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Out of curiosity, how's the quality of life there? Being originally form Eastern Europe myself, devs earn and live like kings here, especially those freelancin
by ChuckNorris89 5y ago
Out of curiosity, how's the quality of life there?
Being originally form Eastern Europe myself, devs earn and live like kings here, especially those freelancing for remote US companies, but socially you're mostly confined to these high-earning circles and gated communities where you're mostly insulated from the poverty, corruption and inequality surrounding you, along with a feeling that everyone from individuals to local businesses could be potentially unscrupulous ready to scam you of everything you've got, if your scam detector is not finely tuned and you don't know exactly how things work, as laws and regulations tend to be very loosely enforced.
Plus, complete lack of infrastructure, functional government and public institutions. Roads without potholes that don't ruin your car? Forget it. Public transport? Barely. Pedestrian sidewalks not full of illegally parked cars? Nope. Drivers disobeying the law and being a hazard to everyone? Check. Police doing something? Forget it. Public hospitals? Avoid if you can. People behaving like a-holes in public. Yes. Gangs of roma beggars and parking scammers? A given. General disregard for following laws and regulations? Check.
And that's in an EU country that, at least on paper, should be doing way better than Albania.
- ddorian43 5y agoDepends on your $$$. What's your monthly budget (rent,food,health,fun)?
- stavros 5y agoYour comment could basically be describing Greece.
- darebak 5y agoEastern Europe has gated communities? You mean Russia/Ukraine? Because I haven't heard about gated communities in Slovakia and Serbia, I I'm guessing it's the same in neighboring countries.
- ChuckNorris89 5y agoNot like Brazil or Russia, but the newly developed suburbs of the nuveau-rich are the equivalent, even though they lack armed security and barbed wire fences typically associated with gated communities.
- medo-bear 5y agoi am curious, what are the gated communities in russia and how prevalent are they? from my cursory search it looks like there are more gated communities in us, australia, and the uk
- xvilka 5y agoNot many in Moscow apart from a few elite suburbs.
- rob74 5y agoSo, a gated community without actual gates? I mean, suburbs where each house is surrounded by a high fence/wall, security cameras etc. (what you are probably referring to) are not nice either, but "real" gated communities are nevertheless something different...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- logical_ferry 5y ago
- medo-bear 5y agoi have never visited albania, but from personal experience i can tell you that countries of former yugoslavia (albania's neighborhood with significant albanian minorities) are amongst the safest in terms of public safety (with exception of petty theft in large cities such as zagreb, belgrade, and sarajevo). importantly, this is not due to these places being heavily policed as is the case in australia for example, but because of culture. i imagine the same to be true for albania
- ChuckNorris89 5y agoI never said the place was not safe.
- medo-bear 5y agoi think that public safety is a feature of eastern europe most westerners are unaware of. this is often due to a false association of low income and high crime rates that is prevalent in anglo communities. the only place in western europe where i experienced comparable public safety was in portugal, curiously another low income country. anyway i think that you should not sell your homeland short despite its shortcomings. btw you did not make it clear what country you are talking about
- smcl 5y agoVery subjective and anecdotal, but my experience of Montenegro, Bosnia and Croatia is similar.
- rastignack 5y agoIt’s true. Be it serbia, Croatia, Montenegro or Albania, those are safe. And quite enjoyable, people are quite fun there.
- juanani 5y ago
- avtolik 5y agoThis is a perfect description of Bulgaria. I would only swap "gated communities" with social bubbles.
- rastignack 5y ago> People behaving like a-holes in public. Yes. Gangs of roma beggars and parking scammers? A given. As a French guy visiting Albania quite frequently, I can tell you that I feel safer there than in Paris. People are mostly welcoming. I always travel with Albanian speaking people there, so it might be the reason. I’m pretty confident that it’s much safer than a big American or Western European city.
- grujicd 5y agoParis at night can be scary, while I never felt that in any Balkan city. On the other hand few smaller French cities I visited felt safe. It could be a problem with super-touristy capital of France.