Cabled internet not WIFI

Safety and crime very much depends where in the UK one is. Our UK house is in a commuter belt town not far from London, which appears on internet lists of good low crime places to live near London. My husband left the front door ajar while in the side garden, no more than twenty feet from the door but out of sight from the porch. He went back into the house to find someone in the living room looking for things to steal! We've three locked up bicycles stolen, plants stolen, garden hoses stolen, a car vandalised. I feel far safer in the Bulgarian house!

Sweden -- beautiful houses can be found at surprisingly low prices. But the cost of living is high and Sweden is a big country, sparsely populated outside the cities. You may find that the lower cost properties are in very remote villages, possibly those areas where grain is being stockpiled in case of problems. Before I bought our Bulgarian house, my husband ( who speaks some Swedish) set his heart on a superb Swedish property he found online, until I showed him where it was on the map!

Thanks Jane

i know what you mean about the swedish houses being in remote villages, but some of them listed are within the bottom quarter of sweden which is where gothenberg and stockholm are.

A few other plus points about sweden -

96% broadband coverage, low electricty and petrol prices, low car tax prices, 0.75% low property taxes, universal healthcare, no inheritance tax,

There must be some sort of catch with the prices on homestra dot com though? Like is it a monthly rent price or something 🤔

as theres some absolutely ridiculously low prices for properties with big gardens in paradise locations.

I was reading on reddit recently of a Brit who went to live in sweden and learnt some swedish beforehand to help, and they said their colleague said i dont know why you bothered learning swedish because everyone speaks english!

I looked at Sweden some years ago - the taxes are ridiculous and property prices are very steep in the cities, where the amenities are. Also, crime in most Nordic countries is pretty high, with (mostly immigrant) gangs allowed free rein, and native populism seems to be on the rise in response.

I recommend "Black Swan", a Norwegian documentary, to anyone who's tempted by the region - it might well give you pause for thought...

Safety and crime very much depends where in the UK one is. Our UK house is in a commuter belt town not far from London, which appears on internet lists of good low crime places to live near London. - @janemulberry

I have just been out for a walk to a local coffee shop with my sweet lady wife. To get there we have to pass a shop that retails using online market places such as Shopee.

Their last lot of parcels to send were piled up outside the shop (awaiting the van that picks them up) where anyone could just walk off with a few and nobody would be any the wiser.

However, nobody ever does.

@digitalnomad1

I think the house price question is one for the Swedish forum as they'll know the website and what prices should be.

Thank god for my EU passport it's such a blessing.

I find being a well spoken English speaking native so lucky and it carries so much respect in Europe, just think of some Europeans who need to learn 3+ languages to get by in places like Belgium and Switzerland and near borders.

The passports I'd value most outside Europe are - Australia/NZ and Canada but will never get them.

In Europe I think within the British isles Ireland is the best place to live.

And within the EU Sweden and Bulgaria are the top contenders for me as a home worker.

The EU countries that have done best in protecting their borders I think are Poland Hungary Croatia and Bulgaria.

Portugal isn't too far behind Bulgaria for me.

But I'll probably go to Ireland Sweden or Bulgaria, not sure which just yet, time will tell.

Yuletide greetings to everyone. 👍

@digitalnomad1

I'm not sure if you're getting the point (or at least one of the main points) of being a Digital Nomad, as per your handle. :-) That is you work remotely for employers in HIGH INCOME locations (e.g. UK, USA, etc.) but hang out in INEXPENSIVE locations where your savings and Nomadic income will go the furthest.

If you're a specialist tech guy raking in $200k in your jammies, then you can go anywhere you fancy, including Sweden. But I'd guess that high living costs, high taxes, high social security, high utilities... coupled with long, dark winters would put it pretty far down the list of desirable options, regardless of how tempting these "bargains" in the middle of nowhere are. If you're earning a more typical Nomad's low-ish salary, then I'd suggest you stop looking at cheap Swedish property right now! :-) And focus more on those countries known for their low living costs and appeal to Digital Nomads (e.g. Bulgaria, Bali, Thailand, Portugal, Georgia, Colombia, etc.).

