told me to google why English has become the lingua franca...Like I need google for that come on. ;D ;D
and I posted that Chabal vid just cause I thought it was funny in the context...and again you judge without having any clue, as you said yourself. Chabal was actually getting back at that journalist, who had told him to speak English in England, when Chabal was playing for Sale.
Finally don't you see Spaniards are way more used to dealing with english-speaking foreigners than Germans? Tourism drives Spain's economy. Anyways....viel spass in Deutschland.
I get being frustrated, but does that make it permissible for someone to say, "get out of my country, foreigner" when you ask if they speak a language? I think that's showing your true colors more than just being frustrated. It seems like we're disagreeing in that you think it's an acceptable thing to casually throw that slur at people. I'm not saying that you're a Trumpist, fascist, or Nazi but I think finding that acceptable is pretty twisted and teetering towards those ideologies.
Nah, you weren't really clear about what you were getting at which is probably why I was admittedly a bit irritated. Why would you even assume I knew the context of that Chabal video? Now that I know the context, sure, it's kind of amusing. But out of context in relation to what I'd written, I didn't think so.
I'm not just talking about English speaking foreigners. That's the assumption you keep making. I'm talking about foreigners trying to learn the language. Either way, still pretty wack.
Huh? So not being used to foreigners makes this an acceptable thing? I can assure China as a whole is not used to foreigners - they definitely don't care about you being there as a tourist. It's the second largest economy, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language, and it houses the largest population in the world. Not once when I lived there did anyone ever say, "you're in China, speak Mandarin or leave foreigner". I guess I'm not sure what justifies when this is "acceptable".
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Really seems like Valencia might be the spot...going to try to visit this winter, depending on travel restrictions.
I had a blast there in 98 or so....There's an old skatepark near the center with a banked section and some tight mini ramp/vert combo that was super fun. and the skate scene was rad!
->sexualhelon
Lighten up man....I was simply trying to explain the people you had a bad experience with might have a bad experience themselves, with other english speakers before you. I thought I made that pretty clear.... Anyways since you feel people who disagree with you must trumpist fascist nazis, no point in discussing this further. Well done on applying godwin's law very very fast though!!
Also you gave me a good laugh when you told me to google why English has become the lingua franca...Like I need google for that come on. ;D ;D
and I posted that Chabal vid just cause I thought it was funny in the context...and again you judge without having any clue, as you said yourself. Chabal was actually getting back at that journalist, who had told him to speak English in England, when Chabal was playing for Sale.
Finally don't you see Spaniards are way more used to dealing with english-speaking foreigners than Germans? Tourism drives Spain's economy. Anyways....viel spass in Deutschland.
I get being frustrated, but does that make it permissible for someone to say, "get out of my country, foreigner" when you ask if they speak a language? I think that's showing your true colors more than just being frustrated. It seems like we're disagreeing in that you think it's an acceptable thing to casually throw that slur at people. I'm not saying that you're a Trumpist, fascist, or Nazi but I think finding that acceptable is pretty twisted and teetering towards what their ideologies stand for.
Nah, you weren't really clear about what you were getting at which is probably why I was admittedly a bit irritated. Why would you even assume I knew the context of that Chabal video? Now that I know the context, sure, it's kind of amusing. But out of context in relation to what I'd written, I didn't think so.
I'm not just talking about English speaking foreigners. That's the assumption you keep making. I'm talking about foreigners trying to learn the language. Either way, still pretty wack.
Huh? So not being used to foreigners makes this an acceptable thing? I can assure China as a whole is not used to foreigners - they definitely don't care about you being there as a tourist. It's the second largest economy, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language, and it houses the largest population in the world. Not once when I lived there did anyone ever say, "you're in China, speak Mandarin or leave foreigner". I guess I'm not sure what justifies when this is "acceptable".
what? where did I say it's acceptable to say ""get out of my country, foreigner"? And I AM talking specifically about english speakers, cause that does make a difference because of english's status as the international language. That's precisely the point I'm making and that you don't want to see....Never mind jeez, I never said anything...
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Really seems like Valencia might be the spot...going to try to visit this winter, depending on travel restrictions.
I had a blast there in 98 or so....There's an old skatepark near the center with a banked section and some tight mini ramp/vert combo that was super fun. and the skate scene was rad!
->sexualhelon
Lighten up man....I was simply trying to explain the people you had a bad experience with might have a bad experience themselves, with other english speakers before you. I thought I made that pretty clear.... Anyways since you feel people who disagree with you must trumpist fascist nazis, no point in discussing this further. Well done on applying godwin's law very very fast though!!
Also you gave me a good laugh when you told me to google why English has become the lingua franca...Like I need google for that come on. ;D ;D
and I posted that Chabal vid just cause I thought it was funny in the context...and again you judge without having any clue, as you said yourself. Chabal was actually getting back at that journalist, who had told him to speak English in England, when Chabal was playing for Sale.
Finally don't you see Spaniards are way more used to dealing with english-speaking foreigners than Germans? Tourism drives Spain's economy. Anyways....viel spass in Deutschland.
I get being frustrated, but does that make it permissible for someone to say, "get out of my country, foreigner" when you ask if they speak a language? I think that's showing your true colors more than just being frustrated. It seems like we're disagreeing in that you think it's an acceptable thing to casually throw that slur at people. I'm not saying that you're a Trumpist, fascist, or Nazi but I think finding that acceptable is pretty twisted and teetering towards what their ideologies stand for.
Nah, you weren't really clear about what you were getting at which is probably why I was admittedly a bit irritated. Why would you even assume I knew the context of that Chabal video? Now that I know the context, sure, it's kind of amusing. But out of context in relation to what I'd written, I didn't think so.
I'm not just talking about English speaking foreigners. That's the assumption you keep making. I'm talking about foreigners trying to learn the language. Either way, still pretty wack.
Huh? So not being used to foreigners makes this an acceptable thing? I can assure China as a whole is not used to foreigners - they definitely don't care about you being there as a tourist. It's the second largest economy, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language, and it houses the largest population in the world. Not once when I lived there did anyone ever say, "you're in China, speak Mandarin or leave foreigner". I guess I'm not sure what justifies when this is "acceptable".
what? where did I say it's acceptable to say ""get out of my country, foreigner"? And I AM talking specifically about english speakers, cause that does make a difference because of english's status as the international language. That's precisely the point I'm making and that you don't want to see....Never mind jeez, I never said anything...
I thought that's what you were implying but, well, it's an internet message board so things can easily be misinterpreted. No offense man, but I had no idea what point you were trying to make. To me it seemed like you were just trying to push my buttons based off my original post. I get what you're saying about native English speakers, but I wasn't specifically referring to native English speakers. All I was saying is that I had some bad experiences where people did say things like that to me and I think it's pretty lame... and I really don't think they cared whether or not I was a native English speaker.
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Really seems like Valencia might be the spot...going to try to visit this winter, depending on travel restrictions.
I had a blast there in 98 or so....There's an old skatepark near the center with a banked section and some tight mini ramp/vert combo that was super fun. and the skate scene was rad!
->sexualhelon
Lighten up man....I was simply trying to explain the people you had a bad experience with might have a bad experience themselves, with other english speakers before you. I thought I made that pretty clear.... Anyways since you feel people who disagree with you must trumpist fascist nazis, no point in discussing this further. Well done on applying godwin's law very very fast though!!
Also you gave me a good laugh when you told me to google why English has become the lingua franca...Like I need google for that come on. ;D ;D
and I posted that Chabal vid just cause I thought it was funny in the context...and again you judge without having any clue, as you said yourself. Chabal was actually getting back at that journalist, who had told him to speak English in England, when Chabal was playing for Sale.
Finally don't you see Spaniards are way more used to dealing with english-speaking foreigners than Germans? Tourism drives Spain's economy. Anyways....viel spass in Deutschland.
I get being frustrated, but does that make it permissible for someone to say, "get out of my country, foreigner" when you ask if they speak a language? I think that's showing your true colors more than just being frustrated. It seems like we're disagreeing in that you think it's an acceptable thing to casually throw that slur at people. I'm not saying that you're a Trumpist, fascist, or Nazi but I think finding that acceptable is pretty twisted and teetering towards what their ideologies stand for.
Nah, you weren't really clear about what you were getting at which is probably why I was admittedly a bit irritated. Why would you even assume I knew the context of that Chabal video? Now that I know the context, sure, it's kind of amusing. But out of context in relation to what I'd written, I didn't think so.
I'm not just talking about English speaking foreigners. That's the assumption you keep making. I'm talking about foreigners trying to learn the language. Either way, still pretty wack.
Huh? So not being used to foreigners makes this an acceptable thing? I can assure China as a whole is not used to foreigners - they definitely don't care about you being there as a tourist. It's the second largest economy, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language, and it houses the largest population in the world. Not once when I lived there did anyone ever say, "you're in China, speak Mandarin or leave foreigner". I guess I'm not sure what justifies when this is "acceptable".
what? where did I say it's acceptable to say ""get out of my country, foreigner"? And I AM talking specifically about english speakers, cause that does make a difference because of english's status as the international language. That's precisely the point I'm making and that you don't want to see....Never mind jeez, I never said anything...
I thought that's what you were implying but, well, it's an internet message board so things can easily be misinterpreted. No offense man, but I had no idea what point you were trying to make. To me it seemed like you were just trying to push my buttons based off my original post. I get what you're saying about native English speakers, but I wasn't specifically referring to native English speakers. All I was saying is that I had some bad experiences where people did say things like that to me and I think it's pretty lame... and I really don't think they cared whether or not I was a native English speaker.
glad we could de-escalate and talk like grown-ups, it's pretty rare on internet message boards as you said! 8)
Now to get back to OP's original query....while as I said, Valencia is awesome, seems to me the language thing would be more complicated than usual there, as it is part of the catala-speaking region of Spain. So you'd have to learn 2 languages to really integrate there. Any Spaniards here to chime in on this??
