what i miss about the uk is: the smell of cut grass, chinese food,thats all!

You could always move to the Republic of Cyprus where you can still smell cut grass (in some places) and there's more than enough Chinese restaurants to shake a stick at.

Plus, you can travel backwards & forwards to UK in a reasonable time - not that we have since moving here in 2004.

Being an ex-pat is all a matter of choice on where you go, what you do when you get there and how you get on with it.

I concur with whinging Brits but luckily we don't really have any where we are but there are plenty on some of the forums I visit. It's one of the reasons we chose our location over another part of the Republic.

Moving to Cyprus has certainly given us food for thought and we don't think this will be our final destination. We're considering moving on in a few years when we have no animals to think of and only a couple of suitcases to keep an eye on!

We love our way of life and the freedom we have in a more relaxed environment. Even better is the fact we rent our property so don't have any worries about having to sell should we decide or even need to move on.

Some things you take for granted living in the UK, one of them being medical care and here, although we can get a reciprocal government care, most ex-pats pay privately for peace of mind.

However, one of our friends just had a malignant lump removed only the other week and has since found out that all oncology treatment in the Republic of Cyprus is free, which is a real relief for all of us who care about her.

My tip: do a lot of homework before you take the plunge, take lots of trips to find the place that's right for you and, if it doesn't work out - you can't say you didn't at least give it a go.

Lots of people dream about a place in the sun, but that's all they do.....

Life is too short to just dream!

Shell
Limassol, Cyprus

hi shell,
i do spend plenty of time in the roc but prefer to live up here in the trnc. we travelled all over cyprus before deciding to end up here. same as you probably won't be here for ever, but suits us for now. i could easily fly from larnaca but by the time i travel down the journey ends up about the same, so its a choice rearly of which airline is cheapest when i want to go. you had a good idea when you came to rent first so many people have come unstuck bying here both north and south. for me i have no worries i have a title deed and a legal one!
sounds like you also live in a village? for us its the best place we could have chosen, the new wimpy type homes estate just wasn't for us.
we have a dog hotel here and it suits us fine, never going to get rich but we get by. do you work in the south? if so how do you find it? i have good friends who are in larnaca, greek cyp friends so i don't take sides on racial issues.
have you ever visited the north?
i must go as i need to get ready to get off to ikea!( don't tell trnc customs)
speak soon,
regards sara.

Hi Sara

We are around 12km out of Limassol (West side of Limassol, near Kolossi).

Yes, I work - and have done since 2004. I have a great salary by Cypriot standards (€1300+ pm) and currently work Monday to Friday for an offshore online gaming company.

I've been visiting Cyprus since 1985 for holidays and my first trip into the north was winter 1992 when you still had to pay Cy£1 to have a piece of paper stamped from the south side.

We visit maybe 2 or 3 times a year, usually when we have visitors and also if we need to visit the philately office in the occupied part of Nicosia.

Sometimes we go to Kyrenia but getting a bit bored of it now as there are only so many places you can look at around the harbour and there's not much else once you get a couple of streets back from the resort.

We've been through at Ay Dometios, Ay Nik, Ledra Street and Ledra Palace all depending if we're going on foot or with our own transport. Costs for our double cab have gone crazy so we prefer to go via Ledra Street now.

We almost took a holiday there one year but were a bit miffed that the only proper hotel that was really in Kyrenia was the Dome at the time as the rest were all a number of km out from the harbour which didn't suit us. We don't like complex style hotels / resorts and that's one of the reasons we always shied away from longhaul all inclusive holidays. (Tried that once in Jamaica and it was exactly as we thought - never to be repeated).

Nowadays, it seems to be a mish mash of hotels / casinos and lots of building work. Not much different from the south in that respect except there are no land based casinos here Well, not legally anyway!

Around the same time, we made a conscious decision to move on a permanent basis to Cyprus so started to spend more and more holidays here and searching out the best location for us, bearing in mind we needed to work. At the time it was still only a dual carriageway and roundabouts so getting into Limassol could take a while in the rush hour/s. Now, it's fabulous - I can be home from the office inside 10 to 15mins.

If we were here and not working, well that would be a different story. We like the east side of the island for the rugged coastline around Cape Greko but would possibly consider a rental in the north too. However, we have animals and that's just not possible for us because of the laws in coming through the green line.

Our plans for the future will be somewhere either in Egypt (Luxor looks favourite) or a smaller island and preferably where we can see land or another island. There's a very nice island just of the coast of Turkey that has us intrigued (Kastellorizo - http://www.dodecanese-islands.com/eng/kastellorizo/eng_kastellorizo.html) and we hope to take a cruise there from Cyprus soon. We've also found quite a nice little place on Gozo (Malta) which we noticed rental accommodation is very reasonably priced.

We've found that being an ex-pat has given us a taste of the wanderlust and come the time when we don't need to work, we will most certainly be giving it a try!

Ikea? What's all that about then? Used to dread going to the one at Warrington on a weekend and have absolutely no intentions of visiting it here

Enjoy, but don't buy too much.

As a matter of interest, is it as strict on checking your purchases going back south to north like they do for us coming from north to south?

