I can't decide between Bavaria, Austria & the Czech Republic

[karin_brenig 708]

...hm... by now I'm way confused about the goal of this conversation.

 

Let's recap:

person lives and works somewhere currently, right? Has lot's of time on his hands to go travel on StreetView.

Wants to find the "perfect" place for himself? How do we measure perfection?

Factors of perfection:

Landscape/climate - has to have hills, quaint little towns, should be not too cold
Mentality - has to have open-minded, well-traveled, well-educated, multi-lingual local population
Economy - has to have high-paying academic and/or musical arts jobs for somebody who really only speaks English (even though he grew up on German TV?)

Politics - hasn't really been mentioned at all, but is (in my opinion) an important component of "perfection"

 

Really? Sounds like me, when I'm having a bad day: everything in my current place of residence, job, relationship... just sux.

 

The solution is so simple, it's almost funny: work mostly on your attitude, like the old song "when you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with"
 

[bytex 25]

Nah, nothing negative really. Such a move is big business. Choosing a culture that's not a good fit might cost one dearly. Btw maybe it's the way one moves that's more important rather than the place. All alone as a single guy? Gonna be bad! Moving with a SO, family or wife? It'd be better, if she's a local even more so. The expat bubble is the surest way to never integrate.

 

Which reminds me of my study abroad from hell/heaven. At first it was hell. I was staying in a dorm like most. Almost no locals whatsoever. In uni they had their groups and foreign students were in a separate bubble. The 2 groups would rarely interract. Moved to a flatshare, even worse.

 

I missed my family like crazy so I signed up for a stay with a local family in a small town not far from my uni's city. The oma, a somewhat traditional Mrs. Doubtfire-looking lady temporarily had to move in with them as her house was getting renovated. I can still smell her delicious sponge cakes, home cooked meals & tea. Her daughter was into yoga. She taught me to meditate, while her husband would play tennis with me. It was my first time living in a terraced house. I still can smell the fresh backyard grass after the rain.

 

Best was they took me with them on their camper van trip to France! The children (also students) would get back in the weekends & on holidays. They offered me to try weed. I hate the smell so I refused but we went partying together often.

 

Their oma would take me to church with her and teach me about their values and traditions. At times she'd scold me for dressing 'too Balkan & standing out' (Dutch directness + being in the bible belt). One of her catchphrases was 'This is (not) the done thing here!' but she'd congratulate me when trying my best to soak the culture. It was the best way to experience life as a local and get to really know the local culture.

 

We're basically an extended family with them now & my female cousin is engaged to their son. If you wonder why I didn't move there I found out I cope better in cold continential winters with snow than mild but humid oceanic ones.

 

My eyes are now wet from nostalgia. Maybe I'll have to do the same as a working adult, but in Austria, Germany or Czechia. Like pay rent to a family in exchange of a glimpse into their culture/language. Has anyone here tried a home stay?

[optimista 5,884]

While I disagree with Karin's final sentiments - it's fine making do, but the bar is set low and long-term you may wonder if you wasted your life in the wrong place with the wrong people (have T-shirt) - I find your last post so sugar-coated it sounds unreal. Is this all a TT Friday wind-up?

You could try au-pairing if you are any good with kids. Or sell yourself as a gentleman's valet. Then again I smell the whiff of financial ease. My nose is telling me you wouldn't want to enslave yourself and presently don't need the money. Paying to stay in a family as an adult just for the experience is new on me. And speaking from personal experience, there is no guarantee that marrying in ensures integration, specially in teutonic circles.

 

Maybe just flip a coin, jump off the cliff and move on if you find yourself like a fish out of water.