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Really seems like Valencia might be the spot...going to try to visit this winter, depending on travel restrictions.
I had a blast there in 98 or so....There's an old skatepark near the center with a banked section and some tight mini ramp/vert combo that was super fun. and the skate scene was rad!
->sexualhelon
Lighten up man....I was simply trying to explain the people you had a bad experience with might have a bad experience themselves, with other english speakers before you. I thought I made that pretty clear.... Anyways since you feel people who disagree with you must trumpist fascist nazis, no point in discussing this further. Well done on applying godwin's law very very fast though!!
Also you gave me a good laugh when you told me to google why English has become the lingua franca...Like I need google for that come on. ;D ;D
and I posted that Chabal vid just cause I thought it was funny in the context...and again you judge without having any clue, as you said yourself. Chabal was actually getting back at that journalist, who had told him to speak English in England, when Chabal was playing for Sale.
Finally don't you see Spaniards are way more used to dealing with english-speaking foreigners than Germans? Tourism drives Spain's economy. Anyways....viel spass in Deutschland.
I get being frustrated, but does that make it permissible for someone to say, "get out of my country, foreigner" when you ask if they speak a language? I think that's showing your true colors more than just being frustrated. It seems like we're disagreeing in that you think it's an acceptable thing to casually throw that slur at people. I'm not saying that you're a Trumpist, fascist, or Nazi but I think finding that acceptable is pretty twisted and teetering towards what their ideologies stand for.
Nah, you weren't really clear about what you were getting at which is probably why I was admittedly a bit irritated. Why would you even assume I knew the context of that Chabal video? Now that I know the context, sure, it's kind of amusing. But out of context in relation to what I'd written, I didn't think so.
I'm not just talking about English speaking foreigners. That's the assumption you keep making. I'm talking about foreigners trying to learn the language. Either way, still pretty wack.
Huh? So not being used to foreigners makes this an acceptable thing? I can assure China as a whole is not used to foreigners - they definitely don't care about you being there as a tourist. It's the second largest economy, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language, and it houses the largest population in the world. Not once when I lived there did anyone ever say, "you're in China, speak Mandarin or leave foreigner". I guess I'm not sure what justifies when this is "acceptable".
what? where did I say it's acceptable to say ""get out of my country, foreigner"? And I AM talking specifically about english speakers, cause that does make a difference because of english's status as the international language. That's precisely the point I'm making and that you don't want to see....Never mind jeez, I never said anything...
I thought that's what you were implying but, well, it's an internet message board so things can easily be misinterpreted. No offense man, but I had no idea what point you were trying to make. To me it seemed like you were just trying to push my buttons based off my original post. I get what you're saying about native English speakers, but I wasn't specifically referring to native English speakers. All I was saying is that I had some bad experiences where people did say things like that to me and I think it's pretty lame... and I really don't think they cared whether or not I was a native English speaker.
glad we could de-escalate and talk like grown-ups, it's pretty rare on internet message boards as you said! 8)
Now to get back to OP's original query....while as I said, Valencia is awesome, seems to me the language thing would be more complicated than usual there, as it is part of the catala-speaking region of Spain. So you'd have to learn 2 languages to really integrate there. Any Spaniards here to chime in on this??
Chien Andalusian speaking (former bcn inhabitant for 12 years and vlc regular visitor)
Nope. Catalan (well Valencià if you ask the local government) ain't really needed (or at all) to get by (only if you're apliying for a job on the regional administration). Other than that nothing compared to the Catalunya scenario.
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Really seems like Valencia might be the spot...going to try to visit this winter, depending on travel restrictions.
I had a blast there in 98 or so....There's an old skatepark near the center with a banked section and some tight mini ramp/vert combo that was super fun. and the skate scene was rad!
->sexualhelon
Lighten up man....I was simply trying to explain the people you had a bad experience with might have a bad experience themselves, with other english speakers before you. I thought I made that pretty clear.... Anyways since you feel people who disagree with you must trumpist fascist nazis, no point in discussing this further. Well done on applying godwin's law very very fast though!!
Also you gave me a good laugh when you told me to google why English has become the lingua franca...Like I need google for that come on. ;D ;D
and I posted that Chabal vid just cause I thought it was funny in the context...and again you judge without having any clue, as you said yourself. Chabal was actually getting back at that journalist, who had told him to speak English in England, when Chabal was playing for Sale.
Finally don't you see Spaniards are way more used to dealing with english-speaking foreigners than Germans? Tourism drives Spain's economy. Anyways....viel spass in Deutschland.
I get being frustrated, but does that make it permissible for someone to say, "get out of my country, foreigner" when you ask if they speak a language? I think that's showing your true colors more than just being frustrated. It seems like we're disagreeing in that you think it's an acceptable thing to casually throw that slur at people. I'm not saying that you're a Trumpist, fascist, or Nazi but I think finding that acceptable is pretty twisted and teetering towards what their ideologies stand for.
Nah, you weren't really clear about what you were getting at which is probably why I was admittedly a bit irritated. Why would you even assume I knew the context of that Chabal video? Now that I know the context, sure, it's kind of amusing. But out of context in relation to what I'd written, I didn't think so.
I'm not just talking about English speaking foreigners. That's the assumption you keep making. I'm talking about foreigners trying to learn the language. Either way, still pretty wack.
Huh? So not being used to foreigners makes this an acceptable thing? I can assure China as a whole is not used to foreigners - they definitely don't care about you being there as a tourist. It's the second largest economy, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language, and it houses the largest population in the world. Not once when I lived there did anyone ever say, "you're in China, speak Mandarin or leave foreigner". I guess I'm not sure what justifies when this is "acceptable".
what? where did I say it's acceptable to say ""get out of my country, foreigner"? And I AM talking specifically about english speakers, cause that does make a difference because of english's status as the international language. That's precisely the point I'm making and that you don't want to see....Never mind jeez, I never said anything...
I thought that's what you were implying but, well, it's an internet message board so things can easily be misinterpreted. No offense man, but I had no idea what point you were trying to make. To me it seemed like you were just trying to push my buttons based off my original post. I get what you're saying about native English speakers, but I wasn't specifically referring to native English speakers. All I was saying is that I had some bad experiences where people did say things like that to me and I think it's pretty lame... and I really don't think they cared whether or not I was a native English speaker.
glad we could de-escalate and talk like grown-ups, it's pretty rare on internet message boards as you said! 8)
Now to get back to OP's original query....while as I said, Valencia is awesome, seems to me the language thing would be more complicated than usual there, as it is part of the catala-speaking region of Spain. So you'd have to learn 2 languages to really integrate there. Any Spaniards here to chime in on this??
Chien Andalusian speaking (former bcn inhabitant for 12 years and vlc regular visitor)
Nope. Catalan (well Valencià if you ask the local government) ain't really needed (or at all) to get by (only if you're apliying for a job on the regional administration). Other than that nothing compared to the Catalunya scenario.
@OldieButFrenchie Yeah, my bad, was honestly a bit triggered that day and went on a bit of a rant. Glad it ended on a civil note and the thread's back on topic.
I haven't spent much time in Valencia but just read they speak Catalan but refer to it as Valencian? Pretty interesting reading into the region's history.
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Good to see all the love Vienna gets. I am German and moved to Vienna few years ago and dont want to live elsewhere anymore. Rents are ok/low in comparison to other european cities/capitals of the same size, great skate scene, great summers, rough winters (hardly any place to skate indoors). Public transport is incredible and only 365 euros for a whole year. If you are having kids, it is even better. Kindergarten and schools are very cheap and well subsidised by the "leftist" government (social democrats). Whole country is ruled by stupid conservatives though who recently formed a coalition with right-wing fascist. After this blew up they are now with the green party. Viennese people are not too much into english speaking, many of my colleagues made bad experiences in daily life situations. Still, I can fully recommend moving here. Let me know if you are having more questions.
So after my previous rants on Germany ::), I'm curious what you mean by your colleagues having bad experiences in daily life situations? And, yeah, Austria's government has taken an interesting turn as of late or either I just wasn't paying attention before. My wife's actually from Vienna so I've spent months at a time there and it's been mostly positive. I even got along with Dirty Gurtel Kids when most people told me that crew vibes everyone out, ha. Darko even designed one of the more recently built parks here in Berlin.
The new Copa park is sick and the one out in Floridsdorf as well. Not gonna lie, I still like Gurtel Plaza though haha. Random mention, but that Beerlovers store is dope too. They have some really nice sales sometimes. Once they had some stone IPA's that were near expiration so they had a buy 1 get 3 free.
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Really seems like Valencia might be the spot...going to try to visit this winter, depending on travel restrictions.
I had a blast there in 98 or so....There's an old skatepark near the center with a banked section and some tight mini ramp/vert combo that was super fun. and the skate scene was rad!
->sexualhelon
Lighten up man....I was simply trying to explain the people you had a bad experience with might have a bad experience themselves, with other english speakers before you. I thought I made that pretty clear.... Anyways since you feel people who disagree with you must trumpist fascist nazis, no point in discussing this further. Well done on applying godwin's law very very fast though!!
Also you gave me a good laugh when you told me to google why English has become the lingua franca...Like I need google for that come on. ;D ;D
and I posted that Chabal vid just cause I thought it was funny in the context...and again you judge without having any clue, as you said yourself. Chabal was actually getting back at that journalist, who had told him to speak English in England, when Chabal was playing for Sale.
Finally don't you see Spaniards are way more used to dealing with english-speaking foreigners than Germans? Tourism drives Spain's economy. Anyways....viel spass in Deutschland.
I get being frustrated, but does that make it permissible for someone to say, "get out of my country, foreigner" when you ask if they speak a language? I think that's showing your true colors more than just being frustrated. It seems like we're disagreeing in that you think it's an acceptable thing to casually throw that slur at people. I'm not saying that you're a Trumpist, fascist, or Nazi but I think finding that acceptable is pretty twisted and teetering towards what their ideologies stand for.
