Some questions for Euro-Dopers

In My Humble Opinion
1

For no other reason than my own curiosity, I’d like to ask some questions of European Dopers. They’re pretty much all based out of my own nationality and I’m just wondering how it is on the other side of the pond.

  1. What country do you live in?

  2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?

  3. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?

  4. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?

  5. How often do you leave your country for any reason?

  6. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?

As someone who has a friend who just moved 2,300 miles away and still lives in the same nation with the same language and general culture, I’m generally interested in how things work in areas where nations are more condensed together. Thanks for your time!

2

I preface this by sayign that I am an American; my husband is Dutch. My kids have two passports and if I were pinned down I would say one kid is fundamentally American and the other is thoroughly Dutch. However, they are only 7 and 9 so they will have to find their own way.

  1. **What country do you live in?
    **
    The Netherlands, in Brabant, which is in the south near Germany and even nearer Belgium.

  2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?

Dutch guys on a salary seem to normally get a total of between four and six weeks of vacation. The average is 25 working days off.

  1. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?

Most employers have rules about how much time can be taken off at once. Parents are expected to take most of their vacation time during school holidays, as the notion of summer camp and extended child care is still in its early stages here. There is a lot of travel (see below) but recently with the economy and all, many people are staying nearby rather than going far afield.

  1. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?

I shop in Belgium. In fact, every Sunday (when Dutch stores are closed and Belgian stores are not) there is no one to be found in the shops in the border towns in Belgium other than the Dutch (well, and me). It is easier to get to Belguim than to Amsterdam from here, actually.

But it is not uncommon for people to weekend in Paris and it is not uncommon for me to take a train or a cheap flight to England as one of my friends lives in Exeter. People go to Dusseldorf for the Christmas markets and all kinds of things.

Though it must also be said that no matter how obscure or far away a place is, there will always be some Dutch guy there and probably his bicycle, too. They travel a lot and are nearly ubiquitous.

  1. How often do you leave your country for any reason?

About once a week.

  1. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?

I know a number of people who live in Belgium because they say it is cheaper. It may be, I never checked. Most people here thought I was mad because I did not trade in my US driver’s license in Belgium; instead I jumped through the six billion expensive hoops and got a Dutch one. I think it’s very common for Dutch guys to get sick of the weather and move to France or Spain.

3

England

  1. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?
    [/quote]

14 weeks - teacher’s working conditions :smiley: Of course, there’s no choice about when they fall! Mostly at home, over the past three years I’ve had three holidays abroad, all well under two weeks. I’ve also taken on optional extra work with our holiday activites (youth orchestras), including foreign tours, taking up a couple of weeks a year.

The latter. Last year, I got an unexpected windfall, and two weekends later I was in Turkey. More mundane matter, such as family stuff (i.e. funerals) in Ireland, are no big deal, just get online and book a flight for tomorrow or the day after. I once decided to have a day trip to Brussels, 12 hours before the flight boarded. (Now I’m getting itchy feet…)

Three to five times a year, I guess. It varies a lot.

Irish family, will travel. As for friends, it’s nothing all that unusual to hear of somebody heading off to Australia or similar, and particularly those in academia seem to end up in all sorts of unexpected places across Europe without notice. Monolingualism does put a lot of restriction on the latter, though, for many people.

4

Sweden

25 days. You are always guaranteed 25 days vacation a year, by law.

I do ridiculously little on my vacation, sadly. I’m gonna have to try and go somewhere this summer. Last year I did abolutely nothing, which was kind of relaxing, but not exactly exciting

Travelling has never been a big priority for me, so it’s mainly my economy that’s holding me back from travelling. If I chose to, I guess I could “go to amsterdam this weekend”.

Once every two years maybe. For a week.

No common at all. I have a cousin who moved to England, but she’s back now.

5

  1. What country do you live in?
    England

  2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?
    25 days

  3. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?
    Some family time at Christmas/New Year, a couple of week-long breaks, the rest for long weekends. Up to three of those weeks or long weekends will be spent out of the country.

  4. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?
    Not that big a deal now that flying is cheaper. It doesn’t really cost any more to go to Amsterdam than it would to go to Manchester. Which makes it a pretty easy choice (I’m kidding. Amsterdam has a lot going for it.)
    It’s still a hassle in terms of travel time, booking hotels, just the slightly different rules and regulations, and the language and stuff. I wouldn’t say that I would take a trip to France as lightly as a trip to Wales or wherever.