Once upon a time, i too was tempted by a "bargain" property in the former East Germany. It was a huge beamed townhouse overlooking the fountain in the town square,. with a 2nd house (the town's former Meeting House) at the back, overlooking the small river... and next to a famous long-distance trail through famous forests. I imagined that it had huge potential (in fairness, it probably did), but... the place was cold and miserable, as were my East German neighbours. And it cost a small fortune to light/heat the place, and exorbitant wages to get local Meisters to tile, plumb, paint or any other renovation work. In short... a total nightmare, and I took a huge loss to get outta Dodge (i.e. Finding the Greater Fool is pretty tough these days with plentiful info online about everywhere/everything). I never went back, and 99.9% sure I never will. :-)

PS Might good to start a new topic if you want to talk about Sweden and/or desirable low-cost locations. We're pretty far off the "cabled internet" track. :-)

@digitalnomad1

"The EU countries that have done best in protecting their borders I think are Poland Hungary Croatia and Bulgaria."?

Protecting their borders against what? I assume you're NOT talking about ragtag immigrants like us? 😎

Central Sofia is awash with "illegal immigrants", many awaiting their suitably-remunetated police enablers to provide onward transport to more attractive countries. The best protection the Bulgarian border has is that no one crossing it clandestinely has any intention of staying a minute longer than necessary 😂

@digitalnomad1
"The EU countries that have done best in protecting their borders I think are Poland Hungary Croatia and Bulgaria."?
Protecting their borders against what? I assume you're NOT talking about ragtag immigrants like us? 😎

- @JimJ

Can add Austria and Germany to that list. They have had border controilds in place for a few years.

Thanks guys

I need to do more research and I too thought Scandinavia was very expensive until yesterday when an hour's research revealed these benefits of Sweden -

Petrol, electricity and car road tax rates cheaper than England,

Universal healthcare/ free NHS,

Everyone more or less speaks good English,

0.75% annual property tax - pretty good if your Christmas card worthy wooden house is valued at £12k

No inheritance tax,

96% broadband coverage,

Now I need to find out about food prices and supermarkets, but as a hermit I don't eat out much or drink so don't see why my loaf of wholemeal bread 1kg of porridge oats cocoa powder fruit and vegetable lifestyle would cost that much.

Add in a probable fireplace and lots of free wood and heating should be very affordable even in cold winters.

As a law abiding person I have no issues at all with legal migration.

Bon voyage! 😁

@digitalnomad1

If you're Irish, I guess you have an EU passport, which means you can go hang out in Sweden for any reason at all. So you can easily check it out for a couple of months. The residence permit for EU citizens is typically fairly straightforward in most EU countries, even if you're not working (i.e. you provide proof of address, proof of health insurance, proof of sufficient finances to support yourself). The first and last are both potentially fairly inexpensive, so the main issue would be how much private health insurance costs there per year, and if/how you can make voluntary contributions to the public healthcare system (and how much they are). Or perhaps you can use your Irish EHIC/S1.

Yes my irish passport is a beautiful thing.

Yes the healthcare system is free / universal in Sweden like the UK, though one may have to pay for a GP visit. So private health insurance isn't needed.

Perhaps car tax and insurance are a bit more expensive than i thought but won't be worse than the UK or ireland. It's starting again with zero years NCB thats the problem, when i have 20 years in England!

There's aldi and lidl in sweden, with comparable food prices to maybe germany, slightly more expensive than UK i think.

On reddit someone moved from holland to germany and said to re-register their car open bank account complete all the formalities etc can be done in one day.

Edit a previous post, i wouldn't ever move to portugal i'd consider northern spain better all around.

For me no place in the world is ideal in every way. It's about trying to make the best of life within the limits of the geographical world and financial and social systems i was born into.

Whats important is a nice enough house on a decent plot of land, to enjoy life more than england at a fraction of the price, and ireland sweden spain slovenia bulgaria all present these opportunites. England / UK is just not an option which is sad for all us natives looking to escape ASAP! Ideally we'd all been born in prosperous surroundings with an abundance of opportunity and everything we'll ever need. For many and increasingly so england isn't that place, and hasn't been since when things began changing drastically around 1971.