Nah, you weren't really clear about what you were getting at which is probably why I was admittedly a bit irritated. Why would you even assume I knew the context of that Chabal video? Now that I know the context, sure, it's kind of amusing. But out of context in relation to what I'd written, I didn't think so.
I'm not just talking about English speaking foreigners. That's the assumption you keep making. I'm talking about foreigners trying to learn the language. Either way, still pretty wack.
Huh? So not being used to foreigners makes this an acceptable thing? I can assure China as a whole is not used to foreigners - they definitely don't care about you being there as a tourist. It's the second largest economy, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language, and it houses the largest population in the world. Not once when I lived there did anyone ever say, "you're in China, speak Mandarin or leave foreigner". I guess I'm not sure what justifies when this is "acceptable".
what? where did I say it's acceptable to say ""get out of my country, foreigner"? And I AM talking specifically about english speakers, cause that does make a difference because of english's status as the international language. That's precisely the point I'm making and that you don't want to see....Never mind jeez, I never said anything...
I thought that's what you were implying but, well, it's an internet message board so things can easily be misinterpreted. No offense man, but I had no idea what point you were trying to make. To me it seemed like you were just trying to push my buttons based off my original post. I get what you're saying about native English speakers, but I wasn't specifically referring to native English speakers. All I was saying is that I had some bad experiences where people did say things like that to me and I think it's pretty lame... and I really don't think they cared whether or not I was a native English speaker.
glad we could de-escalate and talk like grown-ups, it's pretty rare on internet message boards as you said! 8)
Now to get back to OP's original query....while as I said, Valencia is awesome, seems to me the language thing would be more complicated than usual there, as it is part of the catala-speaking region of Spain. So you'd have to learn 2 languages to really integrate there. Any Spaniards here to chime in on this??
Chien Andalusian speaking (former bcn inhabitant for 12 years and vlc regular visitor)
Nope. Catalan (well Valencià if you ask the local government) ain't really needed (or at all) to get by (only if you're apliying for a job on the regional administration). Other than that nothing compared to the Catalunya scenario.
oh right, I thought Valencia was part of Catalunya! Thanks for the heads-up. I live in Belgium, which is another country where the language politics has you walking on egg shells...
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copenhagen! europe is small, so visiting other countries isnt too hard so you will probs figure it out for urself after you have visited a few places.
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Well I think Barcelona is the obvious answer. Pretty cheap compared to most major Euro cities, and the skating and weather are sick.
Finland is a favorite of mine. Not as expensive as it's Scandinavian neighbors. The language is a bitch though and not real practical for any other language or country in the world. People are chill though and the skate scene is my favorite in the world. Gnarly winters though Tampere and Helsinki both have pretty good indoor skate scenes.
I'd also second Slovenia. On a scale of Slavic countries the people are quite friendly and you can even smile at strangers sometimes. It's a beautiful country and the skate scene is fucking sick. it's also a cheaper country compared to europe.
Good luck dude super jealous!
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So much good info in here, thank you so much dudes. Gnars for everyone. Keep it coming!
Hey Man which state you from?
Italy it's struggle but sweet life here the spots are real but it takes attitude..Curious to hear where you gonna head.Anyway, travelling can be very cheap if you keep it gipsy so definitely take a visit to all the places people shared!
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Well I think Barcelona is the obvious answer. Pretty cheap compared to most major Euro cities, and the skating and weather are sick.
Finland is a favorite of mine. Not as expensive as it's Scandinavian neighbors. The language is a bitch though and not real practical for any other language or country in the world. People are chill though and the skate scene is my favorite in the world. Gnarly winters though Tampere and Helsinki both have pretty good indoor skate scenes.
I'd also second Slovenia. On a scale of Slavic countries the people are quite friendly and you can even smile at strangers sometimes. It's a beautiful country and the skate scene is fucking sick. it's also a cheaper country compared to europe.
Good luck dude super jealous!
yeah barcy is always great, but is it easy to find work? most of the guys i know that went there have a hard time to get their money for rent/food with pretty shitty (and shitty paid) jobs
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Well I think Barcelona is the obvious answer. Pretty cheap compared to most major Euro cities, and the skating and weather are sick.
Finland is a favorite of mine. Not as expensive as it's Scandinavian neighbors. The language is a bitch though and not real practical for any other language or country in the world. People are chill though and the skate scene is my favorite in the world. Gnarly winters though Tampere and Helsinki both have pretty good indoor skate scenes.
I'd also second Slovenia. On a scale of Slavic countries the people are quite friendly and you can even smile at strangers sometimes. It's a beautiful country and the skate scene is fucking sick. it's also a cheaper country compared to europe.
Good luck dude super jealous!
yeah barcy is always great, but is it easy to find work? most of the guys i know that went there have a hard time to get their money for rent/food with pretty shitty (and shitty paid) jobs
I think it really depends on your profession and if you speak Spanish + maybe a bit of Catalan and/or English.
I can't exactly say from personal experience but I feel like that notion might be a little outdated. Pre-corona, I think things have gotten better there job wise in the past decade or so. Comparing it to Berlin, there would be less jobs in my profession but the wages aren't so different. If you're moving there just to skate and find whatever job to make ends meet then I think, yeah, it might not be the easiest. But, then again, I don't think that would be so easy in Berlin either.
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A lot of my mates that moved to Barca with only English ended up working in call centres. It sucks, but it's enough to get by. Some of them ended up staying a long while.
People have told me that working about 3 days a week in Berlin is enough to just about get by. Kind of cool if true. Anyone confirm/deny? I guess it depends on what you're doing.
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A lot of my mates that moved to Barca with only English ended up working in call centres. It sucks, but it's enough to get by. Some of them ended up staying a long while.
People have told me that working about 3 days a week in Berlin is enough to just about get by. Kind of cool if true. Anyone confirm/deny? I guess it depends on what you're doing.
depends definetly what youre doing and foremost where you live/ how much your rent is. berlins getting really tough with rent and finding a place to live that isnt too expensive.
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A lot of my mates that moved to Barca with only English ended up working in call centres. It sucks, but it's enough to get by. Some of them ended up staying a long while.
People have told me that working about 3 days a week in Berlin is enough to just about get by. Kind of cool if true. Anyone confirm/deny? I guess it depends on what you're doing.
depends definetly what youre doing and foremost where you live/ how much your rent is. berlins getting really tough with rent and finding a place to live that isnt too expensive.
This. If you have a hook up for a place, go for it, living costs besides rent are still fine. If you know your spots, you can get Falafel for one Euro and a pizza for three, lots of cheap markets for fresh produce, too. The city has changed a lot over the last decade and at least to me it feels like it's no longer the mecca it used to be. Might just be fatigue though and getting older and caring less about the cultural scene in general, best to see for yourself I guess. Also, be aware of the winter, today is actually sunny and beautiful, but Berlin winters can be quite depressing.
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A lot of my mates that moved to Barca with only English ended up working in call centres. It sucks, but it's enough to get by. Some of them ended up staying a long while.
People have told me that working about 3 days a week in Berlin is enough to just about get by. Kind of cool if true. Anyone confirm/deny? I guess it depends on what you're doing.
depends definetly what youre doing and foremost where you live/ how much your rent is. berlins getting really tough with rent and finding a place to live that isnt too expensive.
This. If you have a hook up for a place, go for it, living costs besides rent are still fine. If you know your spots, you can get Falafel for one Euro and a pizza for three, lots of cheap markets for fresh produce, too. The city has changed a lot over the last decade and at least to me it feels like it's no longer the mecca it used to be. Might just be fatigue though and getting older and caring less about the cultural scene in general, best to see for yourself I guess. Also, be aware of the winter, today is actually sunny and beautiful, but Berlin winters can be quite depressing.
IMO: Berlin weather as whole is a little brutal. I visited once, in June, and I loved it but I had to buy a jacket it was so cold! Compared to Paris where I lived at the time, which is not even like the south of France...
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A lot of my mates that moved to Barca with only English ended up working in call centres. It sucks, but it's enough to get by. Some of them ended up staying a long while.
People have told me that working about 3 days a week in Berlin is enough to just about get by. Kind of cool if true. Anyone confirm/deny? I guess it depends on what you're doing.
depends definetly what youre doing and foremost where you live/ how much your rent is. berlins getting really tough with rent and finding a place to live that isnt too expensive.
This. If you have a hook up for a place, go for it, living costs besides rent are still fine. If you know your spots, you can get Falafel for one Euro and a pizza for three, lots of cheap markets for fresh produce, too. The city has changed a lot over the last decade and at least to me it feels like it's no longer the mecca it used to be. Might just be fatigue though and getting older and caring less about the cultural scene in general, best to see for yourself I guess. Also, be aware of the winter, today is actually sunny and beautiful, but Berlin winters can be quite depressing.
To touch on the working 3 days a week thing in Berlin, it really depends what you're doing but I'd say that the times of that being a blanket statement are long gone. For instance, I went to the Brewery called Brlo the other day and beers were 10 euros so you kind of have the whole spectrum here. On the other hand, you can get a crate of decent 0.5 liter beers from the store for 15 euros. Around 5 if you're down for the shittiest beer.
There's cheap falafel places and what not, but I think you can find cheap eats in a lot of places. I could tell you where to get a Bahn Mi or an Indian platter in Manhattan for 3 dollars too. But if I'm comparing it to NYC, which really isn't a fair comparison, the things that are most noticeably cheaper in Berlin for me are rent & eating out at restaurants. You'd also have to take compare the salary/taxes from wherever you're coming from though.
But, yeah, Berlin might be an easier capital city to scrape by in compared to most others. The weather's indeed pretty brutal though. The cold's not really an issue for me, it's the darkness. It feels like they sky is a solid grey for like 9 months out of the year. It's also surprisingly wet - in the colder months, even when it hasn't rained, the ground will be wet everywhere. So, weather wise, definitely not the best if you're wanting to be able to skate most days out of the year.
