Help me decide where to live after Buenos Aires (Preliminary Thread)

[Hoi Polloi]

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Have you looked into croatia at all? Equally as cheap as prague not as americanized, beautiful, etc... I don't really know any specifics but when I visited I loved it there.

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Check out Llublijana (sp?) in Slovenia, too. I've heard great things about it. Less trauma during the break up of Yugoslavia, very cosmopolitan and very close to Italy, Austria, etc.

[goofball]

I went to australia for a month last summer. Brisbane, Sydney, and Cairns. I think it would be awesome to live there for a while.

[lippy]

Slight hijack, but I'm thinking about studying abroad in Toledo, Spain. Does anyone have experience with this city?

[Arnfinn Madsen]

It is still very difficult to offer any good advice since you aren't really saying what you are looking for, so if I would make a list it would have 100 places which are good/interesting to live. But one thing I can draw out, that you like big cities and at the same time like to experience local culture. In most countries of Europe the big cities are so international that it doesn't feel like living in the local culture. In i.e. Scandinavia, UK, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Slovakia etc. you won't really find a big city that has distinct local culture. But especially in France, but also in i.e. Austria and Italy you can still find big cities that "belong" to the local culture (Spain I don't know).

For most of Europe you will need to live outside the large cities to experience real local culture, but in rural Europe you can still find local culture, but not one specific German or Polish or whatever, but plenty of different local ones, the difference between a village in Southeastern Germany and Nortwestern Germany is bigger than the diffence between Warsaw and London, same goes for France etc..

[TheMetetron]

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Try cities in China, specifically Beijing. It has a pretty large Ex-Pat community and you're so immersed in mandarin that you'll pick up even basic language skills quickly, if you're taking lessons aswell, it can be pretty quick.

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Haven't considered it, but I wouldn't be opposed to it either. I'll definitely keep it on my radar. I'm more likely to hit the European cities and Australia first and do Asia in a few years, but we will see.

[TheMetetron]

Josem,

Incredibly helpful. Thank you.

[TheMetetron]

Madsen,

I'm not hugely surely exactly what I'm looking for and that's probably the reason I'm not being more helpful. I feel bad because the rule for making a thread like this should be that you are putting a lot of thought into it yourself and asking for more specific advice. Unfortunately, I've put thought into it and I just don't know.

You are right that I do like big cities from what I've experienced. Buenos Aires is the biggest city I've ever lived in and I love the convenience. The fact it is a developing country makes living in this wonderful city environment so cheap. It obviously won't be like that in Europe. I feel like I'm going to have to spend some time in the big cities and then spend some time in the smaller towns as well to get a good feel.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

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Madsen,

I'm not hugely surely exactly what I'm looking for and that's probably the reason I'm not being more helpful. I feel bad because the rule for making a thread like this should be that you are putting a lot of thought into it yourself and asking for more specific advice. Unfortunately, I've put thought into it and I just don't know.


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No problem, it is just very difficult to guess what you would like.

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The fact it is a developing country makes living in this wonderful city environment so cheap. It obviously won't be like that in Europe.

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I haven't been to Buenos Aires, but I guess since it has been big and rich for a long time it is something like Paris where you can just walk and walk for weeks and discover new beautiful neighbourhoods etc.. The cheap cities in Europe are typically in the ex-communist countries and the city centres can be restored and be very charming but the city as a whole isn't so nice. Bratislava is like the prime example.

Center:


But oops:



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and then spend some time in the smaller towns as well to get a good feel.


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This is really the key, don't even have to go far, can even use a bike, just go where they aren't used to foreigners so that they don't adjust so much.

[Emperor]

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Try cities in China, specifically Beijing. It has a pretty large Ex-Pat community and you're so immersed in mandarin that you'll pick up even basic language skills quickly, if you're taking lessons aswell, it can be pretty quick.

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Haven't considered it, but I wouldn't be opposed to it either. I'll definitely keep it on my radar. I'm more likely to hit the European cities and Australia first and do Asia in a few years, but we will see.

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I thought playing online poker from China is a no no / near impossible?