where should you live in Europe?

You want to move to Europe or you already live in Europe and you want to explore other countries/choices where to live? Well that's why I made this video and presentation!

This only covers 5 countries but this video ended up being 40 minutes already, which I didn' t expect. Next time maybe I' ll cover the other 45 :D

00:00 welcome to europe
00:17 netherlands pros
04:35 netherlands cons
08:02 germany pros
10:58 germany cons
10:58 germany cons
15:40 france pros
18:43 france cons
23:50 sweden pro
27:05 sweden cons
32:27 austria pros
35:05 austria cons
38:07 things I forgot to mention
40:50 what we learned

Feel free to ad ur 2 cents in the comments about the countries I talk about or no

PS apperently the 49 euro ticket might not exist in 2024 😅 Only got the memo today, kinda sad.

a tik tok on how swiss german sounds like:

Also sorry for the darkness in my videos sometimes it was more difficult to set up then I thought. And guess what...I bought a 4th laptop and well xD I have to send it back again, it has some issues. I also now think something is wrong with my video files.

instagram for aesthetics: @helloerikapeanut
tik tok for tiktoks: @helloerikapeanut

SOURCES & REFERENCES:
Firstly this is based on my expereíence living 5 years in germany and almost 2 years in germany and a year in Austria. Also my friends that live in France, Sweden. So I dounble checked my info wih the friends.
Dutch housing crisis
Pros and cons germany
German taxes
Pros and cons living in sweden
Swedish marernity leave
vitamin d in sweden
Swedish health insurance
Austrian friendliness
Austrian taxes
Swedish pros amd cons
Netherlands pros and cons
Homelessness in germany
cost of living in europe
culture of saying no in france
purchesing power index
vienna
Quality of life

Disclaimer: Sorry if you see misspellings, it happens more often then i notice. 28k subs! Let' s goo! Thank you for watching and I hope you enjoyed the video!

✨ And see you soon! ✨

[Elfo_]

"The dutch language is like a mix of english and german but you have also a potato in your mouth" is the best description of Dutch I've ever heard. I will only use that from now on.

[Tuelis]

As someone who lives in Italy, trust me, French bureaucracy is far more efficient than you'd think. Italian bureaucratic offices had barely discovered the computer before the pandemic forced them to abandon their constant requests for paper copies and actually join the 21st Century.

[Dahrenhorst]

The 49 Euro ticket in Germany is not just for one trip, it's a monthly ticket and you can do as many trips across the country as you want, just not with the long distance trains.
I think, the most underrated obstacle to settle in in any country in Europe is language. As long as you don't speak the language of your selected country at least at B2, preferably C1 level, you will always have a very difficult time to find a job or friends, and to become an accepted member of your local community, especially outside of the large cities.

[yep]

I am German myself, so I can review the German bit of the video:

TL;DR: overall she was very accurate

You can vacuum clean on Sundays in Germany.
It depends solely on the amount of noise you are making and for how long. The same applies late at night obviously.
Since mowing your lawn would certainly be too loud and affects the entire neighborhood it's a no-go.
But doing some quick vacuum cleaning of your apartment around 5pm is alright.

What she said about the cost of living and rent is correct. Nothing else to add or change, in fact I like that she made examples of cities where it is definitely expensive to live in. Shoutout to Munich.

Punctuality does not even apply to most people anymore. While there is a sense of trying to be punctual, often times people don't show up on time anyway. This mostly changed over the course of generations, hence I would say it solely depends on how they were raised.


Autobahn is alright but I think a lot of people overrate it. I think foreigners praise it more than we do, perhaps because they forget about all the accidents or constructions on that road, which cause hour long traffic jams.

Trains and Germany don't mesh well. That entire system needs to be reworked. It doesn't even matter where you go. Be it countryside or cities, the system is just bad.

Us Germans love taxes. We really love them indeed. We love them so much, that we are willing to give up on our right to marry in church to avoid paying tax for it. We love taxes so much, that we have taxes for everything. Perhaps soon even for breathing. Jokes aside, taxes are the main income of our country and since the government has no better way of making money, living in Germany is going to require you to pay a lot of taxes. The radio tax bit is also correct, although baffling for a lot of foreigners as you must pay it whether you use TV/radio or not.

Bureaucracy and taxes share the same section. We really love that shit. You can hear every working class citizen praise it everyday.

Germans are generally not unfriendly, they are mostly just very practical and pragmatic people. They prefer to use their time to get things done and often already have a plan in mind for the day. They do not really hate small talk or being approached by random people, but it's not something they enjoy either. For as long as you are respectful and try your best to fit in, people will acknowledge that and respect you in return.
The want for peace and quiet plays a huge role in how "friendly" the average German will be to you. Sometimes you may just approach them at a time they need to relax and they get mad, but most people are like that in any country in my opinion.

The German stare is a real thing, but that's something only older people do. Either that or those who just really need to chill.

Whether an apartment is furnished or not depends on the owner. Sadly it is true, that sometimes you may find that perfect apartment in just the right spot, but you'd have to dump a lot of money to furnish it. Then there are cases where YOU MUST take the existing kitchen in the apartment AND pay extra for taking it. Don't ask me why. It comes down to the owner and how they want to sell their place. Both comes with it's own ups and downs I guess.

As for the language:
You absolutely can survive in Germany with just English or sign language (even on the countryside).
If you live in the far east border of Germany, Polish or maybe Russian works too. In the far west border French is OK as well. However, everywhere else I REALLY REALLY RECOMMEND TO SPEAK ENGLISH AT LEAST. Most of us Germans actually prefer you to at least try and speak English, if you can't speak German. This is because every German learns English in school and our English education system is actually really good too. It's just that the meme of Germans being shit at English originates from those people who just don't care enough to learn it.
If it comes to buying food or shelter, you are definitely going to survive in Germany with just English. I had been approached by people in cities before, asking me where to find the next restaurant in English.
For living here longterm, you should consider learning German though.
Especially when you are getting involved with contracts or working for a German company, not knowing the basic language will mess you up.
Not being able to talk to the family of your German partner is also awkward.