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I moved to Berlin almost 3 years ago. I'm an English speaker, don't have any EU citizenship/passport and didn't speak any German before moving here. Here's my perspective on the city.
In comparison to other big cities in Europe(Paris, London, Copenhagen), the standard of living does feel generally cheaper. Like @sexualhelon said, you can find places all over the city to eat very cheaply and I feel that "enjoying yourself" is generally not super expensive. If you have a connection and can find a cheap flat here, you can sometimes get a room for 400eu a month. Sometimes less even. I will say that finding a cheap place, or any place for that matter, is so dependent on knowing people. The process of dealing with landlords and real estate agents is so brutal and you get treated like a second class person if you aren't a white German.
Job-wise for people who only speak english, I imagine there is a lot of competition because there are a lot of people who move here with no real intention to learn the language and the idea that Berlin is this English speaking bubble. From my perspective and experience, it is not, and Berlin can be a quite unfriendly place when it comes to you and this topic. I would say that people here are typically unhelpful to foreigners and if you're in a position where you're trying to navigate the bureaucracy and need help with something, it's often that you will get lesser help or service if they figure out you can't speak the language. It's a situation that drives me crazy and I often have friends call the tax office, the internet company, etc. whenever I'm having issues with something.
The winter is definitely a tough one. Sometimes you'll have weeks where it's -5 to -10 but they aren't so long or often. What's the hardest is how long the grey persists - I swear sometimes you can go a month without seeing blue sky.
Berlin is full of culture, is incredible in the summer and you can be entertained 24/7 if you want to be. One thing I'm always impressed by is how this big, metropolitan city has all of the options that come with a city like it, but is also so close to nature, greenery and lakes. You truly don't need a car in the city or to get to any of the natural amenities I just mentioned and the bike infrastructure is pretty great too.
I'm super down for the city and I'll be here for a long, long time. I'm not aiming to burst your bubble with what I mentioned above, but I wanted to give you some realism based on what it's like from a foreigners perspective because I feel that people(myself included) have an idea of this 'utopia' that Berlin is. It's got it's rough edges and it will definitely put you through the meat grinder a bit, but I think a key to sticking it out here is committing to that and riding through it. I love the quality of life here and will be in Berlin for a long, long time.
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Considering a Paris move, please chime in.
I'm highly educated on paper but I would like to work part time or even less, ideally abandoning my field (structural engineering) to pursue urban planning/design or even a shop assistant role at a skateshop or something.
Basically anything that does not involve 8 hours of MS Excel a day 5 days a week. Priority is skating and quality of life.
Is that doable there?
Is it easy to make skate friends? Cool guy vibes or decent vibes?
Not scared about rent prices as they are insane where I am at.
I have a B2 in French, it's quite old but I can read and comprehend well, just a bit rusty on the speaking.
Would move with my gf. Best areas to live in?
Anything insightful is really appreciated.
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Considering a Paris move, please chime in.
I'm highly educated on paper but I would like to work part time or even less, ideally abandoning my field (structural engineering) to pursue urban planning/design or even a shop assistant role at a skateshop or something.
Basically anything that does not involve 8 hours of MS Excel a day 5 days a week. Priority is skating and quality of life.
Is that doable there?
Is it easy to make skate friends? Cool guy vibes or decent vibes?
Not scared about rent prices as they are insane where I am at.
I have a B2 in French, it's quite old but I can read and comprehend well, just a bit rusty on the speaking.
Would move with my gf. Best areas to live in?
Anything insightful is really appreciated.
where do you live now? Honestly working part-time in Paris seems far-fetched considering the rent prices.... especially since a lot of landlords want to be sure you will be able to pay. And therefore will ask you to prove you can before renting (it's quite difficult to evict someone in France). Everybody I know who wanted quality of life and to be able to chill left Paris to go to the south of france or something.... Paris is like NY, in that you have to hustle, and it's cramped with people. I still love it, it's my hometown, but I left 15 years ago so I don't have a lot of current info about the skate scene and what not. I will tell you it's the best skate city on earth though, IMHO!
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where do you live now?
London mate.
Didn’t want to start a new thread as it’s just an idea but also don’t want to derail from mattchew original post haha.
Anyways if y’all have something insightful to say feel free to reply or even PM me, mucho appreciated.
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I lived in Berlin for 5 Years from 29/30 to 35.
What the other poster already said is totally true. if you plan to stay longer and don't follow some rules and try to learn the local language and get stuck in the expat bubble for too long, Berlin is going to grind you down with full force, in the moment you least expect it.
the housing market is insane. it may isn't as expensive as New York, London or Paris. the main problem is more, that there are basically just no apartments and rooms available on the market. while there is a huge demand. and trust me, the expat is considered very last on the waitinglists.
the summers in Berlin are amazing for skateboarding and for partying. the winters are fine for culture, parties, bars aswell. It gets gray and cold, but never boring. no idea tho how it is at the moment. I bet everything is shut down because of corona.
what else I would consider is your age and attitude. I for example moved away because I felt I just got too old for what the city has to offer. its the perfect place to waste your 20s and experience some stories to tell. after a while it gets repetitive tho. and when you are starting to become more career focused/ work longer hours, there are other cities that are friendlier for that in regards to commuting, work/life balance, governmental and bureaucratic issues, job market, payment, and so on.
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London mate.
Didn’t want to start a new thread as it’s just an idea but also don’t want to derail from mattchew original post haha.
Anyways if y’all have something insightful to say feel free to reply or even PM me, mucho appreciated.
No derailment at all homie. The more people posting in here about their experience living in Europe, the better!
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Any EuroPals wanna chime in on how beneficial it is for an expat to have a higher degree (Masters level) when trying to get jobs/residence visas? Does a degree/experience go a long way or is money the biggest component to success in trying to get established?
I mean, here in California, shit back in Boston too, I know numerous dudes who overstayed their visa, married a US citizen, and they're all set to stay. Fuck, I know a Canadian-Bulgarian with no income, who got married, divorced, went rogue, got married again and now has a green card.
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Any EuroPals wanna chime in on how beneficial it is for an expat to have a higher degree (Masters level) when trying to get jobs/residence visas? Does a degree/experience go a long way or is money the biggest component to success in trying to get established?
I mean, here in California, shit back in Boston too, I know numerous dudes who overstayed their visa, married a US citizen, and they're all set to stay. Fuck, I know a Canadian-Bulgarian with no income, who got married, divorced, went rogue, got married again and now has a green card.
I think if you marry someone, it's pretty much the same everywhere, you're set to stay. As for the degree/experience factor, I think it does go a long way, much more than just "money". actually I've never heard of money being a criteria?
The other big thing IMO is mastering the local language. You're probably not going to find a good job if you don't speak german in Germany, Spanish in Spain and so on....
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Any EuroPals wanna chime in on how beneficial it is for an expat to have a higher degree (Masters level) when trying to get jobs/residence visas? Does a degree/experience go a long way or is money the biggest component to success in trying to get established?
I mean, here in California, shit back in Boston too, I know numerous dudes who overstayed their visa, married a US citizen, and they're all set to stay. Fuck, I know a Canadian-Bulgarian with no income, who got married, divorced, went rogue, got married again and now has a green card.
what do you mean by that exactly?
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The other big thing IMO is mastering the local language. You're probably not going to find a good job if you don't speak german in Germany, Spanish in Spain and so on....
depends on the city too, here in Barcelona I know plenty of Brits and Americans who have been living here for a while and never had to learn more than "una cerveza por favor".
There are English jobs and the clicks are real, so it also depends on the city.
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amsterdam, lisbon, berlin, + copenhagen are all decent shouts tho ams (and obviously cph) is expensive getting expensive. don't bother with london (where i'm based) unless you have reason to be here: it sucks right now and it's only getting worse due to brexit.
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Any EuroPals wanna chime in on how beneficial it is for an expat to have a higher degree (Masters level) when trying to get jobs/residence visas? Does a degree/experience go a long way or is money the biggest component to success in trying to get established?
I mean, here in California, shit back in Boston too, I know numerous dudes who overstayed their visa, married a US citizen, and they're all set to stay. Fuck, I know a Canadian-Bulgarian with no income, who got married, divorced, went rogue, got married again and now has a green card.
I think if you marry someone, it's pretty much the same everywhere, you're set to stay. As for the degree/experience factor, I think it does go a long way, much more than just "money". actually I've never heard of money being a criteria?
The other big thing IMO is mastering the local language. You're probably not going to find a good job if you don't speak german in Germany, Spanish in Spain and so on....
I've definitely heard of people going to travel agencies that help sort out working visas and heard that the company requires proof of a certain amount of money on bank statement before the person is cleared to get a visa and go abroad.
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Any EuroPals wanna chime in on how beneficial it is for an expat to have a higher degree (Masters level) when trying to get jobs/residence visas? Does a degree/experience go a long way or is money the biggest component to success in trying to get established?
I mean, here in California, shit back in Boston too, I know numerous dudes who overstayed their visa, married a US citizen, and they're all set to stay. Fuck, I know a Canadian-Bulgarian with no income, who got married, divorced, went rogue, got married again and now has a green card.
what do you mean by that exactly?
In spain, for instance, 500k Euro investment or real estate purchase makes one and their family eligible for visa/residency. Portugal, 350k Euro investment, eligible for citizenship in 5 years. Ireland 1million.
Not that I can even dream of affording that sort of thing, but I know a woman from Colombia who has numerous visas due to her family owning a multinational shipping corporation and dropping bank all over the globe. I think she's got US, British, Colombia, and maybe one more.
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Any EuroPals wanna chime in on how beneficial it is for an expat to have a higher degree (Masters level) when trying to get jobs/residence visas? Does a degree/experience go a long way or is money the biggest component to success in trying to get established?
I mean, here in California, shit back in Boston too, I know numerous dudes who overstayed their visa, married a US citizen, and they're all set to stay. Fuck, I know a Canadian-Bulgarian with no income, who got married, divorced, went rogue, got married again and now has a green card.
