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Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

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Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#281
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to offer another point of view here: What you say is true but IMHO things have been improving on the "culture" side over the last 2-3 years especially.

What specifically happened in the last 2-3 years?

Eurovision-2015?

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#282
post #151

Switzerland. High living standard and good wage, multiple languages to speak (German, French, Italian, and English), neutral in the world (so I don't have to bother with wars children disguised as adults are organising), great public transport. Beautiful landscape, I'm very fond of mountains, YMMV (yes, I've been in SV/SF, also very nice). Alas, my parents weren't Swiss, but they were from a reasonably liberal (in th…

> Only downside for Switzerland is ...

... its eye-popping cost of living.

In a supermarket, t-bone steaks are $60-80/kg, free range chicken is $20-25/kg, organic chicken is from $30/kg, etc. The quality of food is outstanding though.

The same goes for eating out - $40 for a simple lunch in a non-fancy place without wine/beer is fairly normal. A good bowl of ramen (which you still need to find first) is from $20, more close to $25-30 with all the trimmings. There is McDonald's, from about $20 per meal.

The weather is very much secondary to this. Just 2c.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#283
post #271
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but any new arrivals would benefit from the same advantages as long as they were willing to learn Hungarian and behave in a fashion compatible with Christian/secular cultural values. I think Hungarians are quite a bit more world-savvy these days. Chances are your child wouldn't be the only minority in their class, and even if they were, it wouldn't raise many eyebrows. From an external perspective, the primary d…

Are you talking from experience? From anecdotal evidence of several acquaintants Budapest is not as progressive as you describe, especially to non-whites.

Yes, I am speaking from experience. Budapest is not as multicultural as London, Paris or Berlin (make of that what you will), but it is nowhere near as ethnically or culturally homogenous as Japan or China.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#284
post #194

Anywhere, anytime. I'm generally based in Stockholm, Sweden; my home town and just generally a lovely place to live. It's certainly not the cheapest, but everything works really well and internet is fiber by default nearly everywhere these days, 4g if wireless. People are friendly and the city is clean and beautiful. Driving sucks, but public transport is great and runs all the time, so not a big deal. I can take a f…

Interesting. How does bandwidth work? For example when you are in Florida do you rent a place just for a few weeks (can't stay more than 3 months) and register with an ISP or do you stay at a hotel?

I'd love to have that freedom, I already work remotely, but I can't really be offline for multiple days unless it's on purpose for vacations.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#285

Vienna. In the heart of Europe and just short drive away from every one of these: Italy Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland. ranked best place to live [1] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/23/vienna-name... I'm not saying that the best thing about Vienna is the highway that get away from it (LOL), but as a foreigner it's the perfect "beach head" to explore the contin…

Why not Budapest then? Still fairly central, much cheaper, nice spas and amenities, closer to eastern Europe, and IMO the food is better

Budapest is essentially a run-down version of Vienna.

You can see they are quite similar, but it's also obvious that Soviet Block happened to one of them.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree, NYC. There's no better place to be. Unfortunately, SF/SV keep pulling me back in so I spend almost half my time there. I'm in Williamsburg on the waterfront too :) https://www.dropbox.com/s/j6fyj1iklxtg852/view.jpg

Oh you are in the Edge?

1 N 4th. The one that got built in front of the Edge. Moved in right after they opened up. Was in 184 Kent before that.

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#287

Already here. New York. If you like urban life, as long as you can pay your bills it's the best and most interesting city in the world. It also helps with a good view :) http://000fff.org/uploads/PH6.jpg

Great view. I dreamed about New York since I was a kid. I moved here 4 years ago (from Ukraine) and just recently started to realize how problematic this city is. There are millions of issues: - Real estate. Of course, this is the root of all evil. - Driving is a bitch. My wife once asked me to go walk in a Central Park with a kid. I was looking for a parking space for one and a half hours. Literally. I drove back ho…

Here are a couple of tricks :)

Sunday you park for free in Manhattan and should have no problem finding a spot up around Central park. Was there yesterday myself.

Restaurants are something you need to kind of learn how to deal with. I can honestly say that I am now mostly never having issues finding a right restaurant for any kind of need. Read eater.com and use opentable plus become a regular at a couple of restaurants and you should soon get access to easier dining.

I take the subway everyday to work switching from L to R. Takes me max 30 minutes normally. Sure there are delays but it's not that bad IMO.

Healthcare here is very different than europe (i am from denmark) it's a long discussion. I know what you are saying but there are drawback to european style healthcare too.

Agree.

I Think New York is amazing for raising kids. They will get a perspective on life that's hard to get anywhere else. But it's not for everyone :)

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#288
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 Sadly there is not much development there :(

Can you elaborate? I have seen quite a few "digital nomads" recommending Las Palmas.

Well not to much to elaborate. The top industry there is tourism, there is not much work in IT industry.

Working remotely seems the only option I guess

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#289
post #135
post #116

Canary Islands (assuming I can find work there). 20 degrees all year round is the perfect weather for me.

How's the Internet speed and cost and uptime there?

Internet is fine. The Canaries are a staging point for several transatlantic fibres. There is also an extremely active astrophysics group on both Tenerife and La Palma who shunt a lot of data around the world. You'll pay more for it, but that's because Spanish telcos are a monopoly. You might not get 100Mbit, but certainly 20M+ is normal.

Tourism isn't really a problem because the tourists stick to the resorts. The upside of a flourishing tourist industry is that you can get dirt cheap flights from all over Europe.

I've spent a lot of time in Tenerife. Santa Cruz, in the North, is a lovely city. The weather is pleasant all year round, beaches nearby, the people are friendly and the food is excellent. Accommodation is cheap and readily (and informally) available, prices are generally lower than mainland Spain so for most Westerners the cost of living is low. Most amenities are there - you've got a cinema, large supermarkets, big brand stores and so on. Getting things online may take a bit longer, I missed Amazon Prime.

You will almost certainly need a car if you plan on doing any kind of travel around the islands. Gas is about the same as most of Europe, perhaps a little lower.

The main downside for foreigners is that outside of the resorts fewer people speak English, but Spanish is easy enough to learn. There is a large ex pat community, though they tend to concentrate in the resorts for obvious reasons.

(Also Carnivals are great! Don't listen to the person who said otherwise. They run for a week or two every year, everyone dresses up, gets drunk and pees wherever they can.)

Re: Ask HN: If you could live and work somewhere, where would it be?

#290
If I could work anywhere? Well, in the middle of the countryside miles away from absolutely anything. Always preferred rural life to city life. It'd probably be much cheaper in regards to prices and rent too.

I honestly don't care what country, so long as it's at least relatively modern in its conveniences and isn't a dictatorship of some kind.

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