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Would you ever consider moving to continental Europe? And if so where?

SharpshooterTom

Usually when Irish people think about moving abroad, they immediately think of English speaking countries (USA, Canada, Australia, NZ even the UK) but I'm wondering if you would consider moving to continental Europe, and if so, where would you choose?

I've always liked Scandinavia and definitely would be open to moving there (any of the countries), low crime, low unemployment, good wages, good education system, although taxes are through the roof. Germany likewise. Being fluent in German means gives you access to countries totaling 100 million people (Swiss German is quite different though). I've not been as keen on southern Europe largely because most of the countries seem to be forever dogged with high unemployment (France was close to 10% even before the pandemic), wages are a bit lower.

I've put a poll up (multiple choice) and grouped them into regions since I can't obviously list every country.

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Comments

RobertKK

SharpshooterTom wrote: »

Interesting poll results so far, the Iberian peninsula the most popular.

No love for Switzerland though?

Love Switzerland but need to own a bank to live there.

Jizique

Yurt! wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend settling in Germany for an extended period of time and embarking on a serious career there without learning German. You'll get by on the ausländer pass for a year or two, but you will be judged negatively beyond that. And honestly, who can blame them?

Depends where you are and what the job is - ECB in Frankfurt would be fine, some small engineering place in a village in Saxony not so much

josip

SharpshooterTom wrote: »

Interesting poll results so far, the Iberian peninsula the most popular.

No love for Switzerland though?

Friends of mine in Switzerland were at a party in someone's apartment when the police arrived, cleared everyone out and issued a fine to the apartment owner for the party still going on 30 minutes after the time when parties are supposed to finish.
Someone else who was at the party, but left at the correct time, later openly told them, that it was they who had called the police.
It wasn't right Ja? that the party continued past the end time.

Another time, someone I know was awoken by the police at 3am and brought down to the police station.
His crime?He hadn't been sorting his rubbish properly and the police had his rubbish out on tables in a room and made him sort it properly.
Didn't get fined though. And how did the police know about the unsorted rubbish?
Yes, some neighbour told them.

[Deleted User]

RobertKK wrote: »

Love Switzerland but need to own a bank to live there.

Last week I was looking at an apartment for sale in one of the ski resort valleys near Mont Blanc and had to doublecheck myself because I felt it was inexpensive compared to property in Dublin...and I'm still not saying Switzerland is cheap.

shtpEdthePlum

Beers and buds, Belgium and Netherlands.

ToxicPaddy

Its something I've seriously considered, even applied for jobs in Stockholm, Geneva and Zurich over the years. The money being offered was crazy, but as most have said here, cost of living in both is also crazy.

Slovenia would probably be top of my list. Love Ljubljana, fantastic city. Austria is another but the right wing politics there can be a bit off putting.

I love France too, but could see myself having a holiday home there rather than living there permanently.

Ubbquittious

I only spent a few days in Switzerland. Great scenery, posh cars and sh1t kebabs that cost 10 CHF

Wouldn't move to mainland anything. Id have to be on an island of some sort

Nigel Fairservice

A few places spring to mind. For somewhere small, I'd love to live in Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald in Switzerland for a while. For a small sized city, I'd go with Ljubljana. It's a wonderful city in a wonderful country. It's a shame there are no direct flights from Ireland. For somewhere larger I'd go with Oslo or Gothenburg. Loved the vibes there. Anywhere on the Mediterranean is out, way too hot for me!

PsychoPete

I wouldn't move outside my parish

Yurt2

Nigel Fairservice wrote: »

A few places spring to mind. For somewhere small, I'd love to live in Lauterbrunnen or Grindelwald in Switzerland for a while. For a small sized city, I'd go with Ljubljana. It's a wonderful city in a wonderful country. For somewhere larger I'd go with Oslo or Gothenburg. Loved the vibes there.

I've found Oslo to be a seriously boring place for a capital city. Most meh capital in Europe for my money. And the price of things is bonkers.

4Ad

Lisbon
Seville
Berlin (not for Winters though)
Eastern Portugal, cheap, warm and plenty of hills to run around.
Slovenia would be nice, bit boring though...

[Deleted User]

Looking at Spain right now. Need to get settled in my current position then figure out practicalities of tax and residency etc. but if things in my personal life go well til the end of the year I hope to be out of here in 12 months.

Nekarsulm

Been thinking of trying a year in France when (if!) I retire.
Somewhere south of the Loire, less than an hour from the sea.
Rural, and less than 10 Km from a reasonable size town.

Nqp15hhu

No. The language barrier is an issue for me. I would possibly buy a house in southern Iberia though.

completedit

Nqp15hhu wrote: »

No. The language barrier is an issue for me. I would possibly buy a house in southern Iberia though.

Yeah free movement of workers is there for East to west and south to North.

I speak French and Spanish but my level just isn't high enough to be any type of asset. Its much more accepted that people will adapt to someone's English level than French or Spanish which doesn't really make sense since you'd imagine with the amount of people speaking English that the threshold would be much higher.