I think if you marry someone, it's pretty much the same everywhere, you're set to stay. As for the degree/experience factor, I think it does go a long way, much more than just "money". actually I've never heard of money being a criteria?
The other big thing IMO is mastering the local language. You're probably not going to find a good job if you don't speak german in Germany, Spanish in Spain and so on....
thanks for your insight.
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Any EuroPals wanna chime in on how beneficial it is for an expat to have a higher degree (Masters level) when trying to get jobs/residence visas? Does a degree/experience go a long way or is money the biggest component to success in trying to get established?
I mean, here in California, shit back in Boston too, I know numerous dudes who overstayed their visa, married a US citizen, and they're all set to stay. Fuck, I know a Canadian-Bulgarian with no income, who got married, divorced, went rogue, got married again and now has a green card.
what do you mean by that exactly?
In spain, for instance, 500k Euro investment or real estate purchase makes one and their family eligible for visa/residency. Portugal, 350k Euro investment, eligible for citizenship in 5 years. Ireland 1million.
Not that I can even dream of affording that sort of thing, but I know a woman from Colombia who has numerous visas due to her family owning a multinational shipping corporation and dropping bank all over the globe. I think she's got US, British, Colombia, and maybe one more.
that's crazy, I had no idea....I thought you guys meant proving you have X amount of money in your accounts, not actually investing in the local economy. Now I get it, I guess it makes sense from an economic point of view. You can't turn away investors.
Also to the guy who said there are english-speaking jobs: yes there are, but from what I've seen it's pretty much limited to teaching english, bartending in Irish pubs, things like that. I really doubt you can get any job with responsabilities whithout speaking the local language.
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^ yeah, plus I never got the ‘appeal’ of not speaking the local language.
I felt so off while I was living in Spain till I learned it.
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I'm French and moved from Paris to Barcelona 3 years ago.
If you haven't decided yet, here are my 2 cents:
Paris:
* very expensive, if you don't plan on working that much, you'll end up stuck pretty much all the time because of the cost of living.
* rents are very high for small flats
* it does rain a lot, so skating from October to April can be a real struggle
* healthcare system is good, especially if you have Euro citizenship
* skate, music and art scenes are the best I've experienced in my life
* social life is great, easy to meet people and make friends through skating. Head to smaller spots like Jemmapes, Rue Léon Cladel or Palais de Tokyo if you want to meet people
* with the current situation, it will be hard to find a job and get started
* the city is full of stress, negativity and people thinking they're unique and better than everyone else
* there's literally nothing to do outside of the city, except maybe biking around. If you want to stay close to the country side, definitely not a good option.
Barcelona:
* cost of life is way better, rents are cheaper and getting down now that the tourists have fled the city.
* skate scene is a little bit harder to get into if you don't want to spend time in Parallel or Macba. FTC is a good place to start if you want to meet people, and lots of cool DIYs around and in the city
* the arts & music scene is pretty poor in my own experience. Hope you like house/electro because that's pretty much a lot of what you'll find
* weather is amazing, Catalan people can be pretty tough at first but they'll chill once they understand you're not here to get wasted and piss all over the city.
* healthcare system is really good, people speak english and are genuinely nice and caring for each others
* you can get to the mountains in 45 min, or 1h30 in the winter for skiing/snowboarding, then back to the beach in the evening for a couple drinks
I saw someone recommending northern Spain (Basque Country). I grew up in the region, Bilbao is really sick, surf scene is pretty strong too and you can get to the mountains in the winter. Food is amazing. It does rain a lot though, so you'll probably get some good weather from May to September, but the rest of the year you'll mostly be indoors.
Hope that helps, good luck with the move.
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Any EuroPals wanna chime in on how beneficial it is for an expat to have a higher degree (Masters level) when trying to get jobs/residence visas? Does a degree/experience go a long way or is money the biggest component to success in trying to get established?
I mean, here in California, shit back in Boston too, I know numerous dudes who overstayed their visa, married a US citizen, and they're all set to stay. Fuck, I know a Canadian-Bulgarian with no income, who got married, divorced, went rogue, got married again and now has a green card.
what do you mean by that exactly?
In spain, for instance, 500k Euro investment or real estate purchase makes one and their family eligible for visa/residency. Portugal, 350k Euro investment, eligible for citizenship in 5 years. Ireland 1million.
Not that I can even dream of affording that sort of thing, but I know a woman from Colombia who has numerous visas due to her family owning a multinational shipping corporation and dropping bank all over the globe. I think she's got US, British, Colombia, and maybe one more.
that's crazy, I had no idea....I thought you guys meant proving you have X amount of money in your accounts, not actually investing in the local economy. Now I get it, I guess it makes sense from an economic point of view. You can't turn away investors.
Also to the guy who said there are english-speaking jobs: yes there are, but from what I've seen it's pretty much limited to teaching english, bartending in Irish pubs, things like that. I really doubt you can get any job with responsabilities whithout speaking the local language.
Having money in your bank account doesn't really do anything for you visa/citizenship/residency wise because that money isn't really doing anything for X country. If you invest in property, a business, etc... then it kind of makes sense that they'd give you residency because you'll probably need to be there for an extended period of time.
But there is a catch for most countries that give you residency just for purchasing property - you're still not allowed to work there. Those schemes tend to be aged at retirees. They don't want you taking jobs from the country's citizens, they just want you putting money into their economy.
For marriage, your spouse will still have to meet certain requirements to get your resident permit approved but it's generally a shoe in - let's assume we're talking about a legitimate marriage here.
If you speak English and don't learn the local language, you generally restrict yourselves to the jobs mentioned above. You'll also ostracize yourself from the locals to a very large extent, depending. But it does also depend on the industry as well. If you work in tech then it will most likely be easier for you to get by on just English, for instance. Still, once you're living in X country, learning the local language will get you out of a bubble and open up more opportunities if you intend to stay there long term.
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I'm French and moved from Paris to Barcelona 3 years ago.
Barcelona:
* cost of life is way better, rents are cheaper and getting down now that the tourists have fled the city.
* skate scene is a little bit harder to get into if you don't want to spend time in Parallel or Macba. FTC is a good place to start if you want to meet people, and lots of cool DIYs around and in the city
* the arts & music scene is pretty poor in my own experience. Hope you like house/electro because that's pretty much a lot of what you'll find
* weather is amazing, Catalan people can be pretty tough at first but they'll chill once they understand you're not here to get wasted and piss all over the city.
* healthcare system is really good, people speak english and are genuinely nice and caring for each others
* you can get to the mountains in 45 min, or 1h30 in the winter for skiing/snowboarding, then back to the beach in the evening for a couple drinks
Been livin in Barcelona for the past 4 years now, this description has to be the most accurate ever read.
If you wanna go skate around, give me a shout!
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I'm French and moved from Paris to Barcelona 3 years ago.
If you haven't decided yet, here are my 2 cents:
Paris:
* very expensive, if you don't plan on working that much, you'll end up stuck pretty much all the time because of the cost of living.
* rents are very high for small flats
* it does rain a lot, so skating from October to April can be a real struggle
* healthcare system is good, especially if you have Euro citizenship
* skate, music and art scenes are the best I've experienced in my life
* social life is great, easy to meet people and make friends through skating. Head to smaller spots like Jemmapes, Rue Léon Cladel or Palais de Tokyo if you want to meet people
* with the current situation, it will be hard to find a job and get started
* the city is full of stress, negativity and people thinking they're unique and better than everyone else
* there's literally nothing to do outside of the city, except maybe biking around. If you want to stay close to the country side, definitely not a good option.
Barcelona:
* cost of life is way better, rents are cheaper and getting down now that the tourists have fled the city.
* skate scene is a little bit harder to get into if you don't want to spend time in Parallel or Macba. FTC is a good place to start if you want to meet people, and lots of cool DIYs around and in the city
* the arts & music scene is pretty poor in my own experience. Hope you like house/electro because that's pretty much a lot of what you'll find
* weather is amazing, Catalan people can be pretty tough at first but they'll chill once they understand you're not here to get wasted and piss all over the city.
* healthcare system is really good, people speak english and are genuinely nice and caring for each others
* you can get to the mountains in 45 min, or 1h30 in the winter for skiing/snowboarding, then back to the beach in the evening for a couple drinks
I saw someone recommending northern Spain (Basque Country). I grew up in the region, Bilbao is really sick, surf scene is pretty strong too and you can get to the mountains in the winter. Food is amazing. It does rain a lot though, so you'll probably get some good weather from May to September, but the rest of the year you'll mostly be indoors.
Hope that helps, good luck with the move.
Paris description pretty spot on too!
and yeah, it is a stressful city....no wonder when you consider it has 2 times the population density of NY, 3 times that of London.
But still...I kinda miss the "fuck you" attitude of Paris to be honest. People there don't take bullshit. actually I miss Paris period, but it could very well be that if I moved back, I'd be sick of it again in 6 months....
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I love Paris but not sure I could live there. Here is a nice track about les Parigots.
https://youtu.be/NY5Xtc6YuCg
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Any EuroPals wanna chime in on how beneficial it is for an expat to have a higher degree (Masters level) when trying to get jobs/residence visas? Does a degree/experience go a long way or is money the biggest component to success in trying to get established?
I mean, here in California, shit back in Boston too, I know numerous dudes who overstayed their visa, married a US citizen, and they're all set to stay. Fuck, I know a Canadian-Bulgarian with no income, who got married, divorced, went rogue, got married again and now has a green card.
what do you mean by that exactly?
In spain, for instance, 500k Euro investment or real estate purchase makes one and their family eligible for visa/residency. Portugal, 350k Euro investment, eligible for citizenship in 5 years. Ireland 1million.
