previously on dan teaches pretty basic
things about Europe to other North
Americans who probably don't know a lot
about Europe we talked about living in
Scandinavia including Denmark Sweden and
Norway and I did include Finland in that
but full disclosure turns out Finland is
not officially in Scandinavia we also
talked about Central Europe including
Poland the Czech Republic and Slovakia
and in this video we are going to
discuss France Spain Portugal and Italy
and one of my personal favorites Germany
so let's move to France now France is
going to vary a lot in cost-of-living
depending on where you choose to live
Paris obviously being the most expensive
now even in a city like Paris if you're
coming from North America things alcohol
is probably not very expensive relative
to you so certain things in France are
going to be very cheap like local you
know go buy a loaf of bread is still
going to be one euro something like that
wine is going to be very cheap things
like this I believe the subway in Paris
is a Euro forty so consider right now
when this movies videos being filmed
that roughly a year own a dollar are the
same they're like ten percent off but
it's not worth the calculation so US
dollar to Euro is about the same France
is going to have quite a mixed group so
if you are what I'm going to talk about
in this video is if you are a person of
color because there are certain parts of
York where you're very welcome but you
might stand out or feel uncomfortable or
something like that so France especially
Paris is not one of those places it's a
very diverse group of people from their
colonies and immigration and all this
stuff and a very international City
obviously so Paris I think is 20 million
people you're going to find people from
all over the rest of France I can only
assume because I've not visited involves
more drinking less work and likely more
wife-swapping with your neighbors as far
as I know
let's go from France and do Spain
Portugal and Italy and I'm grouping all
these together to offend everyone no
because they're the same other things
like coming in from North America right
they're all kind of the same people know
what I'm doing here is I'm grouping them
because from a expat point of view from
a digital Nomad point of view there are
a lot of similarities in terms of how
the cultures are there the Latin
cultures they tend to be a little more
laid-back very friendly you go to Spain
in the worst of the worst recession you
know economic turmoil and you go out and
there will still be people packed into
the bars enjoying themselves laughing
talking with friends even if there's a
30% unemployment rate the all these
groups but especially the Spanish love
to party they love to go out
there's a lot more of a family dynamic
in terms of people often live at home
until they move out like to get married
I mean of course when they move out so
don't let it home until they get married
Italians are famous for being Mama's
boys right we're there until they get
married someone cooks and cleans for
them their whole lives definitely I
guess good cultures in terms of like
slowing down
Francis Simler that is this as well but
slowing down eating and drinking like
taking your time having a two-hour lunch
slowing down a bit so if you're looking
to live somewhere where you can kind of
disconnect from the 50 hour or 60 hour
north american workweek maybe you're
trying to work on a more creative
project something like that these
countries would all be a great choice
and of course if we want to talk
sunshine especially in the south of
these countries you're going to get
pretty much a year-round sunshine in
most places which is definitely a plus
if you are new to Europe do not make the
mistake I did and assume all of these
countries are sunny so northern Italy
will be rainy and snowy in the winter as
can northern Spain B as well so don't
assume the entire countries are sunny
but they do have their year-round sunny
spots in terms of cost of living you'd
actually be very pleasantly surprised
it's going to vary a lot by city here
you know cities like Madrid Barcelona
Milan Rome are going to be significantly
like upwards of twice or more as
expensive as the rest of the countries
but in general they're very affordable
countries to live in and I'm talking
compared to a general North American
Standard fairly you had cheap places if
you go into a smaller town or anywhere
in Portugal even Lisbon it's going to
become even more affordable it might be
a surprise but you can live in a in a
decent sized Spanish city or some parts
of Italy or Portugal for cheaper than
any of these like third-world Asian
destinations that digital nomads seem to
be all about so that a lot of that like
cost of living is quite low you can go
and get a liter of wine at dinner for
seven eight dollars things like that
Coffee might be one euro that sort of
thing so can be very very affordable
places to live except is Germany I have
lived in Hamburg twice and in Berlin
once if you ask me Hamburg is the better
city but of course I'm in the minority
with that opinion Germany really
surprised me I came over to Germany and
to Hamburg it was my first place to live
in Europe after spending a few days at
Lisbon and I expected it to be kind of
boring but I went because my best friend
was moving there and I thought screw it
why not give it a shot it blew my mind
it was so much fun the Germans as much
as they apparently work hard although
they still work way less hours than
North Americans and take way more
holidays they play hard as well so in
Hamburg the bars and nightclubs are open
to 6:00 a.m.
there's 24-hour places I believe
drinking and public is legal in Germany
it was even legal on their
transportation system like their subway
until a couple years ago I think the
legal drinking age is 16 with beer and
wine 18 for hard alcohol but yet you
don't see fights you don't see too many
drunk people stumbling around it's
really an interesting thing where they
are as productive as North Americans in
terms of what they get done they but
they have whale at way more way less
strict laws around drinking and partying
and yet way fewer issues with drinking
with drunkenness with fighting all this
stuff there's a really interesting place
the people are going to be less openly
friendly in terms of like chitchat as in
North America
but part of that is culture part of that
is a language barrier if you're speaking
English but generally what I found is
when you do get to know them they're
pretty friendly people
they're definitely open to foreigners so
whether that is that you are someone of
color or just someone of pale whiteness
like me who's coming from another
country
I found Germans to be very open and
welcoming so it's fairly easy to make
friends so that was at least my
experience their cost of living might
surprise you as well as being fairly
cheap now rent is going to be higher and
it's going to vary by city in terms of
your transportation cost all that sort
of stuff but food I think is heavily
subsidized by the
so grocery stores are really cheap I
think some of the cheapest in the world
like for wine milk produce whatever
stuff is really cheap I've made the
point that if you're a homeless person
there is no better place on earth to
live than Germany because a can of beer
a half liter can a tallboy
cost fifty cents but the deposit on it
is 25 cents so if you're a can collector
you only need to collect three cans to
buy one beer that means in like 30
minutes you can have your days worth of
drinking and then go back to sleeping
which is pretty awesome so if you are
homeless and watching this Germany is
definitely your place to be and that
thing that's funny to me the heat almost
no the the drinking and the ratio with
the beer but it also says something
about the society where they have a
society that is very heavy on recycling
and personal responsibility
I remember my ex-girlfriend would look
at me weird when I complained about
having to walk four blocks to recycle
like brown glass or whatever and if you
didn't divide it up properly like green
glass here Brown glass here people would
look at you like you're just a bad
person you should get you should be a
good member of society so they have that
part of society and there's tons of more
examples I could get into on that of you
know responsibility recycling being
progressive taking and lots of
immigrants and on the same note beer is
50 cents and you can drink it anywhere
you want so pretty awesome place
actually to not underestimate how great
Germany is be sure to subscribe to the
channel because in the next video I'll
be covering the Baltics and the Balkans
and yes they are different areas