Portugal, Greece or Switzerland? Americans on the pros and cons of moving to Europe
By Maureen O’Hare, CNN
(CNN) — In our roundup of travel news this week, what five Americans discovered when they left the States for new lives in Europe. Plus Mongolian throat singing, Portuguese big waves, and a Greek vacation romance that lasted through the ages.
Living the dream
Packing up and moving to a new country is an alluring dream for many, but relocation is always a delicate balance of pros and cons. CNN regularly talks with people who’ve done it. Here’s what five Americans who relocated to Europe had to say about how it worked out for them.
Retiree Paula Dreyfuss, who swapped San Diego for the Portuguese city of Porto five years ago, loves that she can now afford vacations several times a year and restaurant meals multiple times a week. She finds the locals “so warm and so nice” and loves feeling safe enough to be comfortable walking alone at night.
The downsides, she says, are the bureaucracy and learning a new language: “Nothing is perfect.” Read more.
Jeffrey Davidson and Walter Zak were approaching 60 when they decided to move from Florida to the Peloponnese region of Greece.
“We lived in the land of make-believe,” Davidson says of their former home near Walt Disney World. “Now we stumble over ruins that are several thousand years old in every direction.”
They love Greece’s “wonderful chaotic energy” but admit the transition would have been harder if they’d left it until later in life, as they “still have a lot of learning time.”
“We still have issues here with earthquakes and wildfires,” says Zak, and “Greece will still get a little colder than we’re used to.” Read more.
In a story for CNN subscribers, Emily and Robert Toole shared how they moved to Switzerland more than a decade ago, after Emily was offered a job in Geneva.
Even though she arrived with a foothold in the work world, the first year was “horrible,” according to Emily. She found it difficult to adapt and build connections.
“There’s no welcoming committee,” agrees Robert, saying that Swiss people tend to “keep to themselves.”
Today, though, they’re happy and settled, and they think the outdoorsy lifestyle of hiking and swimming is the best environment to raise their five children. Read why they changed their mind.
Trouble in the air
A disruptive passenger was restrained with flexible handcuffs and duct-taped to his seat last week, forcing his American Airlines flight from Dallas to Newark to be diverted to make an emergency landing in Baltimore. Watch scenes from the incident in this video.
A Delta Air Lines flight was also diverted last month, but due to crew illness. A pilot landed a Boston-bound flight in Detroit, after saying he was ill and needed to go to the hospital.
A shocking incident in which a passenger was reportedly sucked partly out of a shattered window made global headlines in July. Michael O’Leary, the outspoken CEO of budget airline Ryanair, this week disputed the injured man’s version of events, while conceding that he was “certainly sucked in very dramatic circumstances towards the window.”
Live long and prosper
Two men on opposites sides of the world make the case for embracing physical activity as we age.
A 91-year-old man has become the oldest hiker to complete the 2,193-mile-long Appalachian Trail, which runs between Georgia and Maine, becoming a social media star in the process.
Dale Sanders, trail name “Gray Beard,” was born in 1935, two years before the trail was even completed, and holds numerous other age-related records, including becoming the oldest person to paddle the entire length of the Mississippi River.
In Japan, Katsunori Oba – a relative whippersnapper at 61 – has become a viral hit through his unusual style of long-distance running, which he says is how Japanese people may have run hundreds of years ago, during the Edo period. Watch here.
In the six-part CNN Original series “Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta,” Gupta travels around the world as he searches for the secret to living a longer, healthier and happier life. CNN subscribers can stream it here.
Epic waves
Nazaré, Portugal, is home to some of the world’s biggest waves, attracting surfers from around the world each winter. The reason lies deep below the water’s surface, in the form of Europe’s largest underwater canyon.Watch here.
In case you missed it
A major tech debut. A weather milestone. A moment of remembrance.
What do you remember from the week that was?
He thought he’d never see his 1985 Greek vacation fling again.
Then he felt a tap on the shoulder.
You’ve never heard singing like this.
Watch to see where you can witness a unique music tradition.
This was the hottest US summer on record.
And there’s more on the way.
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