What Eastern European countries are good for a burger to live in for a year? Cheap, cozy, good women, and ease of travel to other European countries are pluses.
To keep it apolitical, please don't talk about Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, or Moldova.
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Romania
Georgia
Albania
Not Georgia. It’s always been shit but has gotten significantly worse. Try Armenia
If you want to stay a full year based in one place and don’t intend to make visa or residency arrangements, Albania and Georgia are your only options as a US citizen; you are eligible for one full year visa-free in either. Serbia, Bulgaria, or Romania visa-exemption periods are all 90 days within any given 180, so you could rotate through them for up to ~nine months, then spend your last 90 days of your projected year back in the first of the three, or somewhere in Schengen zone Eastern/Central Europe (Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia).
Travel to other parts of Europe shouldn’t be difficult at all from any of the above (Georgia is somewhat farther and harder, as it’s not really even in Europe and overland transit isn’t so realistic, but there are westbound flights out of Tbilisi for a few hundred bucks), but you will need to pay attention to the number of days you spend inside Schengen, as although enforcement is irregular, they really do make an effort to track and limit your stay within the 27 countries of the Schengen Area to 90 days within any given 180.
Oh, also Hungary, on the Schengen list above.
Is it that hard to just get a visa/temp residency?
>Is it that hard to just get a visa/temp residency?
Depends on a great many factors and varies by country. It used to be quite easy to get temporary residency in Bulgaria and a couple of the post-Yugoslav countries; you basically just had to pay for a long-term visitor/tourist visa and prove you could support yourself for the duration of your stay. I think that may still be possible in Bulgaria but it’s been a long time since I looked. MonteBlack in particular used to be a notorious passport mill—you could straight-up buy citizenship for something like €600K. But the EU hates golden visas and citizenship by investment programs, and has been encouraging anybody who might ever want to join the union to knock it off.
Anywhere in the Schengen area (and in the EU even more so) isn’t easy for an American to get into long-term without a legitimate reason.
>To keep it apolitical, please don't talk about ... Moldova.
Wtf has Moldova done? Other than Transnistria I thought they were staying out of this shit?
>Wtf has Moldova done? Other than Transnistria I thought they were staying out of this shit?
They are, very, very broadly speaking, trying to stay out of this shit. But there’s been concern that Russia might move forces in any day now to “defend” Transnistria, although Moldova hasn’t let actual full-time Russian officers rotate in to oversee their Transnistrian deputies for a few years now.
I don’t actually see it happening. Moldova isn’t moving against the PMR, 80% of the Ukie refugees who passed through Chisinau a year ago have moved on to richer third countries, and Moscow doesn’t have a surplus of eager volunteers.
But OP didn’t want to talk politics, so ignore all of that.
Moldova has the same 90-in-180 visa-free entry rules for Americans that most Eastern European countries have, it’s fairly cheap, and it’s noticeably poor and grungy, even by local standards. I’ve visited twice, and kind of like it, but it’s nowheresville, with Kosovo-level infrastructure and very few mod-cons. Romania is a lot more sophisticated and connected.
I'm planning to take the night train from Bucharest to Chisinau, maybe make a daytrip to Transnistria if things aren't too sketchy looking, then fly out to Istanbul a few days later, do you see any problems with this plan? I'm well traveled in the 3rd world, but not these parts
>I'm planning to take the night train from Bucharest to Chisinau, maybe make a daytrip to Transnistria if things aren't too sketchy looking, then fly out to Istanbul a few days later, do you see any problems with this plan?
I’ve done almost the same thing, and assuming there’s no political unrest in Moldova at the time (there were some protests in Moldova right before one of my visits that caused the Bucharest-Chisinau train service to be cancelled for a few days) it should be no problem. You should try to make contact with people in Tiraspol before you attempt to make the trip to PMR, though—it’s a sleazy, corrupt [internal] border at the best of times, and Transnistrian border guards are notorious for just robbing Western visitors. So if you are traveling with any quantity of valuables (including but not limited to good consumer electronics, cameras, etc.) you may risk losing them to Ivan and Sergei, particularly if you’re on an American passport and they’re in a bad mood.
>You should try to make contact with people in Tiraspol before you attempt to make the trip to PMR
How do I do this? Is there an online group I should contact or just search for anybody that's there and ask what the situation is?
>So if you are traveling with any quantity of valuables ... on an American passport
Was only going to take enough cash for the day, my basic mid phone and empty daybag, but if Moldovan phone service doesn't work there anyways I can just take an old junk phone for pictures and offline maps. I see caviar is supposed to be cheap there, I've never had it and have no idea about prices, about what does it cost and would the border guards try to take it when I leave?
>if Moldovan phone service doesn't work there
You can get reception from MoldCell in Tiraspol, at least outside on the streets.
>I see caviar is supposed to be cheap there
Don't forget that caviar doesn't have the same universal premium aspect in the former Soviet Union, of course there is expensive caviar but the cheap caviar you can buy is not some kind of extreme bargain but just caviar of a grade that isn't sold commonly in the west.
>would the border guards try to take it when I leave?
The border guards won't care about your purchases from Sheriff and Kvint, just like American border guards won't care about your stuff from Target and Whole Foods.
How could Russia move ANY forces there? They would have to just win the war in Ukraine? Wake me up in 20 years when this happens.
>How could Russia move ANY forces there? They would have to just win the war in Ukraine?
I don’t think they could get away with it unless Moldova did something to threaten the PMR; it would “allow” them to set up a corridor through western Ukraine through which they could move soldiers to “defend” Transnistrian forces, like they pretended to do in Lugansk, Donetsk, Ossetia, etc. They would presumably blitz in from Crimea. I think Odessa would actually be comparatively easy to conquer—it’s a majority Russian-speaking part of the country, with lots of family and historical ties to Mother Russia. I was afraid that Russia would start its invasion there, and that it would surrender peacefully.
But like I said, I don’t see any of this happening.
tbf its not particularly political to tell you moving to those countries isn't a good idea given the security and economic circumstances.
Hungary and the Czech Republic are the only places from the list that I would consider living in
Budapest and Prague are great places, the other countries are literal shitholes
maybe: Slovakia or Poland but only if you cannot do Hun or Cze
Please don't come to Romania and Moldova.
as a "digital nomad" (i have been rotating countries every 1-3 months for the last few years and lived in argentina, canada, colombia, costa rica, czechia, hungary, indonesia, monteBlack, portugal, singapore. thailand, united states) my personal opinion is europe, including eastern europe, is shit to live in on that timeframe. u didnt really specify ANYTHING about yourself, so its essentially impossible to give advice, but if u ask questions i am happy to answer and can say why i dont like them.
>is shit to live in on that timeframe
Do you mean it's better to spend less time or more time there and why?
You should go to Poland, there they worship Americans and they are doing relatively well.
In Czechia you really only have Prague, which is also great if you like the city.
The rest are either too poor or unsafe (full of gypsies), don't consider the Baltics if you hate winters.
Is the gypsy problem that bad in Budapest?
>Reply
stay away from czech republic, we dont need more fat and loud americans