  5. How often do you leave your country for any reason?
    Two or three times a year. Rarely further than somewhere else in Europe - I’ve already seen the whole world on Google Earth :stuck_out_tongue:

  6. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?
    Permanently moving to another country is uncommon. It’s not terribly unusual for people to spend some time working abroad, especially people of university age or career-oriented types, but mostly it’s for a limited time. I have older relatives who now live abroad, but they still spend quite a lot of time here.

6

1. What country do you live in?

Romania.

2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?

Usually it’s 20 days, but I get 28 because I work in a dangerous environment (TB hospital).

3. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?

It’s my first year working, so I haven’t taken my vacation yet. I plan to go somewhere for a week and waste the other days just doing nothing much. I know I won’t be allowed to take all of my 28 days in one piece.

4. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?
5. How often do you leave your country for any reason?

I live quite close to the border with Hungary, so I make my biweekly shopping there. It’s better and cheaper. Anything more than that is a big production. My problem is that I only like traveling by car, so I can’t go very far.

6. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?

It’s quite common. Lots of people I know (not family, but my family is very small) are working in other countries, like Italy, Spain, France, Germany, but they only plan to stay there for a few years.

7

Greece

I run my own business so I can take as much as I want. I once took a month off and I got bored out of my mind. Now I will take two days here, three days there etc. Keeps things more interesting.

Travel.

Needs some planing to keep things interesting. Else you go there and have no idea what to do next.

Not as often as I would like. In the last 5 years I’ve been twice in Turkey and once in the UK.

Not common.

8

  1. Scotland

  2. 25 days + public holidays

  3. I don’t know, really. I go to visit my kids in Yorkshire, travel if I have the money, or use time to do stuff around the house.

  4. Logistically, it’s very easy - just get on a plane and be in another country in, oh, 1 hour 15 minutes from Glasgow. But I don’t have much money so financially, it’s not often possible.

  5. Since I returned from the USA 9 months ago I haven’t left the UK. Before that, probably 2 or 3 times a year.

  6. It was common in previous generations of my family, but not so much nowadays. I think I’m the only one who has done so. My friends are a bit more adventurous, but it’s not like they pop off to foreign lands on a whim.

9

The Netherlands.

I’m self employed and I only occasionally take vacations when between projects. If I have a slow couple of days, I’ll just take it easy at home and maybe go off somewhere. I’m not much of a traveler, tough.

It’s fairly easy; I go to the UK about twice a year to visit my sister, and maybe once or twice somewhere else for a week or so. Belgium and the closer parts of Germany are close enough that you can go there by train, spend the day and be back home in the evening if you want to.

On average, I’m out of the country maybe 3 to 5 times a year.

My sister moved to the UK, a few acquaintances and remote family members live in the Emirates. Having lived in Amsterdam and moving to Utrecht (both relatively large cities) I have a bunch of friends who moved here from abroad. I don’t think it’s terribly common to emigrate permanently, but for (ex-)students it’s not uncommon to study or work a couple of months to a year abroad.

10

1. What country do you live in?

The Republic Of Ireland

**
2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?**

Full-time student and also work, if I plan ahead I can take as much time as I like off at the minute.
**
3. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?**

Often veg at home, taking the odd day. I go abroad semi-regularly as my girlfriend is American and I’ve been stateside half a dozen times but I’ve started deliberately exploring more of what Ireland has to offer. It is usually cheaper, no planes and also I want to find out more about this island.

4. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?

Easy-peasy, if I want to visit my brother in Scotland or cousins in England it can be done the day before. If I want to travel further afield takes a bit more preparation but not really much of a big deal. I live 1.5 miles from Dublin’s International Airport.

5. How often do you leave your country for any reason?

At least twice a year, sometimes more often. Last two foreign countries were Germany and the USA.

6. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?**

Very common on short stays, ie a year or so. Fewer make permanent moves but I know a lot who have moved to Berlin of late. Australia is always popular for 1 year stints. There is quite a bit of inward migration here. My gf is American, my best friend’s gf is Swedish, my other best friend’s gf is Swiss, a friend from college is married to a Ugandan man, another friend is engaged to a Brazilian woman, my sister is married to a German.

11

Some general comments. I think people from one European city find it easy enough to adjust to life in another. All the big cities, although they have their distinct character, generally work the same way, the effects of globalisation mean that the main shopping thoroughfares are largely homogenised, the Euro is the standard currency across many of these cities etc. My brother is law is German as I said in the post above and there are still peculiarities of Irish life that he points out after over a decade here but on a superficial level at least living is very similar across these countries.