Shell
Limassol, Cyprus

Hi shell,
yes customs here are very strict. anything with ikea on it they will take off you. its some old law about not being allowed to shop from catalogue shops. nobody listens to the muppets anyway, we all just take our chances knowing if they catch us then we loose what ever we brought.
i can still remember when you could only cross at the walk through in nicosia, it took ages and neither side were that nice to you for wanting to do it. you had to be persistant. then walk through that street with houses riddled with bullet holes, pretty weird experence.
a journalist friend of mine has been inside varosa since the war, he was telling me about that and it sounds much the same. ( no he shouldn't have been in there) but the goverment here says one thing and everyone else just does another.
i haven't been to limassol for years. last time we went we sat at a cafe on the main coastal road, right at some traffic lights. just got a drink when a guy stopped on his mopped and a van came up too fast and splattered him. so it hasn't been fond memories, not that its limassols fault. i have some friends on face book in limassol so i am sure i will be back there shortly, when i get time that is.
what are they charging to bring your double cab across now? we also have a double cab and it 30 euros for a month for us to go south.
there us to be a nice hotel, 15 ish bungalows around a pool sort of thing here called santoria village, nothing posh but good place to stay. i haven't been intouch with them for a while and someone did say they though it had closed down. the only hotel i am hearing good things about at the moment is kaya artemis, which is in bafra, famagusta end of the island. turkish mainland owned and run, but on par with those in
turkey.
we live in a small turkish cyp village 10 mins from kyrenia/girne and the same from nicosia/lefkosa which suits us. must go speak soon, regards S

I've lived in Berlin for a while.

Pros:

V accessible city - cheap, international, not got the usual exclusivity that most capitals such as Paris and London have, so you truly feel part of the Berlin community
Culture - so much more culture than Britain...currently experiencing the run up to christmas which is just lovely! Great place for experiencing new things
V quick and easy to get home
Better weather, more seasonal - hotter in Summer and more snowy in Winter

Cons:

Poor job situation - long hours for little money
Home sickness, lack of home comforts, living away from your nearest and dearest...insecurity that comes with that
Having to form new relationships in a different language

Bobby wrote:

I've lived in Berlin for a while.

Culture - so much more culture than Britain...

Interesting comment, I'm not sure what you mean. Many of my german friends rave over the 'culture' that they experience on their visits to London and other areas in the UK..

I moved a little further afield, left for Singapore in 2004 and haven't looked back.

I think it's always going to be a little tough at first, because you can't help but miss your family and friends. But the good thing is that you'll be so busy with work and processing all kinds of new impressions and experiences that, really, before you know it, you've settled in.

And because of your friend-vacuum, new people come and quickly fill this void; i.e. you tend to make new friends quickly, not only because you're situation renders you more predisposed to wanting to meet new people, but also because locals find you interesting and want to know more about you. Before you know it, you've accumulated a little network of friends and friends of friends.

As for the good and the bad, there's plenty of both But the same applies back home. And here at least you don't feel like you're in a rut. It's still exciting and different every day. The surprise element, when certain scenes unfold in front of you that are quite normal here, but utterly unheard of back home, is alive and well. It makes for quite a few good giggles
The icing on the cake: Personal safety, political stability, the great weather, the awesome food.

I've actually started my own blog about our new life in Cyprus.

It's called Cyprus Life - in pictures.

Have a look and keep up to date with what's happening in Cyprus http://cypruslifeinpictures.wordpress.com

HolidayTruths gets a special mention too on this particular posting: http://cypruslifeinpictures.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/cyprus-tourist-organisation-cto-warns-against-non-existent-holiday-villas/

Cheers
Shell,
Limassol in sunny Cyprus.

My partner and I (we're both in our mid 40's) have a dream of retiring to Lanzarote. We have been many times on holiday and really do love it.

We probably wouldn't up sticks completely but rather buy somewhere and live out there for 4- 6 months or so still keeping a small apartment back here.

This is all talk of course at the moment as we have many years of work left ahead of us. I'm a teacher and my partner works as a health/safety & environment manager (he was in the army for 23 yrs so is a dab had at living abroad).

It's something we talk about...we shall see what happens.

Interesting to read everyones stories though

Lou

We live in Tenerife for the winter months and love the lifestyle in the Canaries.
The climate is superb, very temperate, unlike mainland Spain that is cold in winter.
The air is clean, amazing sunsets, beautiful sandy beaches, no civil unrest, no earthquakes, hurricanes or other climatic problems found in other parts of the world.
Hospital care excellent.
Still cheapish flights back to UK when needed.
We live in the South of the island and every day there is somewhere to go, a beach to walk along, a local bus to catch to a lovely village for local wine and tapas, plenty of traditions and fiestas at the drop of a hat.
Or karaoke and Brit bars if you want them, you can choose!
Organisations to join, plenty of friendly expats. you can live as cheaply as you want.
I think eventually we will live there for around 9 months of the year, we are fortunate as retired and we are finding it harder each year to leave the climate.
From where we are in Las Americas we are only 1 hour by bus to the capital, Santa Cruz for clothes shopping etc.
Plenty of trips to go on, inter island ferries if you want a change, bus to the North of the island if you want a long weekend in Puerto de La Cruz etc
Downside: Unfortunately, as in Spain there is a lot of unemployment, especially for young people, petty crime seems to be on the increase, paperwork interminable - thats really all I can think of.

My eldest grandson who is 23 hopes to move to Japan eventually. He is starting a degree course in Japanese stiudies in October as a mature student, having been deferred for a year, but has visited the country 5 times in the past 18 months, travelling round independently, in fact he only got back to the UK a couple of days ago, He has built up a good 'support network' of both Japanese and ex-pats and already has a fairly good command of the language.