I left a western European country (think sunset at 16:30 in December) for a southern European country. I'm visiting my family for the holidays, and it just feels very strange to be back here.

I now live in a city, and the contrast with the urban sprawl in my previous country is almost jarring. Car dependency is also quite high, while I mostly walk around where I live now.

For people who experienced similar situations, did you find any way to deal with it? I'm only here for a few weeks, so it's fine, but I guess I just wanted to see if someone has any tip.

It also probably means I made a good decision to move where I live now.

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[–] horsey@lemm.ee 15 points 11 months ago

Do you need advice on coping with it? Sounds like an interesting experience. I haven’t lived in different countries but have lived in many different areas of the US. The southwest, south, Midwest, Pacific Northwest and New England vary a significant amount culturally in addition to the differences between rural and urban areas. I don’t have any real advice but I suppose have had similar experiences… I grew up in a very car centric SW city, basically nothing but houses and strip malls like a mini LA, and thought it was great… I loved driving around and exploring the grid of traffic. However decades later I realized I wouldn’t enjoy living there at all and much prefer towns like central Eugene, OR where you can walk to everything you need within a few blocks.