Germany is overall a solid and safe country to live in, which provides you with everything you need, for as long as you are willing to work for it and show effort in integrating yourself. We value foreigners who do that and hate those who don't.


Peace.

[maloualleno]

As a Frenchwoman, I'd like to add that no one will judge you if you buy a baguette at the supermarket. Because most French people buy it themselves in a supermarket. In fact, in some supermarkets, the bread is better than in some boulangeries. And there are many French people who have never eaten a snail in their lives and find it disgusting. Fun fact: I've only eaten them once, and that was in Spain, in a paella

[joaogabrielschelck]

The video is so good, that is worth doing a part 2 with maybe: Italy, Iceland, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Norway and Luxembourg.

[alicethegrinsecatz]

As a German, I can confirm these issues with our trains. It worked for almost 200 years perfectly and then, the people decided to make it a private company because a private company would be more efficient than a governmental company. The privatisation stopped at the point where DB became a shareholder company led by managers but the government never sold the shares because they realised that privatization doesn't work. The main issue is that many tracks are so unprofitable that any private company would cut them but there has to be infrastructure. So, the government had to pay for these tracks. Also, the DB still fails with getting even the bigger track profitable. The only success the Deutsche Bahn ever made was buying truck companies and combining them under DB Cargo. The main business of our railroad company is cargo delivery by trucks on the road now. It turned out that you shouldn't listen to economic liberalists and highly corrupt politicians when they praise privatization as a solution for everything. It didn't work in France, and even in Japan, where it seems to work, many lines are still in public hand and others were cut while the quality and infrastructure in the provinced dropped due to profitability. At the same time, working conditions at the railroad companies went from 'preem to hell in no time. Do we wanna talk about the accident of Amagasaki? Punctually done by inhuman terrorization of employees. Profitability on the backs of the people. 107 fatalities.

[Mokkel]

I think your research is SPOT ON! Regards from Sweden...

[Malte_OJ]

By the way, the compensation for trains is an EU-wide rule: you get 25% back if your journey is delayed by 1 hour, 50% if it's 2 hours or more. You are also entitled to food and drink in proportion to the delay. Anyway, some companies may have even better rules (for example, RENFE in Spain offers 50% discount if your AVE high speed train is 15 minutes late and 100% if it's 30 minutes late. Deutsche Bahn would go bankrupt with that rule).

[ramon]

About the French rudeness, this stereotype comes from Paris and it is kinda true FOR PARIS. I cannot stress enough how different Paris and the rest of the country are, it is true for Paris but not for the rest of the country

[KitsuneHB]

The train system as a first con! XD That's so on point! We have saying: The German Railway got only four problems - spring, summer, autumn and winter! Greetings from a german. :D

[jagolago-bob]

I've lived in France, Sweden and Germany, and I have never had problems making friends in them, with the least successful being Sweden (probably because it was for the shortest time). The problem is finding good friends. That always takes more time.

[lodsch]

I think the best way to explain Austria is: even tho Viena is the electet many times as the best city to live in, they are kinda proud of the fact that they are also one of the unfriendliest countries in Europe. Greetings from Austria! I had to laugh many times because your Opiniens about Austria are very spot on.

[bernhardneef]

Erika, your video is very well investigated and nicely presented. I laughed about your national changes in flags and clothing. Well done and funny to see. Thanks

[acertainredpanda]

Biking in the rain is such a universal Dutch experience. I love it. It's not fun in the moment but when you're home with a cup of tea it's the best feeling!

[xenotiic]

I am an American (Los Angeles, California ;w;), and for reasons people might understand, I kinda wanna move to another country. Whether or not I end up in Europe, this video was really helpful for me! I learned a lot, so thank you Erika and comments section.

[malamuteproductions]

I am currently in Germany on holidays from Australia and as my first time overseas, all I can say is the culture is so different and there's so much history in Europe. I'm not sure whether I would want to live here because I miss Australia already but I might settle for Holidays to Europe every couple of years until I've explored enough. I would love to do the Netherlands in a few years and then Scandinavia. Love your videos cheers :)

[afonsoferreira]

I went to a (German) party with my gf (German). About 12 blue eyed, blonde girls talking to each other in German. We come in a the host said I don't speak german. For the next 40min EVERYONE was speaking English, even on the other side of the room, as if they didn't want to say anything that I wouldn't understand even they clearly weren't talking with me. After those 40 only the closest people to us were talking in English and the rest was talking in German.

This has happened several times in many circumstances. That's my experience

[summerfish]

Spaniard living in edgy and techno Berlin. The video is very precise. I really liked it. I would add that the public transport inside of Berlin works really really well. About the kitchens on rented flats, it is changing now also and getting better. The thing in Germany is that there is a huge lack of flats so landlords know that the flat will be rented even without a kitchen. Burocracy, I think, is getting better now and more digitalized. Income tax is easy to do online with private companies software who make everything very easy. Most people don't use elster but these programms or online apps. It is true that Germany is very affordable and at the same time it has high salaries. And yes, the big con is the language. It is stereotypical to say it, but yes, German language is difficult and needs time and constant motivation. I still recommend Germany a lot.

[LucasdaMatta]

as a Brazilian living in the US, the notion that "dentists are extremely expensive in Sweden because they cost 60 euros" is quite vexing. i wanted to get routine dental cleaning and the US, and the dental clinic ended up not taking my insurance and the out-of-pocket cost would have been 300 US$.