Tldr; I love my job, hate the Netherlands, want to move somewhere warmer but where and how?

[smallcircles@social.coop]

@Gina Chili is also rural galore, beautiful nature. Speak Spanish fluently (if you don't already), 2nd largest language, always handy.

[angelomassaro@mastodon.social]

@Gina perhaps Trieste would be a good option?

[accordingtowouter@mastodon.world]

@Gina I think the south of France could be a good choice for you. Cities such as Toulon, Fréjus, Cannes or Nice. Larger but not too large, good weather, good food. Close by beaches. Or further inland and smaller towns such as Draguignan, Grasse (famous for its perfumery).

[smallcircles@social.coop]

@Gina

On that safety list btw, there are some surprising positions.

[jannem@fosstodon.org]

@Gina
Maybe according to your definition (and maybe not even then). We have an apartment in Ginowan, a city of about 100k, and directly connected to Urasoe, then Naha in the south; and Chatan and Okinawa City in the north.

To me this is still urban (if not the big city vibe of, say, Osaka or Tokyo). Many japanese consider Okinawa as a whole as the far-end of nowhere.

We have streetlights and sidewalks. That's at least semi-urban to me.

[_elena@mastodon.social]

@Gina aw no worries! I have an American friend who emigrated to Valencia, Spain and LOVED it (she didn't speak the language when she first moved there). She's been in Valencia for several years now...

France and Italy may be hard to navigate for people who don't speak the language... but from my superficial knowledge, Spain seems a more welcoming country to expats. My two cents - take this with a grain of salt

[smallcircles@social.coop]

@Gina here is that democracy index. The EIU list is I think the official one, but last publication dates from 2024. I hoped to find 2026 and was curious how they'd rank the USA with Mr. T and all that jazz.

https://freedomforallamericans.org/democracy-index-rankings/

[josunobo@shelter.moe]

@Gina
That's funny, I went to Amsterdam two years ago, and I thought "What a nice place to be !" 😂 What do you dislike there ?
I'm in Strasbourg, France btw !

[not_a_label@toot.lgbt]

@Gina I have friends who have done this and I lived on a small boat for 10 years. The practicalities and relative discomforts are all manageable in good weather. The thing that people can struggle with is friendships/community/connections… you and the people you meet are constantly moving around so there’s a lot of goodbyes and some find that difficult.

You’re also right to not want to blow all your life savings to do it!

[gina@fosstodon.org]

@josunobo the weather, how expensive it is, the constant rain, how crowded it is, the constant cycling through the rain, the lack of nature, the horizontal rain, not being able to drive anywhere.

[quixoticgeek@social.v.st]

@Gina the problem with travelling by campervan is it's really hard to park in European cities. Fine if you just want to explore rural locations, but in many places you just can't park it.

[gina@fosstodon.org]

@quixoticgeek I'm ok with that. I'm not really a city girl.

[quixoticgeek@social.v.st]

@Gina its also not legal to sleep in a vehicle overnight outside of designated locations in most European countries.

[fedops@fosstodon.org]

@Gina feels like you need to start a spreadsheet with horizontally all the things you want and dont want and vertically the candidate countries. 😀

[mkoek@mastodon.nl]

@quixoticgeek @Gina we used to have reasonable success finding campsites near metro endpoints just outside major cities (disclaimer: long long time ago 🙂)

[dennmans@waag.social]

@Gina I did it the other way round: spent my early life as a nomad, partly living on boats, and then settled down in the Netherlands. I'm also outside the 'huisje, boompje, beestje' class, I can imagine your fatigue. I would give it a gentle try first - nomadic life is hard if you have creature comforts or like predictability. I tried living out of a small camper in South Africa for a few months. Whatever location you choose will be coloured by your experiences there, so try a few.

[crocmagnon@fosstodon.org]

@Gina what about travelling by bus? With companies like Flixbus it should be possible and would help you connect to smaller cities.

[brendanjones@fosstodon.org]

@Gina I grew up in Aus so I have the freedom of being able to move back there whenever I want, but I still haven't done it after 13 years in NL.

I cannot tell you how much I feel you on your criticisms of Dutch weather, and the lack of landscape and nature. I miss Australia terribly for this exact reason.

Doesn't help I spent a lot of time out bush through the years - I used to be an outdoors guide. It's been quite the change living here!

[brendanjones@fosstodon.org]

@Gina But every time I think about moving back, I remind myself of daily city life. Here in Amsterdam, almost every friend is within a 30 minute cycle. The choices for food, art and entertainment are incredible. Day to day life here is just wonderful on those counts. Compare that to Aus where you drive everywhere. Cycling is extremely dangerous (I used to do it, but everyone thought I was weird, and you arrive everywhere sweaty due to the distances, hills, and heat).

[brendanjones@fosstodon.org]

@Gina and the jobs market for software is nothing like it is here in Europe. You might be up for working remotely, which hey maybe that's your thing (I personally hate it, I like seeing humans), but the time difference makes it intolerable to work with both the US and Europe. I tried. Couldn't do it.