Not that I can even dream of affording that sort of thing, but I know a woman from Colombia who has numerous visas due to her family owning a multinational shipping corporation and dropping bank all over the globe. I think she's got US, British, Colombia, and maybe one more.
that's crazy, I had no idea....I thought you guys meant proving you have X amount of money in your accounts, not actually investing in the local economy. Now I get it, I guess it makes sense from an economic point of view. You can't turn away investors.
Also to the guy who said there are english-speaking jobs: yes there are, but from what I've seen it's pretty much limited to teaching english, bartending in Irish pubs, things like that. I really doubt you can get any job with responsabilities whithout speaking the local language.
Having money in your bank account doesn't really do anything for you visa/citizenship/residency wise because that money isn't really doing anything for X country. If you invest in property, a business, etc... then it kind of makes sense that they'd give you residency because you'll probably need to be there for an extended period of time.
But there is a catch for most countries that give you residency just for purchasing property - you're still not allowed to work there. Those schemes tend to be aged at retirees. They don't want you taking jobs from the country's citizens, they just want you putting money into their economy.
For marriage, your spouse will still have to meet certain requirements to get your resident permit approved but it's generally a shoe in - let's assume we're talking about a legitimate marriage here.
If you speak English and don't learn the local language, you generally restrict yourselves to the jobs mentioned above. You'll also ostracize yourself from the locals to a very large extent, depending. But it does also depend on the industry as well. If you work in tech then it will most likely be easier for you to get by on just English, for instance. Still, once you're living in X country, learning the local language will get you out of a bubble and open up more opportunities if you intend to stay there long term.
can't speak for the whole UE but at least here in Spain if you plan to have a residency here without a local contract BUT you do have a contract on any country that certifies you're solvent money wise there's a kinda of visa that pretty much let you settle here (no time limits/visa problems).
US friend of mine found that out while figuring out ways to make Spain his residency having a contract with an USA company and he's had cero problems ever since (good 3-4 years now)
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Any EuroPals wanna chime in on how beneficial it is for an expat to have a higher degree (Masters level) when trying to get jobs/residence visas? Does a degree/experience go a long way or is money the biggest component to success in trying to get established?
I mean, here in California, shit back in Boston too, I know numerous dudes who overstayed their visa, married a US citizen, and they're all set to stay. Fuck, I know a Canadian-Bulgarian with no income, who got married, divorced, went rogue, got married again and now has a green card.
what do you mean by that exactly?
If you want to live in the nordic countries it generally is extremely beneficial for getting a job, since everyone gets a scholarship from the state, which means that almost no people in the universities stop before their masters. However I know that there is a huge demand for people with coding capabilities, so that specific field is easier to get in on, without a masters degree.
When I lived in Berlin, it was a very different story. The people who pursued a master's degree did it either to become very specialized in some hyper specific fields or to pursue a career in academia. A bachelor degree was - among the people I hung out with - generally seen as the key to enter the job market.
I'm not familiar with the job market in other countries.
Also - I have been visiting Berlin on and off for the last 15 years or so (it is not a lot further from the town I grew up in, than Copenhagen, so if I wanted to visit a bigger city, Hamburg or Berlin was just as much a choice). While it definitely has gotten a lot more expensive, it is still relatively a lot cheaper than the Scandinavian cities.
I still have some mental division between east and western Europe from the Cold War (which is stupid - and I have a deep love for the Eastern European countries!), but in the old western part of Europe, it has only been Lisboa, which have come off as actually cheap in the last 10 years, but I don't know how it is to live there - it is a beautiful city to visit, and they have amazing seafood!
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I'm French and moved from Paris to Barcelona 3 years ago.
If you haven't decided yet, here are my 2 cents:
Paris:
* very expensive, if you don't plan on working that much, you'll end up stuck pretty much all the time because of the cost of living.
* rents are very high for small flats
* it does rain a lot, so skating from October to April can be a real struggle
* healthcare system is good, especially if you have Euro citizenship
* skate, music and art scenes are the best I've experienced in my life
* social life is great, easy to meet people and make friends through skating. Head to smaller spots like Jemmapes, Rue Léon Cladel or Palais de Tokyo if you want to meet people
* with the current situation, it will be hard to find a job and get started
* the city is full of stress, negativity and people thinking they're unique and better than everyone else
* there's literally nothing to do outside of the city, except maybe biking around. If you want to stay close to the country side, definitely not a good option.
Barcelona:
* cost of life is way better, rents are cheaper and getting down now that the tourists have fled the city.
* skate scene is a little bit harder to get into if you don't want to spend time in Parallel or Macba. FTC is a good place to start if you want to meet people, and lots of cool DIYs around and in the city
* the arts & music scene is pretty poor in my own experience. Hope you like house/electro because that's pretty much a lot of what you'll find
* weather is amazing, Catalan people can be pretty tough at first but they'll chill once they understand you're not here to get wasted and piss all over the city.
* healthcare system is really good, people speak english and are genuinely nice and caring for each others
* you can get to the mountains in 45 min, or 1h30 in the winter for skiing/snowboarding, then back to the beach in the evening for a couple drinks
I saw someone recommending northern Spain (Basque Country). I grew up in the region, Bilbao is really sick, surf scene is pretty strong too and you can get to the mountains in the winter. Food is amazing. It does rain a lot though, so you'll probably get some good weather from May to September, but the rest of the year you'll mostly be indoors.
Hope that helps, good luck with the move.
Wow thanks man! That was really helpful.
Yeah Paris seems just as stressful as London and I am trying to escape that mindset.
Might be considering BCN at this point. Already been there (but for a couple of days visiting and I was staying too close to Ramblas) and I fluently speak the language.
Which neighborhoods would you guys recommend? I'd like something kinda green with not a lot of noise/tourists but still central. I browsed the board here and Gracia/Pueblo Seco came up as recommended, but please chime in.
P.S. this thread rules and got my mind off lockdown misery.
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Sure man, always cool to share that kind of experience. Gracia and Poble Sec are definitely good options, Gracia might be a bit more expensive though and Poble Sec you're at the bottom of Montjuic which is perfect for chilling and hiking. Clot neighborhood is also cool, lots of local life, bars, restaurants etc and Poblenou is definitely a good place to consider even though the rents have gone up recently (not too many tourists, and really close to the beach). Stay aways from Raval, Gotic is becoming a dead neighborhood now that all tourists are gone...
Let me know if you make the move, there are a bunch of admin things you have to go through that can be tricky.
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I'm French and moved from Paris to Barcelona 3 years ago.
If you haven't decided yet, here are my 2 cents:
Paris:
* very expensive, if you don't plan on working that much, you'll end up stuck pretty much all the time because of the cost of living.
* rents are very high for small flats
* it does rain a lot, so skating from October to April can be a real struggle
* healthcare system is good, especially if you have Euro citizenship
* skate, music and art scenes are the best I've experienced in my life
* social life is great, easy to meet people and make friends through skating. Head to smaller spots like Jemmapes, Rue Léon Cladel or Palais de Tokyo if you want to meet people
* with the current situation, it will be hard to find a job and get started
* the city is full of stress, negativity and people thinking they're unique and better than everyone else
* there's literally nothing to do outside of the city, except maybe biking around. If you want to stay close to the country side, definitely not a good option.
Barcelona:
* cost of life is way better, rents are cheaper and getting down now that the tourists have fled the city.
* skate scene is a little bit harder to get into if you don't want to spend time in Parallel or Macba. FTC is a good place to start if you want to meet people, and lots of cool DIYs around and in the city
* the arts & music scene is pretty poor in my own experience. Hope you like house/electro because that's pretty much a lot of what you'll find
* weather is amazing, Catalan people can be pretty tough at first but they'll chill once they understand you're not here to get wasted and piss all over the city.
* healthcare system is really good, people speak english and are genuinely nice and caring for each others
* you can get to the mountains in 45 min, or 1h30 in the winter for skiing/snowboarding, then back to the beach in the evening for a couple drinks
I saw someone recommending northern Spain (Basque Country). I grew up in the region, Bilbao is really sick, surf scene is pretty strong too and you can get to the mountains in the winter. Food is amazing. It does rain a lot though, so you'll probably get some good weather from May to September, but the rest of the year you'll mostly be indoors.
Hope that helps, good luck with the move.
Wow thanks man! That was really helpful.
Yeah Paris seems just as stressful as London and I am trying to escape that mindset.
Might be considering BCN at this point. Already been there (but for a couple of days visiting and I was staying too close to Ramblas) and I fluently speak the language.
Which neighborhoods would you guys recommend? I'd like something kinda green with not a lot of noise/tourists but still central. I browsed the board here and Gracia/Pueblo Seco came up as recommended, but please chime in.
P.S. this thread rules and got my mind off lockdown misery.
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I'm French and moved from Paris to Barcelona 3 years ago.
If you haven't decided yet, here are my 2 cents:
Paris:
* very expensive, if you don't plan on working that much, you'll end up stuck pretty much all the time because of the cost of living.
* rents are very high for small flats
* it does rain a lot, so skating from October to April can be a real struggle
* healthcare system is good, especially if you have Euro citizenship
* skate, music and art scenes are the best I've experienced in my life
* social life is great, easy to meet people and make friends through skating. Head to smaller spots like Jemmapes, Rue Léon Cladel or Palais de Tokyo if you want to meet people
* with the current situation, it will be hard to find a job and get started
* the city is full of stress, negativity and people thinking they're unique and better than everyone else
* there's literally nothing to do outside of the city, except maybe biking around. If you want to stay close to the country side, definitely not a good option.
Barcelona:
* cost of life is way better, rents are cheaper and getting down now that the tourists have fled the city.
* skate scene is a little bit harder to get into if you don't want to spend time in Parallel or Macba. FTC is a good place to start if you want to meet people, and lots of cool DIYs around and in the city
* the arts & music scene is pretty poor in my own experience. Hope you like house/electro because that's pretty much a lot of what you'll find
* weather is amazing, Catalan people can be pretty tough at first but they'll chill once they understand you're not here to get wasted and piss all over the city.