Plumbthedepths

Italy, particularly the north near Lucca. Have a passable ability in the language. 20 years to retirement. Plan is to rent somewhere in the Lucca region from Jan to April each year and spend the other 8 months in Ireland.

KungPao

España, somewhere muy cultural, like Benidorm.

NeuralNetwork

Just to the person mentioning Iceland, it’s lovely for a visit but it’s quite trying in a dark, long winter and the west-coast weather’s often like a colder version of the worst winter Ireland or northern Scotland could throw at you.

If you’re into that though, it’s not bad. I just wouldn’t base a move there on not having spent a winter. It’s an extremely different atmosphere to summer due to the latitude.

KungPao

Serious Q. As a gentleman of circa 2 score, what’s the deal with pensions and contributions and that lark if I just decide to feck off to another EU country or even outside?

BOHtox

Portugal for their lack of crypto tax

Fionn1952

As I'm lucky enough to be able to work remotely, I've spent ~12-18 month periods living beachfront in Benalmadena, in a small village in Gorges du Tarn in the south of France and a brief period of around 6 months in Switzerland. I spoke very little Spanish, but the local community in Benalmadena were very international and I spoke enough broken French and native English to get by in the others.

Mollydog123

Iceland or Norway for me. Been to both. Iceland has fantastic scenery and Im big into walking/hiking. Reykjavik is a nice small compact capital. Norway too has great scenery. Everything is expensive in both but Norway has high wages and a 200bn fund from their oil industry so no money worries at the moment.

Fionn1952

Mollydog123 wrote: »

Iceland or Norway for me. Been to both. Iceland has fantastic scenery and Im big into walking/hiking. Reykjavik is a nice small compact capital. Norway too has great scenery. Everything is expensive in both but Norway has high wages and a 200bn fund from their oil industry so no money worries at the moment.

I spent about a month in Oslo and didn't find the local wage increase sufficient to justify the massive increase in living costs. As much as I really enjoyed visiting, Norway will never be on my list of places I'll work from again. Very high taxation too.

[Deleted User]

KungPao wrote: »

Serious Q. As a gentleman of circa 2 score, what’s the deal with pensions and contributions and that lark if I just decide to feck off to another EU country or even outside?

You claim your Irish pension and live abroad or you can transfer to their system if you qualify for both.

Jeju

murpho999 wrote: »

This is a really bad attitude.

If you want to have a more pleasant experience and maybe make local friends then you should try to learn the language.

It will enrich the stay, earn respect from people and if you manage it then it makes everything more enjoyable.

What would be more annoying is if you brought your friend and got a job in one of them grocery supermarkets and while serving customers have a conversation with your buddy in English.

manonboard

I moved to Finland a couple years ago. Im still here. I like it alot. Its a good society. Its positives outweigh the negatives. The cold is not bothersome, the society is adapted to it.

Estonia is a interesting place if you are able to keep your existing wages. It's super cheap and all the benefits of a 1st world place. You could definitely upgrade your life style if you manage that.

I'll be moving to portugal next year. I fancy trying the sun since i've tried the cold. After learning Portuguese, i might try a couple years in brazil after it.

(bachelor, no kids)

sammye333

I Lived in Holland for three years. I really liked the place.
I used to do a bit of cycling in Ireland and took it up again . Great cycle ways . Cyclist are No1 over there.

I'm currently living in Sweden. I only moved here late last year. My first impressions were cold, dark and miserable .
The weather has changed and now its beautiful again.
The swedes aren't really bothered with corona virus, so most places are still open. (9euro a pint keeps me out of pubs)
Most swedes (on my project) only work 3.5 days a week, so they have a great work life balance .
I'm really looking forward to the summer months

Jequ0n

Back to France but then I’d be too close to what I tried to get away from

Real Life

Id definitely consider Holland, Germany or Finland. Im basing that on what I hear from friends who live in those places. Theres probably a few other countries in Europe that I would be open to too if I had a chance to get to know them.

NeuralNetwork

I speak fluent French but I’m just wondering how people have gotten on without initial language skills in other countries.

I lived in Spain (northern) and *really* struggled with it to get fluency in Spanish, despite really trying very hard with it. I could understand TV and radio, read the paper and all of that but I’d get totally lost when people were speaking to me. I held down a job, but it was 90% in English and it would be a little unusual to find anything similar again.

My hearing is a bit weird due to history of ear surgery, so when I’m in a bar (even in English) it’s often a bit of a mess as I can’t really grasp what’s being said if people are talking across each other, so I end up sitting there a bit baffled - that’s sort of why I’m a bit concerned about moving but at the same time I wouldn’t mind spending some time abroad again.

Maybe I didn’t give Spanish enough time but I thought after almost a year, not being able to strike up a conversation was really a dead end for me. It became very isolating.

I could go to France but it’s just not a new experience and while I like aspects of it, it’s not really for me. I lived in Belgium too but it’s again not that different and afaik Switzerland has complications around work permits?

I’d be keen to go though after Covid-19 calms to the point we can start travelling again. At the moment it still seems a bit of a mess.