hey Dan here and in this video I want to share why I originally moved to Europe
and more importantly and taking up the chunk of the video is what it's actually
like to live in Europe and this is coming from a Canadian perspective and
that might be similar to an American perspective as well so interpretive why
I actually came to Europe that part's not that exciting or interesting
actually a friend of mine was on his way to do a master's program which took him
in three different countries throughout Europe and at the time I was completing
my dream of living in five different countries before I turned 30
so I'd already lived in Costa Rica and then I was living in New York and that's
where my friend was and he told me he was moving to Hamburg Germany to do his
master's degree and did I want to make Germany my third new country to move to
and I said yes of course that sounds like a lot of fun so to give you a bit
of perspective I've been in Europe since 2012 and since then I've lived in
Germany in Berlin and Hamburg I've lived in Bologna Italy I've lived
in Barcelona Spain and I've been here in Prague in the Czech Republic for about
two years since so new to the country that I spent between three months and
two years and some in the middle in there so I think I'm in a position to
give a bit of an overview of living in Europe because of course every country
is different right what it's like to live in Prague is going to be very
different than what it's like to live in Amsterdam. Actually no those two are
pretty similar but some other countries right there are cities it might be quite
a bit different but I lived in enough different European countries to get a
feeling for some of the common differences the first thing that really
stands out is you have a lot more uniform culture so despite your being
really packed together and having the opportunity to intermingle and
interbreed for the last 2,000 or so years most countries maintain their
culture really well so if you go to Prague it is checked and there is big
differences in how people act and behave even within the Czech Republic you have
significant differences between the north and south or east and west but
Czech Republic is Czech they are very unique in that way right you go to
Poland polish people are very unique in Poland especially they are
only polish people they're not a lot of immigrants up in Poland you go to
Germany you know France everywhere the culture is very unique and and they've
somehow stuck to that you know the French and Spanish haven't just like
intermingled over the last thousand years and become one culture they're
very different this leads to my second point and probably one of my favorite
things about living in Europe is how easy it is to travel and how quickly it
is to basically be in like a whole new world right coming from Vancouver Canada
if I were to hop on a plane and try to go somewhere interesting like I just
needed somewhere new right I needed a break maybe Mexico I could do maybe some
parts of the US would be significantly different like I could go to New Orleans
even then I'm talking about a three or four hour flight at least 300 bucks
probably and it's still the same language and the same Wendy's and Burger
King and whatever are going to be on every corner and it's not a lot of
change whereas from here in Prague I could get in a car let alone to fly or
take a train but let's say it's line one two-hour flight within two hours is
probably 15 20 different countries I could get to maybe more and within those
countries almost every single one is going to have a different language and
as different culture now some are somewhat similar to one another like the
bulk and have some similarity between countries but each one really is a
unique culture that's pretty cool if you're someone who likes to travel you
like novelty that there's always somewhere new you can go if you want to
take a quick weekend trip to Paris sweet no problem new language different people
it's a refreshing experience so that level of travel and diversity of culture
is amazing especially considering that each place you know maintains their own
unique culture so that's something I really like about it and it's a big
difference to living in North America or Australia or other places that are
speaking English from watching this video which is primarily just those
countries I mentioned one last point about the travel it is so easy here
within Europe there so it's called the Shang and zone which is different in the
European Union and that not something I'm going to totally get
into in this video but basically within the Schengen zone which is most of
Europe is there are no borders you just go and can go between countries without
talking to anyone occasionally there's passport checks if you're on a route
that has a lot of drug trafficking or human trafficking or something but
generally you don't talk to anyone so when I'm fine from Prague I have about a
40 minute ride on the metro from my apartment to the airport I might leave
my house 70 minutes before my flight takeoff without too much stress because
you get to the airport security lineups are quick and then you're just you're
done there's no customs there's no big lineup it's really easy now of course is
varies by airport but across the board every airport here is easier than most
of the airports in like the US right and so that makes a lot easier because if
you just get to the airport basically when your flights taking off you save a
ton of time it's a lot easier to just go on a quick trip so the last part about
living in Europe that's really different is life is about more than money
more than the GDP and yes I know this is a cliche and it's probably the not as
true as a cliche right of Europeans never working or sitting on they're
sitting there drinking and espresso all day but there is a difference in how
people look at life so it's not that Europeans aren't being productive if you
look at the average GDP which is a measure of the Scalia country's gross
domestic product how much they produce country like France Germany the
Netherlands Scandinavia they have a very similar GDP per capita to the United
States it's slightly lower usually but it's not a lot lower so they're they're
producing stuff they're not all sitting around doing nothing
but even within those cultures like within Germany Germany you have roughly
four weeks minimum of holidays per year plus about 20 other government holiday
so you've got a minimum of kind of two months there but if you spread it out
right you probably end up with three and that's Germany and when you talk about
like work-life balance that Germans will when work finishes at 5:00 they will go
out they will have a beer relax not sitting in the office all night same we
like going away on weekends or things like that now of course there are
companies usually American firms international firms that get set up in
countries like Germany and then bring those crazy work hours to people but
generally there's a lot bigger balance people don't look at life as just about
how much you make and this is a something I like and hate about Europe
so in one of the things that's great about North America is that people are
really valued on what they produce what they do right so if someone shows up
they're a poor immigrant and they work really hard they educate themselves they
make a lot of money that they will be viewed the same as anyone else who's
been successful there's not like a class system Europe does have a class system
still which is something I don't necessarily like but one of the things I
do like about the mindset around it is that you're more than your money if you
are some scammy internet marketer asshole and you make a bunch of money
ripping people off you're not viewed as like high class here or anything better
because it's not just about the money it's about you know other things in
terms of this class system that's a whole other discussion perhaps but going
back is that people like somewhere say in France you have a relatively high GDP
per person people are earning money the standard of living is quite high and
they also take long lunches they relax they spend time on things other than
just working and so I personally think this is a really positive thing
it varies I date by people I've got in an argument with my dad about this where
he I was trying to argue that because they also have a decent GDP and but a
way higher quality of life way more time off way more like longer lunches less
work hours I think in France the mandatory work hours or the maximum
sorry is 35 hours a week by law pretty amazing that day I was arguing that they
have the better deal because their incomes are almost as high but their
quality of life is way better and he couldn't sort of wrap it head
around that like you just kept trying to argue about GDP and how their GDP is
lower and they have like a seven percent unemployment rate so their economy isn't
as good it's like yes but if you go there people's quality of life is half
as higher and they are happier so who cares about all these other numbers and
metrics and I'm kind of somewhere in between like I'm half capitalist half
travelling hippie and I see both sides but overall I think for me living in
Europe has been really good to grind down that capitalist part of me and see
that you know the balance in life and that there's a lot more there so that's
the third thing you will notice in Europe there is materialism there is
people driven to just make money but there's a lot less of it than in North
America a lot less materialism or defining yourself by your wealth or your
bank account I'll make some more videos on this if
you have specific questions let me know in the comments or if you'd like me to
make a video about one of the countries I've lived in and what it's like or
something like that again let me know in the comments if you are not currently
living in Europe or living abroad and you're looking to have that freedom to
live somewhere new to become an expat then I would encourage you to subscribe
to the channel here and maybe also head over to my website because I do a lot of
content on making your own freelancing business or working for yourself in
general so that you can actually have that freedom to live abroad and that's
what's allowed me to live in Europe for the last five years without having to
worry about getting a job or anything is I've just been freelancing working with
clients around the world and I can just live where I want which is pretty cool
and I'd be happy to help you do the same so subscribe to the YouTube channel and
on my website as well if you want to know more about that thanks for watching