* healthcare system is really good, people speak english and are genuinely nice and caring for each others
* you can get to the mountains in 45 min, or 1h30 in the winter for skiing/snowboarding, then back to the beach in the evening for a couple drinks
I saw someone recommending northern Spain (Basque Country). I grew up in the region, Bilbao is really sick, surf scene is pretty strong too and you can get to the mountains in the winter. Food is amazing. It does rain a lot though, so you'll probably get some good weather from May to September, but the rest of the year you'll mostly be indoors.
Hope that helps, good luck with the move.
Paris description pretty spot on too!
and yeah, it is a stressful city....no wonder when you consider it has 2 times the population density of NY, 3 times that of London.
But still...I kinda miss the "fuck you" attitude of Paris to be honest. People there don't take bullshit. actually I miss Paris period, but it could very well be that if I moved back, I'd be sick of it again in 6 months....
Yeah I do miss it too from time to time, especially around Spring/Summer. There were definitely some great times and memories, but I guess I'll enjoy it more if I go back there for short periods of time rather than moving back.
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Which neighborhoods would you guys recommend? I'd like something kinda green with not a lot of noise/tourists but still central. I browsed the board here and Gracia/Pueblo Seco came up as recommended, but please chime in.
P.S. this thread rules and got my mind off lockdown misery.
I haven't been actively looking at flats but as I've heard, a lot of opportunities opened up. Flats that before were only rented as Airb'n'b are now on the market. You'll still be looking at 7/8 hundred a month depending on the flat condition and the area.
I would suggest not going too far out but as well avoid Gotico and the center in general.
Clot is a very good option, it's close enough to the beach and not that far out, plus there are plenty of spots, but like every other neighbourhood here.
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Hey, not sure if this has been suggested as a place to work if you want a steady paycheck (usually) a living wage to get your feet off the ground :
https://teleperformance.com
The best way to find job listings is to google the country you are curious about with teleperformance in the search field.
Call center jobs are plentiful in southern Europe, and you will likely get hired as a native English speaker. This kind of job could help as a backup plan if you are ever unemployed, or just want to spend a few months in a country skating.
They should also be able to help provide a work Visa allowing you to stay more than 90+ days in Europe (usually it's a year work visa that is renewed, but kind of different for each country).
I have known and met a few skaters who work the call center hustle for a bit just as a way to travel and spend time in another country / culture. They usually ended up quitting and going back home because the job sucks though (pretty much just a revolving door of jaded employees).
Hope this helps somehow and good luck.
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i have no recommendations but if happen to be lost in hamburg, germany, dm me and i hook you up for a spot to crash.
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Are you thinking long term or just a few years?
In order to make long term viable you will need to learn the language and assimilate. Being able to speak the language is critical, even in countries where everybody speaks fluent English. Becoming proficient in a foreign language as an adult takes years of hard work and is a huge investment of your time- so something to consider. I have British colleagues who have made little effort to learn the language after years and its fucking annoying and comes off as arrogant- don’t be that guy.
If you not long term thinking or unsure then here are some good alternative options not already mentioned for skating and life:
Budapest
+beautiful city with lots to do, amazing night life, very cheap
- impossible language, weird politics
Sofia
+ very skatable, cheap everything, interesting country
- English less common spoken, Kinda far away
Oslo
+ Compact city close to nature, long summer days, beautiful women
- very expensive, brutal winters
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Are you thinking long term or just a few years?
In order to make long term viable you will need to learn the language and assimilate. Being able to speak the language is critical, even in countries where everybody speaks fluent English. Becoming proficient in a foreign language as an adult takes years of hard work and is a huge investment of your time- so something to consider. I have British colleagues who have made little effort to learn the language after years and its fucking annoying and comes off as arrogant- don’t be that guy.
If you not long term thinking or unsure then here are some good alternative options not already mentioned for skating and life:
Budapest
+beautiful city with lots to do, amazing night life, very cheap
- impossible language, weird politics
Sofia
+ very skatable, cheap everything, interesting country
- English less common spoken, Kinda far away
Oslo
+ Compact city close to nature, long summer days, beautiful women
- very expensive, brutal winters
Curious why you'd recommend these three cities for short-term and not long-term? Unless I'm misunderstanding you.
Sofia's amazing for skateboarding and, well, tons of things. The country is really interesting and I've spent a bit of time there - even a little over a month in a small village near Burgas. Everyone's super friendly in Sofia - really good vegan scene, craft beer scene, vintage, music scene, etc... and it's quite compact. I rented a nice flat there for around 300 euro a month.
I'd say overall Sofia is really easy to get by with only English. Actually, I found people's English to be pretty amazing in most of the Eastern European/Balkan capitals. Maybe even better than in a lot of the Western European one's.
Still, I'd second the bit about learning the local language if you're planning a long term move. Either way, nice to learn the common phrases and such. Depending on the language, your age, and aptitude for learning languages it can be years worth of commitment so some motivation to learn it helps. You just have to learn what's useful and keep building upon it. if you're living in a place and using the language every day, you'll get there eventually. The thing is, even if all the locals speak English, if you're hanging out with a group of natives they usually gravitate to speaking their native language which makes sense.
Anyway, interesting thread. For me, once all this covid stuff pans out, I'm planning on potentially moving to Barcelona. Also thought about Lisbon and Athens.
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Definitely back you about Sofia, and the whole of Bulgaria really. Super interesting country and great skating terrain thanks to soviet planners, plus ski fields close by. I was there a while ago in 08 for a few weeks and things must have changed for the better, cos i remember the bar scene was a bit less sophisticated- more techno/Uber clubs etc.
As far as skating I remember the palace of culture in particular being pretty sick. Never got to Burgas at the time but travelled onwards Skope and Tirana instead. Didn’t see many skaters in either city and recall Skopje being a bit rough but having loads of great bars and young people spoke great English. Albania was like another planet.
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Definitely back you about Sofia, and the whole of Bulgaria really. Super interesting country and great skating terrain thanks to soviet planners, plus ski fields close by. I was there a while ago in 08 for a few weeks and things must have changed for the better, cos i remember the bar scene was a bit less sophisticated- more techno/Uber clubs etc.
As far as skating I remember the palace of culture in particular being pretty sick. Never got to Burgas at the time but travelled onwards Skope and Tirana instead. Didn’t see many skaters in either city and recall Skopje being a bit rough but having loads of great bars and young people spoke great English. Albania was like another planet.
Oh, yeah, Sofia definitely has a more sophisticated/diverse scene these days. One spot I really liked was this craft beer bar/store called Nosferatu. They always had old school horror movies and new wave / metal / post punk playing and the owner actually used to be an opera singer that was in a metal band. If that tells you anything haha. Palace of culture is still around - pretty close to the old plaza everyone used to skate with the soviet monuments.
I remember there used to be this spot in Skopje down under the famous bridge by Vardar river but I don't think it's around anymore. Skopje and Albania don't have as big of skate scenes, I think, but I didn't really try to skate so much in either. Albania changed so much between the my last visit 2-3 years ago and the one 5 or so years before. Tirana didn't even have a proper bus station or anything. You'd just ask people how you get to some other city and they'd say something like "you'll take a mini van from this petrol station at 6am, get out at this city and wait a few hours then take another mini van from this corner in x city, and then that van will take you where you're trying to go". So a lot has probably changed there if it's been a while since your last visit.
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Yeah Public transport system in Albania was pretty bare bones when i visited, just dudes in mini vans really. It felt weird to skate there for some reason so skateboard didn’t get much use.
I Spent maybe 4 months bobbing around the balkans in that trip, pre smart phone days so pretty much ‘winging it’ compared to today’s travel!
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i am from frankfurt, germany and lived in austria, spain, boston and am now looking for a place around the northern italy and southern france.
spent 5 years in Vienna, austria and have strong pros:
safe, multicultural, great food, great insurance, everyone speaks english, you can find cheap rent, food and bars everywhere (with a little local help) decent spots, great parks, decent weather and stable good value job economy.
you can easily earn enough money to spend two-three months of winter on cheap holidays in the south and go to italy, portugal or spain, ...
BCN 4 years, nice city, skate mecca, weather is good but my big downside was that the drinking/drug and party culture is so tempting that it is hard to save up on the low minimum wage and it es extremely easy to get stuck there living month to month and not being able to save up, so had to force myself to get my shit together and move, now i can go there for cheap vacation without the danger of getting sucked into low minimum wage.
i love Lisbon, it is a bit grimy and has the bcn edginess but is packed with brazilian people and food, a very vibrant city and is so cheap, it is hard to believe, a bit trickier with english though, but you'll be fine. you shouldn't live in a country wthout learning that language anyways, in my opinion.
greece is paradise, so nice you might forget about skating completely because the shade of the olive trees is all you need and want for 6months/year
spent some great time in bilbao, spain which i liked a lot as a city, you can surf around the galician coast, it is quiet, safe, clean and culturally super interesting, nice spots too!
montpellier, france is nice too. good weather, young people, nice city to skate around in, has a little french mini bcn vibe.
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i am from frankfurt, germany and lived in austria, spain, boston and am now looking for a place around the northern italy and southern france.
spent 5 years in Vienna, austria and have strong pros:
safe, multicultural, great food, great insurance, everyone speaks english, you can find cheap rent, food and bars everywhere (with a little local help) decent spots, great parks, decent weather and stable good value job economy.
you can easily earn enough money to spend two-three months of winter on cheap holidays in the south and go to italy, portugal or spain, ...
BCN 4 years, nice city, skate mecca, weather is good but my big downside was that the drinking/drug and party culture is so tempting that it is hard to save up on the low minimum wage and it es extremely easy to get stuck there living month to month and not being able to save up, so had to force myself to get my shit together and move, now i can go there for cheap vacation without the danger of getting sucked into low minimum wage.
i love Lisbon, it is a bit grimy and has the bcn edginess but is packed with brazilian people and food, a very vibrant city and is so cheap, it is hard to believe, a bit trickier with english though, but you'll be fine. you shouldn't live in a country wthout learning that language anyways, in my opinion.
greece is paradise, so nice you might forget about skating completely because the shade of the olive trees is all you need and want for 6months/year
spent some great time in bilbao, spain which i liked a lot as a city, you can surf around the galician coast, it is quiet, safe, clean and culturally super interesting, nice spots too!
montpellier, france is nice too. good weather, young people, nice city to skate around in, has a little french mini bcn vibe.