@digitalnomad1 "The EU countries that have done best in protecting their borders I think are Poland Hungary Croatia and Bulgaria."?Protecting their borders against what? I assume you're NOT talking about ragtag immigrants like us? 😎Central Sofia is awash with "illegal immigrants", many awaiting their suitably-remunetated police enablers to provide onward transport to more attractive countries. The best protection the Bulgarian border has is that no one crossing it clandestinely has any intention of staying a minute longer than necessary 😂 - @JimJ

If people enter a country legally with the appropriate documentation and visas they are not breaking the law.

Many people from outside europe enter europe legally on tourist or student visas and then claim asylum.

But wanting a better life is not a valid enough reason for claiming asylum, the law makes that clear.

"AI Overview

What Happens When You Claim Asylum – Right to Remain

No, simply wanting a better life, economic opportunities, or escaping general hardship isn't enough for asylum; you must prove a "well-founded fear of persecution" due to specific reasons like race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group, as defined by the UNHCR, to qualify for asylum under international law like the 1951 Refugee Convention.

What Valid Reasons Are:

Persecution: You must show you're targeted or fear being targeted for reasons like:

Race

Religion

Nationality

Political Opinion

Membership in a specific social group (e.g., based on gender, sexual orientation).

Well-Founded Fear: You need evidence of past persecution or a genuine, reasonable fear of future persecution for these reasons.

Why "Better Life" Isn't Enough:

Economic Hardship: General poverty or lack of opportunity isn't considered persecution under asylum laws, although it's a major driver for migration.

Not a Protected Ground: Wanting a better life, better education, or better jobs doesn't align with the specific criteria (race, religion, etc.) required for refugee status, note GOV.UK and European Union Agency for Asylum.

In Summary:

To claim asylum successfully, you need to prove your home country can't or won't protect you from serious harm related to one of the five protected grounds, not just that you'd prefer life elsewhere. "

@digitalnomad1

Lucky you having an Irish passport! I'd been told all my life my grandfather was Irish so assumed I'd have no problem. Turns out he was born in Liverpool! No wonder despite scouring Irish birth records I couldn't find him.

It sounds to me as if you need to stop theorising about various countries and do some travelling! Which of the countries you've mentioned have you visited so far?

Christmas blessings to you!

I think that's a fairly antiquated view in 2025, with the internet one can learn all one needs and just go there knowing quite accurately what one has signed up for. One doesn't need to travel beforehand. Save money.

I'm just going to flip some coins and go where the results take me and buy a house there hopefully before I set off and hope it all turns out groovy.

Seasons greetings to everyone have a good time 💝

Ah, I see. You are a virtual digital nomad, you haven't actually travelled anywhere yet. How very meta.

I hope you find a suitable location where the internet really has told you all you need to know, and it works out for you! I'm a little more sceptical about the veracity of the internet and being happily antiquated, prefer reality.

Yes you're probably right.

I chose the name as it was the first one i quickly thought of after realising i needed to choose a username.

but digitalhermit might have been better.

I can walk around any city or national park on youtube, or google maps, the world has fewer surprises in these internet days for thoroughly researched and prepared people.

I'm just glad all those hard working cable installation and maintenance people provide the internet for us across Europe with such good coverage. I look forward to a solid FTTP connection for the first time soon hopefully.

Merry Christmas all

😊

Digital Hermit, i love that choice of name! I think we all are to some extent, or we wouldn't be online. I agree there's a wonderful amount of information available, and my experience has been that there can still be surprises.

Vesela koleda!

Thanks.

TBF perhaps a Fibre Through To Premises internet connection is a little ambitious living out in the sticks and I'll have to settle for a fibre to the cabinet connection. Which will be better than ADSL which I hope and expect not to have to revert back to.

Though I think I only upgraded to fibre to cabinet from ADSL on my last deal in 2021  so anything is possible. But by then the ADSL was very reliable but the fibre to cabinet made it super reliable. But at the library the FTTP connection is unreliable (virgin).

What I found was from 2mb ADSL to fibre to cabinet the speeds are apparently getting quicker and generally the connection became more reliable over time but just browsing the internet webpages didn't seem to load any quicker so it doesn't make much difference in my experience.

