Emigration Fair

Back in Holland, we attended the annual emigration fair.  Such an event sounds a little strange, but the Dutch love to travel and so many decide to leave their little country for good, that there´s always a big attendance.  

We were already planning on going to mid-southern France next but thought we might take a peek at what other countries had on offer.  The exhibition halls were full of stalls representing various countries, housing developments, moving companies, insurances and other services.  We had been warned to watch out for the Finns.  Michiel´s sister told us that in the past, they were so eager to have Dutch people re-populate the emptying small villages that if you passed by their stall, they´d nearly grab you and pull you in for a conversation.  This year, the torch had apparently been handed over to the Swedes, who stepped into the aisle, looked Michiel in the face and said "would you like to live in Sweden?"  We escaped quickly.  I´m sure Sweden is beautiful but we are looking for a place with a climate less like Alaska´s.

If that´s the case, why did we stop in at the Norwegian stall?  Was it because we´ve been watching a silly reality program with famous Dutch and Flemish TV stars competing against each other to reach 71 degrees latitude in Norway?  Well....not really....but we DO love Alaska and really miss the nature, the long summer days, the wilderness and the space.  We also have a feeling that in terms of culture and mentality, the Norwegians are probably more of what we´re looking for than small-town Frenchmen or Spaniards.  But to choose to live in one of the most expensive countries in the world and learn a difficult language that is spoken by only 5 million people and has NO official spoken form (meaning everyone speaks a local dialect) is a little nuts.  However, it was hard to deny the very upbeat, energetic young Dutch woman staffing the stall, whose sole job is to encourage and assist Dutch people in moving to and getting started in a region of Norway called Telemark (where that type of skiing originates).  To make our resistance even weaker, she enticed us with a seemingly perfect opportunity - running an operational hostel with a view to increasing appeal to foreigners and adding guided tours and other extras.  It sounded right up our alley.  Sadly, the business owner was already in discussions with 2 other couples who had started to learn Norwegian.  Easy come - easy go.

Elsewhere at the fair, the Massif Central area of France was very well represented and had an impressive offer for people looking to relocate there.  They have a dedicated English-speaking representative who can assist matching up businesses for sale with appropriate buyers.  They also offer free lodging and financial assistance to people who are coming to the region to seriously look for homes or businesses to buy.  We took copies of the abundant literature available on the region and noted down web addresses, etc. so that when we head off to our first host in France, we´ll know what´s available and where we should focus our energies.