Where would you move to if you had the choice in your 20s?

Jim2007

Nico Damaged Radar wrote: »

West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand. I absolutely loved how sparsely populated it is, the scenery, the people. I even love the climate.

I can recommend North Mayo to you then!

Jim2007

CBear1993 wrote: »

Parents were there for a trip a few weeks ago, Zurich and Lucerne etc. said it was astronomically expensive for everything, more than most other places they’d been in Europe, plus hotel price. But absolutely loved it.

There are two Switzerlands - the land of the tourist and the expat where everything is expensive and the land of the Swiss where given a reasonable salary it’s not so bad.

Switzerland is not a consumer society and flaunting your wealth is very much frowned upon. People are not tight, but they are careful with money, they expect good quality and things to last and will often pay a bit more for it.

Credit is also a big no no here. The credit in credit card is the time between when you buy an item and when you pay off the balance in full at the end of the month. Likewise HP is a concept known to the very few. People save and pay for stuff in cash. It is not unusual for people to pay for cars, house hold goods etc in cash at the counter - that is what the 1000 Franc notes are for!

It’s easier save here than in most places because of the lack of consumerism.

radiata

I've been living in Canada for 5 years and have a bit of a love hate relationship with it.
British Columbia is a beautiful province. If you're into outdoor activities such as hiking, mountain biking, skiing or snowmobiling it's a wonderful place. There's endless mountains, lakes and forests to roam.

It's an expensive province to live in though, and you'd need a good bit of money moving out here. I hadn't much when I arrived and struggled for the first 3-4 years. Rent is expensive for the standard of housing you get and houses are overpriced if you're looking to buy. There doesn't seem to be as much middle class as in Ireland. Lots of wealthy people with beautiful houses and lots of mobile homes/trailer parks.

I find the Canadians are generally polite, but can be quite dull and private and sometimes difficult to have a good conversation with. There's not much culture here either and a lot of the towns and cities lack atmosphere.
Alberta is probably the best province to move to if you want to make money as its cheaper to live in.

I'd like to live somewhere like Portland, Oregon. The place is crawling with breweries! The whole coastline of Oregon/Washington is beautiful with huge dunes and beaches, mountains in the interior and desert on eastern side.
I've often thought about places like Freiburg in Germany, Basque region of Spain or Norway. Or maybe return to the west of Ireland

Timmyr

Nico Damaged Radar wrote: »

West Coast of the South Island in New Zealand. I absolutely loved how sparsely populated it is, the scenery, the people. I even love the climate.

Also a real hard place to find a good job!

Mad_maxx

Timmyr wrote: »

Also a real hard place to find a good job!

You won't even get a job milking cows as it's too wet for dairying, remember driving through greymouth and other towns on the west coast two decades ago

4Ad

Berlin, just like the feel in the place. Lisbon for the weather and still cheapish for a capital city. Nelson in New Zealand, beautiful, probably had my best time in NZ there..

Timmyr

Mad_maxx wrote: »

You won't even get a job milking cows as it's too wet for dairying, remember driving through greymouth and other towns on the west coast two decades ago

Correct, wet and cold! I think I'll stay in Auckland and just visit the south island for holidays

Ardillaun

Vancouver has a beautiful setting but is way too expensive to live in; Toronto is uglier and still pricey. I would encourage any young person considering Canada for a few years to try somewhere other than those two cities, skills and qualifications permitting. You’ll probably meet friendlier people (bad weather makes them nicer) and your pay check will go a lot further.

Two things I’m not fond of in Canada: long winters for most of the country, and unimpressive hills east of the Rockies. The odd thing is that once the snow is here I just love cross-country skiiing on those very hills. There’s no pleasing some people.

garrettod

Canada

I hear that Vancover is prosperous...

Although Toronto would be a shorter plane ride, if you want to come home regularly.

Majority of Canadians speak English, they recognise the Irish as being well educated, they mainly eat the same foods as us, they aren't anywhere near as mad as some of their next door neighbours.

Ardillaun

Ottawa is a Dublin-sized capital with a park 50 times the size of Phoenix Park, lots of (colonial) history, striking buildings and fairly reasonable rental prices too. You know you’re not south of the border because at times it seems every second person is speaking French (dare I say that when I was doing a make or break series of exams there, the many pretty girls speaking incomprehensible French along the canal were a source of comfort to me). Kingston and London are also well worth a look in Ontario, Kingston having a gorgeous location on Lake Ontario.


Calgary is good value these days if you can get a job. I arrived there from Ireland in my twenties during a previous downturn in the oil market and had what people told me looked like a good time. On the edge of the Prairies, it’s only a short drive from the Rockies, thus giving rise to a rapid transition - Kerry on one side of the city, Holland on the other. Calgarians can seem unnervingly jovial at first but one gets used to it. As for BC, once you leave the rental madness of Vancouver, there are many reasonably priced towns in utterly stunning locations: a greatly enlarged Switzerland without the Bentleys and similar foolishness (Whistler excluded). Growing up, I had always associated winter sports with the upper crust sipping elegantly on martinis.

https://youtu.be/DeiU_XzIqjU

It was therefore a grave disappointment to discover so many ugly yobs like me drinking beer in the ski resorts here. Who let them in?