Apparently the technology exists in at least one format for super reliable internet without all the cables and roadworks or potentially harmful WiFi frequencies but "they" don't give us it. And it wouldn't surprise me if in another 10 years they're digging up all the roads again to upgrade the existing cables while still not providing the top drawer technology.they won't give us all.

Basically for me as a realist -

on this earth nowhere is perfect to live- temperature seasons climate politics finances society etc wise.

But we have to do our best somewhere to get on with it as best we can.

Ireland<300 miles, Sweden <900 miles, Bulgaria 1800 miles. All with their pluses and minuses.

Bulgaria as someone pointed out the villages are generally pretty uniform in their layouts few houses more than 100 metres from the nearest neighbour. Possibly because of sharing the utilities grid, all formed in the communist era.

But I'm putting Bulgaria in 3rd place overall due to distance, excess summer heat, the alphabet, the lesser spoken English language, and so many knock me down houses for sale which give the illusion of affordable housing but anything half decent costs significantly more.

Australia or NZ would be my best choice in a free world. Canada too cold weather and cold kills far many more people than hot weather.

So yes I've also got Spain Germany Austria Slovenia with their plus points.

Is Sweden too cold?

The landscape and nature is probably the nicest. The people pretty and English well speaking.

Who knows where I'll end up, ultimately in the next world.

Travel light but I like many people now own so much stuff. The good news is I've got 85% of all the stuff I'll ever need I just need a place called home to put it now and at least all my stuff cost under £3k. I certainly don't want any expensive stuff. Mostly bargains with a useful purpose but it just takes up so much space. And I didn't really need 5 coats and 5 electric guitars.

Ideally I want to get offline as much as possible too, living in a place more practical than the bursting at the seams overpriced UK.

The UK isn't all bad in my experience, very good NHS, well trained reasonable police, excellent shopping but one can only buy so much stuff, it's a very social country etc

The UK is a place for shopping and buying stuff in my experience so many cluttered houses. There's not much else to do that's where the bright lights lead - the shops, eBay!

Time will soon tell.

But thanks for answering my internet question

I think I too will unofficially start celebrating the new year on April 1st like on the Julian calendar, for me it makes so much more sense that spring is the new year cycle

✔️👍💝🙏

I'm glad you're feeling more clarity about what you need. You're very blessed that having an Irish passport gives you a lot more choices. I hope you find what you're looking for.

I think Ireland is the safest and sensible choice overall. Far from perfect but better than Britain. The same mother tongue and a good welfare state to fall back on in hard times.

Sweden there's the risk of forest fires.

Six months winters would be more tolerable if one didn't have to go to work every morning or drive the kids to school.

The cold / ice is dangerous I saw a video of an expert saying in America 75% of people 65+ die within 3 months from other complications after breaking a hip tibia or femur bone. The video was probably from the 1990s but I was shocked by the statistic.

👊🙏✔️

Ireland<300 miles, Sweden <900 miles, Bulgaria 1800 miles. All with their pluses and minuses.

Bulgaria as someone pointed out the villages are generally pretty uniform in their layouts few houses more than 100 metres from the nearest neighbour. Possibly because of sharing the utilities grid, all formed in the communist era.

But I'm putting Bulgaria in 3rd place overall due to distance, excess summer heat, the alphabet, the lesser spoken English language, and so many knock me down houses for sale which give the illusion of affordable housing but anything half decent costs significantly more.

✔️👍💝🙏 - @digitalnomad1

Gosh, it must be exhausting living what seems to be such a stream of consciousness existence: my suspicion is that you will undoubtedly end up living in Ireland - and almost certainly in Dublin, emulating Leopold Bloom! 😎

I must confess that your reasons for placing Bulgaria in the Bronze Medal spot seem a little opaque to me. I assume that the "distance" you mention is measured from your current location, but I - and many others - have long since discovered that once you move here everywhere in Bulgaria somehow seems so much closer, and time seems to move more slowly; I often imagine (after a glass or two of rakiya) that Uncle Albert had the Balkans in mind when he came up with Special Relativity...😁