12

  1. The USA. I’m a reformed Euro-Doper. Well, technically I was never a Euro-Doper, since I hadn’t discovered the SDMB yet, but… well, you get the idea. I was born and raised in England.

  2. I travelled overseas all the time, and mostly not even within Europe- India and the Middle East, plus lots of other interesting places where Dad went for orthopaedic conferences. I’ve hardly traveled overseas at all since moving to America; maybe 6 trips in 13 years.

  3. I have lived in four countries, my mother has lived in five, and my dad has lived in eight.

13

1. What country do you live in?

Czech Republic

2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?

I work for myself but take a fairly typical 6 weeks.

3. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?

Travel. Usually one 4 week trip and one 2 week.

4. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?

No big deal. Vienna, Budapest are both short trips.

5. How often do you leave your country for any reason?

At least once a month.

6. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?

7 years, 5 countries.

14

Thanks for the comments, everyone, keep them coming! :slight_smile:

15

  1. What country do you live in?
    Officially, Spain. But for the last 8 years I’ve been a consultant and most of my jobs have been international (contracts with companies from Spain, the UK, Switzerland and the US) so I’m not exactly Jane Spaniard.

  2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?
    Ah no! Not that question…
    First, my own time is highly variable, as it depends on things like what company I work for, which country I’m working in and whether my current boss is an ass who believes in taking hirs own vacation but not giving any to subordinates (I’ve had several of those). Plus I’m self employed: last week I wasn’t in a project so I was on vacation, but it happened to be unpaid.
    Second, are we talking only about vacation as in “days I choose beforehand to not go to work” or as in “days I don’t go to work”? Bank holildays for my Scottish client were optional, national and regional holidays in Spain aren’t optional at all and those who have to work during them get holiday pay.
    Third, in Spain the “convenio” for a sector or company indicates time worked in yearly hours. When I worked 12h shifts, I got a lot more vacation days than my 8h-shift coworkers, but my working days (and nights) were also longer. The yearly time is around 1500h for most sectors.

  3. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?
    Last week, at Mom’s arranging the entrance exam I need for a Scottish university. If I can, I like to take a trip during off seasons. When I have time off while “on location”, I like to visit the place but not intensively, i.e., if I’m in Costa Rica for three months I’ll go on maybe one weekend trip and one day trip every month more or less, I don’t go on a weekend trip every weekend (laundry doesn’t wash itself, not even in Costa Rica).

  4. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?
    … I was born less than 100km from the border to France as the crow flies… going to see my grandparents in Barcelona took longer. We didn’t particularly spend a lot of time going to France, but for example my aunt has taken shopping trips to Bourdeaux since she got her own wheels.

  5. How often do you leave your country for any reason?
    See above :slight_smile:

  6. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?
    Much more common now than, say, 20 years ago. The economic crisis of the 80s and 90s had a lot to do with this: sometimes it seems as if every Spaniard my age that I meet except for my Barcelona cousin has lived abroad (I’m 41).
    In general, we move abroad for economic reasons, to practice a language, as part of some sort of exchange (we just love the Erasmus program) or because we’ve fallen in love with someone from abroad who’d come here for those same reasons. And we stay abroad due to economic reasons or marriage - the long term, really long term reason, is always marriage.
    Spaniards have been “doing the Americas” (economic migration, then come back home with enough money to start a little business or plain retire) since thereabouts of 1500… it’s only that we don’t always get around to the “come back” part. My grandparent’s generation was an aberration in that many of them emigrated for political reasons, that hadn’t happened since Ferdinand of Aragon expelled the Muslims and Jews.

16

1. What country do you live in?

England.

2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?

I work for myself, so as much as I want/feel is advisable. But generally people here with a regular full-time job get at least 21 days paid leave per year.

3. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?

Most Brits will have one or possibly two ‘main’ holidays per year, at least one of them falling during the peak holiday season around July/August, which coincides with the main summer school break. They use up the rest of their paid leave as and when it suits them, maybe having a long weekend break now and again.

For main holidays, I’d guess about two-thirds of Brits prefer to go somewhere abroad, usually somewhere easy to get to in Europe that is known to have a good tourist industry and be easy to enjoy (i.e. lots of cheap bars and clubs). The rest go somewhere touristy within the UK, or just use the time at home.

4. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?

Very easy. Ever since the Golden Keys To Freedom were in place (credit cards, budget airlines and the internet) it has became so commomplace as to be unremarkable.

5. How often do you leave your country for any reason?

I personally love travelling, so I leave the country as often as possible, for any reason at all. I actively try to get work overseas, just so that I can go travelling and seeing the world.

6. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?

It seems to have become more common over the past ten years than it was before. A surprising number of people I know, directly or indirectly, have moved to either Spain or Australia, largely citing disaffection with the way things are perceived to be going here in terms of politics and society.

17

1. What country do you live in?

The Netherlands

2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?

I get about 300 hours a year, I work 8 hours a day, so that’s 38 days of vacation, (not including national holidays)

3. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?

I take a “WTV dag”(work time reduction day) every other Friday, I try to take two or three weeks in the summer for a vacation proper, the rest I use for extended weekends or “Baal dagen”( I don’t feel like working days)

4. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?

Belgium, Germany or just over the border from where I live, and thanks to Ryan air and other low cost airline companies , Its time cheaper and faster to fly to Shannon, Ireland then for me to travel to say to Groningen, Netherlands

5. How often do you leave your country for any reason?

I used to bicycle to Belgium almost every weekend, to catch a movie, and me and group of friends do a lot of pop festivals in Belgium each summer, three of my best friends moved to Ireland three years ago. And I take lots of extended weekend trips to visit them, four or five trips a year

6. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?

Three of my friends moved to Ireland a few years ago there is a lot of work for multilingual people in the callcenter branch there, I know some people who moved to Belgium, and Guild member from World of Warcraft is thinking of relocation with her child to be closer to an other guild member

Yep Holland isn’t a horrible place to work in…what do you get?

18

1. What country do you live in?

England

2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?

Standard is 25 days, I get 29 days because my company knows how to keep us happy!!

3. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?

I study part-time and I use a lot of my annual leave to go to college or to study at home, because my company also knows how to make me unhappy and not grant me any study leave!
However I do try to have at least a full week off work during the year because my job is quite stressful and a few days doesn’t really cut it.
When I can afford it I have that week abroad, to any hot country that is cheap to get to and stay in(Greece, Spain etc). Or I pootle about London doing touristy stuff.
At Christmas I visit my family(not usually for more than 3 days).

4. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?

It would be relatively simple, in fact. I live in a city where Paris is two hours away by train, Amsterdam, Lille, Brussels etc all easily accessible two. We have plenty of airports, coaches and trains to the ferry ports. To be honest it’s only money that stops me gallavanting as much as I would like. I am a lot more likely to go on the train to Brighton seaside for a night, or hire a car and go camping in Thetford forest, than I am to whizz off to mainland Europe purely because of cost.

5. How often do you leave your country for any reason?

I guess about twice a year, at most, once for my week away if I can get it, and maybe once for a weekend.

6. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?

My cousin does it all the time, he’s always off fannying around in foreign climes. I don’t know that many people that have done it from England to elsewhere, just one guy that moved to Australia earlier this year. However I have tons of of friends who have moved to England from all over Europe - Lithuania, Portugal, Australia, Finland…the list goes on. But this ole city is quite the metropolis, so that’s not surprising!

19

Just checked, I get 400 hours all combined, so that 50 days off

whoot

20

1. What country do you live in?

England

2. How much time off (i.e. vacation) do you get?

Standard is 25 days though I’m at 27 given that I have just had my 10-year anniversary with the company

3. How do you generally use this time? Travel? More time at home? In large pieces (weeks) or spread out over time (days)?

I’m not a big fan of extended vacations so I tend to take mostly long weekends here and there and throw in a one-week off somewhere along the lines.

4. How easy do you consider it to be to leave your country and visit another? Is it a big production or is it a “Hey, let’s go to Amsterdam this weekend”?

I’m fairly close to London so Paris and Brussels are under 3 hours away. In addition Luton Airport is nearby which where most of the budget airlines are based and Gatwick can be reached by just taking one train

5. How often do you leave your country for any reason?

A few times a year to visit my parents (Netherlands) and friends (Germany and France). I try to visit my friends in the US once every 18 months

6. How common amongst your friends and families is it to just decide to move to another country?

Among my friends that I grew up with I’m one of the few who left the area all together. Among my friends from high/business school I’m one of many who left the Netherlands…