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Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

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Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#131

Post by stefanfisk »

fastbeef wrote: post #98
smueller1234 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That cold-cheap bit is decidedly not applicable to Europe, by the way. Scandinavia is overall among the most expensive places in Europe. I'd imagine Switzerland is more expensive by a bit, but Oslo and Stockholm are brutal as well.

The cost of housing / income ratio in Stockholm is so out of whack that it’s basically impossible to enter the housing market without at least €50k-75k in savings to have as a down payment for an apartment anywhere nice.

And in addition to this renting is basically kafkaesque. You might be able to sublet a place for up to a year, but the rents are equally horrible compared to the average income. Getting a first hand contract is essentially impossible unless you know a private landlord who will give you preferential treatment, as generally the is a queue in which you need AT LEAST 10+ years to get something not nice at all

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#132

Post by nsomaru »

ronaldl93 wrote: post #110
nsomaru wrote: post #103

Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. Both of these cities have loads of expats and intellectually stimulating environments. Big and spacious apartments for $1000/mo or less. Fibre @ 40mbps for $100/mo or thereabouts. A country that has both tropical and Mediterranean climates (think of the fruit and veggies!) with beautiful nature (esp. CT where it's integrated with the city). Eat out every night in style at pri…

The northern parts of Durban (Umhlanga / Ballito) is also nice. Good fibre infrastructure, relatively safe. Well developed. Tropical Climate. Very English.

I'm actually a Durbanite living in Westville but I can't recommend Durban having lived in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Mumbai and Berlin. Spend too much time in Durban and I end up feeling like I'm intellectually frustrated. A lot of it might have to do with my race group and the fact that it is a minority nationally with a high concentration in KZN. You probably know what I'm saying ;) There's implicit racism in Durban which is very difficult to live with if you are not expat or white ("English").

There are very few tech meetups and general opportunity for intellectualism/tech in Durban. Shoutout here to OpenDataDurban and Code4SA! I'd love for you to correct me, though. And if you're in Durban, maybe we can get a coffee? hnusername@gmail.com

That being said Durban is really cheap and has the best beaches in the world!

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#134

Post by maxkwallace »

I am doing this in Taipei right now.

The living costs are low and there is a thriving intellectual community, but there is definitely a language barrier. Most Taiwanese can speak enough English to be friendly and helpful (which they are), but not enough to have intellectual conversations. If you are willing to tolerate the language barrier and put in the time to find the people who can converse intellectually in English then it's a good option. I can't say how much of an intellectual English-speaking community there is since I haven't explored that.

Otherwise, I can't say enough good things about Taipei as a city. You can find a nice apartment downtown for $600/mo or less, the public transportation is amazingly good, and I've never traveled anywhere with better food for the money, provided you're willing to eat Taiwanese, Chinese, or Japanese food most days.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#135

Post by galfarragem »

whitef0x wrote: post #124
msadowski wrote: post #22

If you feel adventurous you can consider moving to Poland. I would recommend Krakow. Most young people will speak English, there are couple of top Universities there (PK and AGH for technical schools, UJ for humanities, medicine and some tech too and UE for economics). The tech scene seems to be constantly growing, with lots of international companies having their offices there. As a senior dev in Poland you can earn…

How bad is it there for sexual/gender minorities (aka gay/trans people). Is it livable if you are visibly transgender?

East Europe is the most traditional family oriented area that I know. Politics and mentalities follow that trend. Despite being a piece of heaven to a lot of people, I wouldn't recommend it to everybody.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#137

Post by simplyinfinity »

mahasvin wrote: post #85
larodi wrote: post #69

Check Bulgaria's Sofia capital - is top notch. Lots of concerts, events, bars, meetups, conferences, sports facilities. Is still growing lot in terms of IT, hundreds of job postings, major companies such as VMWare, HPs, Codix, SAP all have big offices here - check Linkedin. senior positions after taxes pay 1000-2000EU. Rents are 400-600EU for a very decent central place 80m^2 + furniture. 4 mountains around the city,…

Not much English speakers there, very mediocre roads in the city. However, the food is great, life is cheaper then in England, but not as cheap, as it may be at Chiangmai. Or in Scotland.

Mediocre roads indeed, but you can manage to get around the city by public transport. While public transit can be sometimes late, or some buss lines use old busses. it's A+ compared to US public transport, but not as great as the London or Paris (tho the metro is newer and cleaner than Paris). Public transport card for all lines for 1 year is 365 levs - 185 eur. Rent prices currently are on the high end and can run you between 300-500 eur. For food, i personally eat take out twice a day and over the last few months my average spend for food & drinks is ~ 300 eur. If someone has other questions about Sofia, feel free to e-mail me or comment here :)

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#138

Post by davidscolgan »

I've recently moved to Chicago and am thoroughly loving it. There are tons of programming meetups here, seems pretty progressive, super good public transportation (at least for the US) and costs seem to be mostly reasonable.

My studio apartment is about $1k a month in a nice part of town right next to a train stop. I really like that since Chicago is the third largest city in the country, you can probably find just about anything here'd you want, without having to pay as much to live here as you would on the coasts.

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#139

Post by itsthejb »

bogdanu wrote: post #116
cleansy wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this. But definitely try to get a remote SE job there. The pay is laughable compared to for example Berlin. Which is also a great city to work and live in.

I saw some jobs in Berlin that payed around 70K Eur. Assuming it's before taxes, it means that after taxes it's around 3.8k/month; a bit low if you ask me. I know pay is not the only factor, but heck, I make half in my home country, but the living costs are far lower (and I don't even pay rent).

Are you comparing that salary to US salaries? Because the still relatively low cost of living in Berlin makes that anything but low

Re: Ask HN: Cheap places to live with a good intellectual atmosphere?

#140

Post by goda90 »

Californians tend to overlook the Midwest(probably because of the winters), but we have some decent cities. Madison, Minneapolis, and if you want big, Chicago. All of them have universities and tech companies, and are cheaper than the bay area by far.
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