"Excess summer heat" is again relative - there are plenty of places to avoid unpleasantly high summer temperatures (and mitigate similarly unpleasant low winter ones): the Black Sea  coast is one such, with Varna being slightly cooler/greener, and Burgas slightly warmer/drier. Nearby towns like Sveti Vlas are famous for a specific microclimate where mountain and sea air meet, and often recommended for people with respiratory issues. Karlovo and Kazanlak benefit from the mountains to the north, which block the worst of the winter weather, and their, albeit modest, elevation and proximity to forested slopes help to keep summer temperatures manageable. Likewise, the slopes of Vitosha, and even places like Samokov, offer clean air and cooler summers; on the down-side, the winters are fairly cold but it's a dry cold, which is much more manageable and indeed bracing.

While it's true that the Bulgarian Alphabet(s) issue is indeed a bit of a pain in the proverbial at first, it really doesn't take very long to learn to distinguish between them, even for an Old F@rt like me! It's hardly much of a trade-off in exchange for a more affordable and congenial lifestyle, and learning the local language isn't such a great ordeal.  Indeed, it's more in the nature of an earnest of good faith: we incomers are showing that we're prepared to become a part of our host country, rather than a perpetual outsider expecting our hosts to put up with our expectation that they will always be the ones to accommodate our laziness. Bulgarian really isn't hugely difficult to learn if one puts one's mind to it; village people often have fairly small vocabularies and speak pretty ungrammatically anyway, so don't be afraid to make a linuistic fool of yourself - you'll soon be one of the In-crowd!

As for the "illusion" of affordable housing, I'd suggest that it's anything but - most of the neighbours in "our" village live in properties that we more spoiled folks might regard as "knock 'em down"; I'd hesitate to say that they "live more happily" but they certainly get by reasonably well.  Unfortunately, there's always going to be a big price gap between a modest village house in poor condition and the Chav Chauteau  (often with a frightful, but apparently absolutely de rigueur swimming pool) favoured by some immigrants. It doesn't change the fact that there are plenty of perfectly pleasant already-renovated properties for sale here at very affordable, and reasonable, prices.  Yes, the days of the "House in the Sun" type of incredible bargains are pretty much gone for good but everything's more expensive nowadays, and Baba simply can't afford to live if she sells her house for peanuts...

Don't give up on BG - but do reflect on your priorities, and ask yourself whether accepting a challenge may not be a good way to remind yourself that you're still alive and that you still have unexploited capabilities...😎

No I wouldn't dream of living in Dublin Belfast Cork or any city or large town it's far too expensive and I need the countryside.

Yes like I said Bulgaria has it's plus points and I rate it higher than France Spain Portugal Poland Italy etc so it's not doing bad in my book!

Ultimately the reality is I'm going from one imperfect situation to another hopefully less imperfect situation whichever I choose that I know will be hard work and a still a chore and bureaucracy in many ways.

It's not like there's any paradise places anywhere on the earth I have access to with or without my UK or EU passports where I can live a perfect free life to my preferences.

That's the reality, it is what it is, earth isn't no heaven it's hard work and freedom is becoming less and less the world over day by day overall.

PLEASE

Stop derailing the current topic; if it differs from the original topic, then start a new thread.

No chance of that now, they've left!

@GuestPoster5763

I also work online and have lived in 2 rural places in Bulgaria so far. Never had any problem with the wifi, but if you want to make 100 % sure you can always buy an additional mobile router with a monthly fee so you're covered even when you're not at home. I would not bother with trying to install cable as the owner won't deal with the hassle for a 6 month rent. Hope this helps

Well, nice to see that we're back on topic at last! 😁

It seems that some of our members are still living in the days of the quill pen when it comes to technology. If you have an even halfway decent electrical installation in your house, you already have the cable infrastructure you need to run your internet/digital TV. Just buy some Power line/Homeplug (different names for the same thing) kit and you're in business. If you're renting, you just take it with you when you move. Installation is a piece of cake: just plug the adapters into any convenient power sockets and connect the ethernet socket(s) to your router/PC/WHY. Modern ones all have pass-through electric sockets, so you don't lose an electric point....