Really makes me want to go to Greece. Some friends and I were supposed to go to Athens this past October/Nov. but that got shut down because of the second corona wave. I was hanging out with someone from Greece the other day and they told me Athens was like a gritty Barcelona, made me pretty antsy to go check it out even more.
Your post also made me want to visit Montpellier, didn't have it on my radar.
My wife is from Vienna so we even thought about moving there from Berlin. I don't think she's that stoked on the idea of moving back to where she's from though. Where we would move to depends half depends on her though. She's working from now but doesn't have a remote contract so she's applying to stuff in BCN, Lisbon, etc... cities we're keen to potentially move to. Wages definitely seem to be lower and there's also just fewer jobs. We're not really in any rush though, considering.
I suppose I'd still put BCN as my top pick - which in part has to do with me being a skateboarder, I'm sure haha. I always hear people say what you say about BCN but I'm not a big drinker/partier so I never have that issue when I've spent time there.
Oh, but actually, what I wanted to ask here is where you're living now?
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I live in Massachusetts.
I have been practicing Spanish because Spain seems like the place but regardless will most definitely be learning the local language wherever I move.
Thanks so much y’all. As always, please keep sharing info, even if it’s places you hate, haha. It’s all super helpful.
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personally I don't find Paris very stressful and I would say its my favorite place to skate and live in Europe
I also didnt find it all that expensive compared to the USA. When I stayed there it averaged out to 38 euro per night. Like most huge expensive cities theres some "bad" areas where you can find a cheaper place. and in Paris the bad area aren't really that bad. IMO. Over 8 weeks across 2 summers I averaged about 38 euro a night to stay there ($45/m, $1350/m), which is what American "cities" like Des Moines cost these days.
that said basically everywhere else in the EU is cheaper than Paris. Not sure about Ireland costs, but the smaller city of France and almost anywhere in Spain are shockingly inexpensive if you are used to UK/US/Canada . Berlin is still pretty cheap too despite rising costs. But its gotten hard to find a place there.
Obviously the catch here is that being a typical skater and making any money in Europe is basically impossible. but if you have an independent means of making money its a great lifestyle.
for sure, compared to American cities. That goes for the whole of Europe basically, as guns are not as widespread as in the US. We have crime, drugs and all that but nothing like the worst parts of the US. Contrary to what some French rappers would have you believe haha....
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Really makes me want to go to Greece. Some friends and I were supposed to go to Athens this past October/Nov. but that got shut down because of the second corona wave. I was hanging out with someone from Greece the other day and they told me Athens was like a gritty Barcelona, made me pretty antsy to go check it out even more.
Your post also made me want to visit Montpellier, didn't have it on my radar.
My wife is from Vienna so we even thought about moving there from Berlin. I don't think she's that stoked on the idea of moving back to where she's from though. Where we would move to depends half depends on her though. She's working from now but doesn't have a remote contract so she's applying to stuff in BCN, Lisbon, etc... cities we're keen to potentially move to. Wages definitely seem to be lower and there's also just fewer jobs. We're not really in any rush though, considering.
I suppose I'd still put BCN as my top pick - which in part has to do with me being a skateboarder, I'm sure haha. I always hear people say what you say about BCN but I'm not a big drinker/partier so I never have that issue when I've spent time there.
Oh, but actually, what I wanted to ask here is where you're living now?
i love in cambridge, massachusetts at the moment, because my wife is from the area and we had some stuff to figure out in the us. can't wait to peace out though, been living in an apartment without garden,porch or anything for two years now and i just live for nature, that is why were looking to pour some savings into a country house, grow veggies and peace out
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Awesome thread -great reads and makes you want to travel and see more of the world.
No moving for me, hopefully a skate in France one day.
I strongly suggest learing whatever local language is used. Makes things easier and somewhat more 'respectuful' - no trying to stir up stuff here guys. Im an English guy living in a French province....
Good luck!
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I don’t want to take away too much from OP but this threads been up for a minute and I don’t want to start a new one just for my question. But here goes:
My wife and I would love to move to Spain, she’s Mexican I’m American. Work Visas seem tough to come by especially for me (wife has a degree in business admin) as I have no college degree and all my work experience is construction/low level admin/manufacturing. Anyone got any advice for someone wanting to move to Spain or Europe in general without higher education? We are both fluent in Spanish so language is a non issue. I have looked into this on my own but looking for any advice for jobs that may not be as well known.
Edit: We aren’t looking to move for a while.
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I don’t want to take away too much from OP but this threads been up for a minute and I don’t want to start a new one just for my question. But here goes:
My wife and I would love to move to Spain, she’s Mexican I’m American. Work Visas seem tough to come by especially for me (wife has a degree in business admin) as I have no college degree and all my work experience is construction/low level admin/manufacturing. Anyone got any advice for someone wanting to move to Spain or Europe in general without higher education? We are both fluent in Spanish so language is a non issue. I have looked into this on my own but looking for any advice for jobs that may not be as well known.
Edit: We aren’t looking to move for a while.
My wife, who I met and lived with in Barcelona, Spain, is American too. She had some issues with getting a NIE (work permit) for the first year living there. However there is a good amount of international and American companies with a seat, branch or simply operating there that can help you get an appointment for your NIE quite easily and reliably. Language teachers, especially for English are in hot demand in bigger Spanish cities and can often help you with paperwork and/or hire competent people without. Look into getting a TEFL certificate or something similar. That helps a lot getting some first jobs (often without having to pay taxes) that later can help as references, etc.
Just be careful with rental fraud. There is a lot of fishy listings that try to get a deposit out of foreigners, especially Americans, moving to the city, because they would easily drop a Spanish monthly wage of a deposit for a place they have never seen before.
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I don’t want to take away too much from OP but this threads been up for a minute and I don’t want to start a new one just for my question. But here goes:
My wife and I would love to move to Spain, she’s Mexican I’m American. Work Visas seem tough to come by especially for me (wife has a degree in business admin) as I have no college degree and all my work experience is construction/low level admin/manufacturing. Anyone got any advice for someone wanting to move to Spain or Europe in general without higher education? We are both fluent in Spanish so language is a non issue. I have looked into this on my own but looking for any advice for jobs that may not be as well known.
Edit: We aren’t looking to move for a while.
To get sponsored, there's often a - imho - a bs requirement of having a degree from the government. Not sure if that's the case in Spain but there's often ways around it.
Since you're both fluent in Spanish, that will make things much easier for you. Being that your wife has a degree, I think it would be easier for her to find a job in BCN while not actually living there yet. Then you could get a resident permit via your spouse. From there, you'd be able to take on any job without them needing to sponsor you in which case I think you'd have a much easier time finding one.
Once things are back to normal, I always suggest visiting and staying for as long as you can on that trip (ideally a month or so). Apply for a bunch of jobs and try to set interviews for that month, set up appts to look at flats to rent ahead of time , etc...
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So randomly there is a possibility I may be moving to Madrid. Talking like 1% chance, I’m probably jumping the gun but whatevs. The company I work for has an office there and I expressed interest to my HR guy about wanting to live there and he put me in touch with the Spain HR guy and I have a meeting Friday with him. I don’t necessarily have the experience for the jobs open, but he agreed to meet with me to discuss “opportunities in Madrid”, which tells me there’s at least a tiny chance they’re interested in me. Here goes nothing. Wish me luck PALS.
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So randomly there is a possibility I may be moving to Madrid. Talking like 1% chance, I’m probably jumping the gun but whatevs. The company I work for has an office there and I expressed interest to my HR guy about wanting to live there and he put me in touch with the Spain HR guy and I have a meeting Friday with him. I don’t necessarily have the experience for the jobs open, but he agreed to meet with me to discuss “opportunities in Madrid”, which tells me there’s at least a tiny chance they’re interested in me. Here goes nothing. Wish me luck PALS.
Good luck, man!
Madrid is dope. It has got great street spots and if you are into bowls you absolutely need to go to Alcobendas, which is a suburb of Madrid. The bowl there is weird and awesome. Check out the welcome shop. The friendliest and most core shop in the city. I've slept on the couch of one of the owners.
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So randomly there is a possibility I may be moving to Madrid. Talking like 1% chance, I’m probably jumping the gun but whatevs. The company I work for has an office there and I expressed interest to my HR guy about wanting to live there and he put me in touch with the Spain HR guy and I have a meeting Friday with him. I don’t necessarily have the experience for the jobs open, but he agreed to meet with me to discuss “opportunities in Madrid”, which tells me there’s at least a tiny chance they’re interested in me. Here goes nothing. Wish me luck PALS.
Luck is wished <3
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Expand Quote
So randomly there is a possibility I may be moving to Madrid. Talking like 1% chance, I’m probably jumping the gun but whatevs. The company I work for has an office there and I expressed interest to my HR guy about wanting to live there and he put me in touch with the Spain HR guy and I have a meeting Friday with him. I don’t necessarily have the experience for the jobs open, but he agreed to meet with me to discuss “opportunities in Madrid”, which tells me there’s at least a tiny chance they’re interested in me. Here goes nothing. Wish me luck PALS.
Good luck, man!
Madrid is dope. It has got great street spots and if you are into bowls you absolutely need to go to Alcobendas, which is a suburb of Madrid. The bowl there is weird and awesome. Check out the welcome shop. The friendliest and most core shop in the city. I've slept on the couch of one of the owners.
I visited in 2019 and really loved Madrid. I’ve wanted to live there ever since. Thanks for the well wishes.
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Good luck!