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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?

#291

Post by namdnay »

the_clarence wrote: post #233
david927 wrote: post #133

Nice, France There's a technical hub in the area and multiple universities, along with a lot of English-speaking expats. The weather is amazing and the food is fantastic. I'm from the SF Bay Area and I live here now. Best decision ever.

Nice is probably the last place I would go to in France. Bordeaux and Montpellier are much nicer places.

I guess it depends on what your criteria are. Bordeaux is a lot wetter than Nice, and the extremes in Montpellier can be quite harsh. There are no mountains near Bordeaux, and you need to drive a good 30-45mn out of Montpellier to get anywhere nice.

I completely agree that the night life and cultural scene is far better in student cities such as Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes, Montpellier etc

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

#292

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

d--b wrote: post #23

As you say, places near academic institutions should be pretty good for you. Oxford or Cambridge in England may not be too expensive. Edinburgh or Glasgow would be cheaper even. In any case you may consider enrolling in some kind of academic research program. Pursuing your own intellectual thing by yourself will be incredibly tough and lonely.

Oxford and Cambridge themselves are exorbitant, though if you like small-town life and are happy to get the bus/train into the city, there are some reasonable options nearby (I live in a tiny town 15 minutes from Oxford on the train, for example).

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

#293

Post by cies »

isostatic wrote: post #274
rolleiflex wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is awesome. I live in SF, and have a base in Istanbul, which is from what I heard, similar to Lisbon in many aspects — but I would be hesitant to recommend it without at least a willingness to learn Turkish. There are some digital nomads here in HN based in Istanbul, though. Nevertheless - my point was, you’re living my dream and I’ll definitely give a visit when my life allows for a Portugal trip. Never been ye…

Istanbul (and all of Turkey, obv.) is run by a dictator who tortures detainees, and arbitarilly arrests journalists and human rights workers https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/europe-and-central-asia...

It's okay to mention this, but not fair to omit comparison with the US while the two were originally compared.

The scale may be different, but the situation in the US is not to good either on these topics, and has been deteriorating lately.

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

#294

Post by Eyes »

fireattack wrote: post #266
nelsonic wrote: post #229

Depending on your ability to work remotely, I would make the "case" that you should consider Portugal . Lisbon and Porto are super popular with ["digital nomad"] remote workers who work for international companies so earn in USD but spend [much less] in Euros for a superb lifestyle. There's a reason @paddycosgrave moved Web Summit to Lisbon. It's one of the cheapest cities in Europe and [unlike Barcelona] everyone sp…

Why did you italicize so many words?

Half of that github doc is in italics too.

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

#295

Post by koolherc »

koolherc wrote: post #285
59nadir wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hungary consistently ranks as having the lowest percentage of English speaking people in Europe. It's perhaps one of the few countries where this would actually still be an issue in Europe.

Sadly this is true, even among software engineers and highly qualified people. You can still get a job without speaking Hungarian, and you'll be able to get through mandatory work stuff, but it may be uncomfortable during casual conversations. People often feel uneasy speaking English so they tend to switch to Hungarian if only one or two English speakers are in the group.

But if you can find a good community, then it may work out really well. Budapest is really affordable and SE salaries are very high compared to the average cost of living.

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

#297

Post by nelsonic »

pandemic_region wrote: post #284
fireattack wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did you italicize so many words?

Italian heritage.

exactly! but seriously, it's just a [bad] habit ... thanks for pointing it out. hope it did not detract from my message.

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

#298

Post by mciancia »

stef25 wrote: post #251
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…

Salary-wise, surely anything in W-Europe is better than E-Europe?

In IT not necessarily.

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

#299

Post by kome »

martinbundgaard wrote: post #83

Aarhus is Denmark's second largest city. It has a great university, beautiful surroundings and a thriving startup community. Also Danes are good English speakers.

The problem with Aarhus is that is very boring and dull, and the problem with Denmark, more in general, is that is very expensive it has no interesting nature (rather flat)

Copenhagen is awesome tho (but rather expensive); and in provincial towns the life is very quiet, perfect for families.

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

#300

Post by arto »

maxdo wrote: post #193

Kiev , Lviv , Kharkiv in Ukraine are extremely cheap, it’s still in Europe, and it has tons of talents. It’s a known talent pool actually. Eating out starts from $2 usd, for $3-4 you could even have a service in the restaurant. Renting a flat starts from $200/mo for some sub urbs areas. You can rent some office space for $150/mo I bet in most places you called cheap you spent more on coffee and smoothies.

Seconded.
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