A leisurely drive across the great, flat expanse of the Prairies is essential. They are anything but monotonous if you look carefully. One afternoon under a big sky beside the highway, I had a strange moment of wonder, almost spiritual for lack of a better word.


Anyway, after trying the West, I ended up in Newfoundland, something like Ireland used to be but with worse weather, a fourth Aran Island adrift in much colder water. With all its faults, home for me now.

Kaybaykwah

Ardillaun wrote: »

Ottawa is a Dublin-sized capital with a park 50 times the size of Phoenix Park, lots of (colonial) history, striking buildings and fairly reasonable rental prices too. You know you’re not south of the border because at times it seems every second person is speaking French (dare I say that when I was doing a make or break series of exams there, the many pretty girls speaking incomprehensible French along the canal were a source of comfort to me). Kingston and London are also well worth a look in Ontario, Kingston having a gorgeous location on Lake Ontario.


Calgary is good value these days if you can get a job. I arrived there from Ireland in my twenties during a previous downturn in the oil market and had what people told me looked like a good time. On the edge of the Prairies, it’s only a short drive from the Rockies, thus giving rise to a rapid transition - Kerry on one side of the city, Holland on the other. Calgarians can seem unnervingly jovial at first but one gets used to it. As for BC, once you leave the rental madness of Vancouver, there are many reasonably priced towns in utterly stunning locations: a greatly enlarged Switzerland without the Bentleys and similar foolishness (Whistler excluded). Growing up, I had always associated winter sports with the upper crust sipping elegantly on martinis.

https://youtu.be/DeiU_XzIqjU

It was therefore a grave disappointment to discover so many ugly yobs like me drinking beer in the ski resorts here. Who let them in?


A leisurely drive across the great, flat expanse of the Prairies is essential. They are anything but monotonous if you look carefully. One afternoon under a big sky beside the highway, I had a strange moment of wonder, almost spiritual for lack of a better word.


Anyway, after trying the West, I ended up in Newfoundland, something like Ireland used to be but with worse weather, a fourth Aran Island adrift in much colder water. With all its faults, home for me now.

Wow, Newfoundland is a great choice.


I was in the prairies at twenty years of age, and I remember well the feel of driving on the highways there. You would see town lights in the distance and think you would be there in 5 minutes, but instead, you would pass by it in half an hour. Long straight roads. I had a fun time jumping the fence at the rodeo in Grande Prairie, Alberta, munching on free chili. I got kicked out of the Sally Ann's one night, no where to go to sleep in that strange town where on saturday nights,
young cowboys and gals drove their pick-up trucks up and down streets named by numbers like 100th street and same with avenues.


Ottawa region has a nice feel to it, and yes to the beauty of a lot of our French maidens.

Nobody ever mentions Quebec it seems, because the language is a barrier to some. As far as Vancouver goes, it is very nice, I stayed ther for about 6 months in 1980, never been back. The problem is that the Asians with money have driven the cost of housing up to insane levels. If you compare the price of houses in the Montreal region, where salaries are almost the same, and where there are more wealthy people, the bang for the buck is amazing. The older more established neighborhoods have much more interesting architecture than either Vancouver or Toronto. I really like the feel of the Maritime Provinces, too. Nova Scotia and PEI are really sweet.

Ardillaun

In Ireland and Alberta, I’d often see people who had died in their own homes and were left there for months to decompose. That very rarely happens in Newfoundland. After a day or two, somebody will be looking in the window or phoning the relatives. People look after each other here. It’s the friendliest place I’ve ever lived in.

As a relatively young country, Canada has few good-looking cities. The formula is mainly downtown towers, suburban sprawl and a railway station. Quebec, Ottawa, Burlington, Kingston, Victoria, Charlottetown and St. John’s would make my list of exceptions.

Jim2007

olvias wrote: »

that's a hard question I would move to Turkey. I love Istanbul a lot and I even found property here https://www.turkeyhomes.com/properties/turkey-region/istanbul/property-type/apartment/turkey-estate/luxury at competitive price. I think it could be a good investment for the future. But I want to consult with specialists from Turkey Homes first to reduce the risks.

Political situation and recent history would rule it out for me.

Granadino

olvias wrote: »

that's a hard question I would move to Turkey. I love Istanbul a lot and I even found property here https://www.turkeyhomes.com/properties/turkey-region/istanbul/property-type/apartment/turkey-estate/luxury at competitive price. I think it could be a good investment for the future. But I want to consult with specialists from Turkey Homes first to reduce the risks.

Is this an ad dressed up as a post?

Ste.phen

Granadino wrote: »

Is this an ad dressed up as a post?

100% yes, but only barely dressed up