[bytex 25]

Quote

you may wonder if you wasted your life in the wrong place with the wrong people

Yep, this is the whole point of my thread. I really enjoyed living in Slovakia and Czechia and visiting Hungary and Austria. There's something je ne sais quoi I felt about the whole former Habsburg region. When I lost my job there I felt the same for the city I felt almost as emotional as I do when leaving my childhood city. I made more friends there for a year than I do in my childhood city, so I consider it a win despite the whole land making me feel too emotional (past lives lol?). In Hungary I felt less moody, the vibe of the place was laid back, earthy and I felt like home. Prague had a flashy and sunny vibe and I loved the countryside around it. I saw the least of Austria but I never went to the more typical Alpine regions. Vienna was nice, if not as WOW as Prague but lately, I've discovered I love the Salzburg and Linz areas.

 

By the way, the above story is completely real. Even I cannot believe I was that lucky to discover such a kind-hearted family. I've heard lots of negative stories about host families or Couchsurfing hosts. This Dutch family literally saved me from loneliness. Maybe the best people are out there in a village or small town and not in the big cities... The only caveat was you really needed to push yourself to speak their language. Also, not everyone would like to be treated like a kid or be told what is the done and not done thing. Most people above 18 are too set in their ways and would consider this an attack.

 

I didn't care, I knew that's the deal with experiencing their culture from inside. There are expats living in the Netherlands for years that know less about the culture than I do now. Most of them never had the chance to be part of that, to interact with a real-life local family. It helps with the little things like knowing what's considered a faux pas. Basically it was the closest one can get to a fast-track of what growing up in the culture is. I lived in the NL for just 2,5 years of which a couple of months with my host family, not including the many guest visits later. I learned more about the life and culture when staying with them than all the other months spent there combined. As I half-seriously joke now I have an adopted Duch oma.

[bytex 25]

On 10/27/2021, 7:26:11, optimista said:

While I disagree with Karin's final sentiments - it's fine making do, but the bar is set low and long-term you may wonder if you wasted your life in the wrong place with the wrong people (have T-shirt) - I find your last post so sugar-coated it sounds unreal. Is this all a TT Friday wind-up?

You could try au-pairing if you are any good with kids. Or sell yourself as a gentleman's valet. Then again I smell the whiff of financial ease. My nose is telling me you wouldn't want to enslave yourself and presently don't need the money. Paying to stay in a family as an adult just for the experience is new on me. And speaking from personal experience, there is no guarantee that marrying in ensures integration, specially in teutonic circles.

 

Maybe just flip a coin, jump off the cliff and move on if you find yourself like a fish out of water.

The bolded rings sooo true. Is it any wonder why I do so much researching in advance?

I mean I loved Prague's architecture but I wouldn't ever use "friendly, warm and welcoming" to describe the locals. At the end of the day fancy old architecture means nothing if you can't find local friends easily and if they're too stand-offish.

 

Bratislava locals were slightly friendlier than Prague. This organization "Internationals Bratislava" was very helpful. It was created by a fellow expat and they offer presentations, hiking trips and trips to castles and old towns for expats and locals and try to bring them together. I made very good friends there! I haven't found this type of organization to be very common anywhere else, not even on the Algarve and Costa del Sol. Sure you can go to a British bar but an actual organization offering organized trips for expats? I don't know of any. Do you have something like that in Munich?

 

Unlike in Bratislava, in Prague and most other places you're left to your own devices to make sense of the place and culture. As I was single I had to organize all trips myself and travel alone which was boring. There are Bla Bla language exchanges but no one wants to learn my native language. And that's focused too much on food and bars. The trips IB organized had that too but also hiking and visiting castles I wouldn't know existed. As for Germany I'm really shocked that after passing an A1 course I can read and understand less of it than I can Spanish with just an A1.1 (first half of an A1) course plus rusty B1 knowledge of French. Some languages are really harder.

[yourkeau 7,721]

2 hours ago, bytex said:

There are Bla Bla language exchanges but no one wants to learn my native language.

You should better advertise. I took a 1 semester course of Bulgarian and was surprised that it has so simple grammar in contrast to most other Slavic languages. You should advertise it as "Russian, but with English grammar" (not true, but ads are not supposed to tell the whole truth, right?)

 

Много благодаря.