If you didn’t live in the USA where would you want to live?
- Thread starter Eppy99
- Start date
Some good choices have already been made, but I will go with Portugal.
Spent 3 weeks there in 2009 for work 3 hours N of Melbourne. I tell people it was just like Southern Indiana with an accent. Now Melbourne was a whole different animal.
+1 on Costa Rica. I did a quick google search on best places for expats, and I'm surprised to see Mexico consistently in the top 3 choices. We're always led to believe that Mexico is a dangerous shithole.
Perfect. I can get culture if I want it or just hang with the rubes.
Basically America with less history
Things are cheap, kids learn English so a good population that can speak what I speak plus they offer free Portuguese classes to people moving in, the weather seems good, and it gets me easy travel to battlefields all over Europe. The one downside, I am not a big seafood person and that is huge there.
Yep. And they love Americans! It was weird. All I ever heard was how much Europeans and others overseas hate Americans but I felt like a sideshow out in the country down there. I would talk and people’s mouths would gape and the line of questions started. They nicknamed me Yank which I told them I really hated. But we hung out, went duck hunting, Roo spotting at night, golfing, swam in the Murray, played footie and “balls.” It was fun and everybody down there is so chilled out. And the amount of “piss” they consume was staggering.
lol, the dramatics are ridiculous
Everybody in Europe thinks America is a dangerous place to live as well.
So, Mexico is probably similar. Just stay out of cartel controlled areas and you're probably fine.
Affordable but not a secret anymore apparently. Great locale. Beaches. Women look like men so no distractions. Cheap wine. But you and your battlefields. For a dummy from the Midwest what do you see at them? Aren't they just fields or paved over with malls?
Switzerland. Beautiful country and the people aren't wokefully insane.
And guns are encouraged, if not required during mandatory military service.
Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
Many good options and many bad options of the places I've been
Australia- yes, fit right in
Ireland- yes, ditto
Switzerland- yes, ditto
Canada, yes, except for the COLD
I'm more neutral on France, Germany, England, Denmark, South Korea, Japan. All have merits but seem a harder fit.
I couldn't really see myself in Indonesia, the Middle East, Mexico, or any Caribbean country except maybe some laid-back isolated island (I loved Anguilla!)
I haven't been to Central or South America, or to Africa. These are major holes in my traveling experience. Along with New Zealand, Scotland, and the Netherlands, my bucket list is huge.
Australia- yes, fit right in
Ireland- yes, ditto
Switzerland- yes, ditto
Canada, yes, except for the COLD
I'm more neutral on France, Germany, England, Denmark, South Korea, Japan. All have merits but seem a harder fit.
I couldn't really see myself in Indonesia, the Middle East, Mexico, or any Caribbean country except maybe some laid-back isolated island (I loved Anguilla!)
I haven't been to Central or South America, or to Africa. These are major holes in my traveling experience. Along with New Zealand, Scotland, and the Netherlands, my bucket list is huge.
Spain is next door. SHAKIRA!!!
Answering for me, not Marv....it's like the first time I went to Dealey Plaza in Dallas. You're literally standing on history. Don't know if they still do it but when i was there in 1998 (35th anniversary of the assassination) there was an X in the road where the first shot hit Kennedy.
As an aside, for a number of years I think my Dad probably knew more about the Kennedy assassination than just about anybody in the country. Had a huge effect on him. His didn't really believe the lone gunman theory but always said we'd never find out what happened. That everybody that knew something was either implicated in it or dead. I tend to think he's right.
As to battlefields, similar feeling. Looking over the horizon and understanding what someone would have seen or felt during a battle. The distances involved. The physicality of it. Would love to visit Normandy someday to peer down from a German pillbox. That kind of perspective, I surmise, would only make me be in even more awe of the men that stormed those beaches.
Some have parts paved over, but most big ones still have some original terrain. I'd suggest you go to Wilson's Creek in Missouri, but it is a heck of a trip even from St Louis.
I've been to Gettysburg 10 times, for me it doesn't get old walking the hallowed ground. I haven't been since Covid and was thinking of a trip this fall, but they are closing Little Round Top for 18 months so I'm probably going to do Antietam again.
I suspect I could live at Normandy, and I think I would like France but it isn't as cheap to live as Portugal. My wife and I have discussed retiring somewhere, Slovenia, Portugal, and Costa Rica seem to be the choices that she would do. But I'm not really going to move that far from kids and, very very soon, grandkids.
Interesting. You don't seem the Costa Rica type. I've been to colonial Williamsburg. But I was in college playing William & Mary and probably didn't appreciate the sites as much as I would today. Good answers to you both @larsIU
Yes, you should definitely go to the Normandy beaches.
Congrats on the future grandkids. You will love it - gives you a new reason to live.
I share your love of old battlefields and history, but I've only been to Gettysburg once. I want to do it again soon. Little Round Top is closed? Why?
Normandy, France, is great. Sort of reminds me of Tuscany in Italy - very peaceful, beautiful, nice people, historical..... and GREAT food!
I am not so much, hence why I suggested Portugal. And Slovenia would be a close 2nd for me. But my wife has known people who visited Costa Rico and loved it.
My wife has family in Southern Africa and England.
Been to both. The weather in southern Africa is basically San Diego.
I really like England. STayed with her sister in a suburb of Manchester. I could live there. 100%. Probably only in retirement as I have no idea how I'd get a job.
Been to both. The weather in southern Africa is basically San Diego.
I really like England. STayed with her sister in a suburb of Manchester. I could live there. 100%. Probably only in retirement as I have no idea how I'd get a job.
I love the English culture - mainly pubs and soccer. It's a quirky place.
I couldn't live under their government and the place is like one big nosey neighborhood. London is different, but out in the sticks, it's still pretty provincial.
This question seems highly dependent upon the size of your bank account.
Either New Zealand or Australia. I think they have alot of the good things that the US has, including health care, which would be a must. Culturally close to the US.
I've got a 'friend' in New Zealand who I've never met in person but spent hours every day on the phone with him.
He's English, but emigrated there a while ago. Loves living there.
It's on my bucket list to go visit.
a friend I've never met in person? do you send him money and touch yourself during these conversations
Abaco, Bahamas or Iskenderun, Hatay, Turkey (bit iffy 15 mile from Syria) on the Med, but I've lived there long ago and have friends and speak Turkish so that takes it to the top of my list.
Surprised no one has mentioned Texas.
