Have you ever moved/lived abroad? What was your experiences, best advice?

Currently living in Berlin (though about to leave to live in the U.S.) after short periods of domicile in Italy and France.

Best advice I can offer is do your research on the tax/health systems well in advance. Germany's are a nightmare and both left me in a financial hole for a few years.
 
Moved to the states on an internship in the late 90's (South Carolina) and loved the laid back way of life in comparison to back home. Once that time was over, moved back home, got a job in Kent and hated every second of it tbh. Even though the job was decent enough, it was just too difficult to get back into the grind after things over here. Long story short, I was incredibly lucky to find a job back in the same town and find an employer to sponsor my visa. 20 odd years later, wife and I are both still here and citizens now (she's from Nottingham), kids born here etc.

Weird thing is, I've thought about coming home more recently in the last year or so than I ever have before, not sure we ever would, but its funny how things come full circle.
 
cyberblue said:
The biggest downfall for people moving abroad is not doing their homework
Many rules, laws change & are open to interpation
Alot of people who think they are in " the UK with the sun"
soon come unstuck & pack their bags for home
Well done for sticking it out
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You're right about the rules and laws. The Spanish seemed to pick and choose which ones they would adhere to and ignore the rest, it was laughable sometimes. We didn't stick it out as such, we really, really enjoyed it but it's hard work trying to get things done with a manana attitude when you have an English mindset. We were looking at moving to the Dordoigne but my Father in law passed away and we discovered my mum had the onset of dementia. At least Wales gave us the familiarity we were used to and a ' foreign ' language if we wanted .....
 
Lived in Singapore for a year, wonderful place (English speaking too which helps lol), great experience, but as someone else said living & working abroad isn’t a holiday. That said it can feel like it as soon as you clock off from work at the end of the week and go exploring.
 
Innsbruckblue said:
Left the UK in 2001 to study in Spain and Germany. Ended up spending the next 13 years in Germany before moving to Austria 7 years ago. Found a job I enjoyed and decided to get more qualifications, and I’ve not once regretted it. I love the European way of life and have no plans to ever move back to the UK. As long as I can still have my fix of City on TV and the occasional European away game, I’m happy. Good beer, beautiful women and a job I love.
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Are you recruiting sidekicks. Sounds great.
 
Blue Mist said:
All I can say is the French hate us. The only people the French hate more than us is the Parisians.
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Go to France with the lads every year on war walks and in Belgium too , always had nothing but a warm welcome from locals. We rent a house for the week and take it all in , spent many nights in a local estaminet and had some great nights with the locals ending in one night where they picked up the tab for 9 of us and trust me we were pissed. I just take people how I find them works most of the time
 
Pablo123 said:
Go to France with the lads every year on war walks and in Belgium too , always had nothing but a warm welcome from locals. We rent a house for the week and take it all in , spent many nights in a local estaminet and had some great nights with the locals ending in one night where they picked up the tab for 9 of us and trust me we were pissed. I just take people how I find them works most of the time
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Misty is a **** so that explains the difference in how you were both treated
 
Pablo123 said:
Go to France with the lads every year on war walks and in Belgium too , always had nothing but a warm welcome from locals. We rent a house for the week and take it all in , spent many nights in a local estaminet and had some great nights with the locals ending in one night where they picked up the tab for 9 of us and trust me we were pissed. I just take people how I find them works most of the time
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Me and the Missus went to Paris in 2015 and she remarked how friendly she found the Parisians on her last visit, which I found difficult to believe.

15 minutes into our trip and a Parisian was helping us buy our train tickets and paying for them on her credit card (card Machine only which we naturally reimbursed). Just one example of how helpful people were during our time there and contrary to what I expected.
 
Pablo123 said:
Go to France with the lads every year on war walks and in Belgium too , always had nothing but a warm welcome from locals. We rent a house for the week and take it all in , spent many nights in a local estaminet and had some great nights with the locals ending in one night where they picked up the tab for 9 of us and trust me we were pissed. I just take people how I find them works most of the time
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No offence but you are basically a tourist going there for a week. As and example, we were having trouble getting the electricity people to upgrade the power to our house and charge us the correct amount. No matter what they did they simply refused to co-operate. A frenchman even wrote a letter for us, it was word perfect and detailed what we needed. They ignored it and continued to over charge. The guy that wrote the letter suggested we change our english name to a french one.
The mayor was a Commie ass hole who even the French hated (not sure why he got voted in)
I could go on but I wont, what I will say is I had an apartment in Spain for years and ran it as a rental. The Spanish were brilliant, very friendly and helpful, totally different.
 
Blue Mist said:
No offence but you are basically a tourist going there for a week. As and example, we were having trouble getting the electricity people to upgrade the power to our house and charge us the correct amount. No matter what they did they simply refused to co-operate. A frenchman even wrote a letter for us, it was word perfect and detailed what we needed. They ignored it and continued to over charge. The guy that wrote the letter suggested we change our english name to a french one.
The mayor was a Commie ass hole who even the French hated (not sure why he got voted in)
I could go on but I wont, what I will say is I had an apartment in Spain for years and ran it as a rental. The Spanish were brilliant, very friendly and helpful, totally different.
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They'll hate us even more now they have to pick up the tab for us leaving the EU
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
Spent 3 months working at a kids activity centre in Nguarawahia in 1992. Loved it and travelled around about too.
Hitched it everywhere and women on their own would stop and offer a lift. It was like being in England 30 years prior!
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Do you remember the owner of the kids camp ... wasn't a Bullin family member ? Or was it the church camp out there ?
 
Lived in Rhodesia untl I was 13. Thought it was great when I was a kid but looking back at it with hindsight not so good. Where we lived there was a curfew and you were not allowed out of your house after sunset, school bus on a morning had armed guards, when my dad did national service my mum and me had to learn to use firearms. 1st day at our new house we couldn't leave as a pride of lions had took up residence in our garden.
 
richardtheref said:
Lived in Rhodesia untl I was 13. Thought it was great when I was a kid but looking back at it with hindsight not so good. Where we lived there was a curfew and you were not allowed out of your house after sunset, school bus on a morning had armed guards, when my dad did national service my mum and me had to learn to use firearms. 1st day at our new house we couldn't leave as a pride of lions had took up residence in our garden.
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Worse thing they did was evict the Brits. Country gone to rat shit since then
 
chesterbells said:
Interested to read the comments on here about NZ. I’ve heard some people who have visited or gone for extended stays says it can be quite ‘isolating’ if you are used to the UK. Esp on the South Island you’ll see a “town” marked on the map that turns out to be about 4 houses. Not sure that sort of remoteness all the time would go down too well with me. I mean Lord of The Rings scenery is all very nice, but given the choice of the two, I’d choose Australia 100% of the time.
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That's probably why there's approx 600,000 of them living here in Oz !! :)
Been to NZ many times and have friends there. Lovely place but not for me as I like living in the tropics. Our friends in Wellington go away for their winter every year....It's bloody expensive as well.

If I ever had to live somewhere else though, it would be NZ.
 
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