Four On The Move

 Liverpool, June 2022   As mentioned in earlier posts, the pandemic has completely changed our plans of regular travels to Liverpool. When we were moving out of the UK, the next trip back was booked for just a few months later. It didn’t happen for 2.5 years. It’s been a long time and the links with the place have weakened a bit more that we would want to. Planning a trip back felt very emotional,   I was even imagining that I would burst into tears when I get to see our old house in Liverpool, now inhabited by someone else. I didn’t. Instead, I was beaming 😊 since I entered the plane in Krakow and was greeted by a flight attendant with a very strong scouse accent. We all couldn’t stop smiling, and kept telling each other how much we loved Liverpudlians. Walking through the streets of Liverpool made us feel like we had never left. Visiting our well – known places and spending time with old friends felt wonderful. It was also amazing how many acquaintances we me...

Visas, jobs, housing market, healthcare, pensions - there is so many formal things you need learn about your new country. There is even more to know when you move countries with kids - below is our subjective list of these things. The school and childcare system We moved to the UK when our daughter was two years old, so back then we were especially keen to know how the early years childcare system is organised. To our surprise, not very well - we can't say that the UK is a country friendly for families with young kids. The nurseries here are very pricey, compared to typical salaries. A full time nursery is more expensive than a monthly mortgage or even a university tuition fee! When kids turn three, they get some free nursery hours, so your bill is slightly smaller. There are also alternative childcare providers, such as childminders - it's something like a very small nursery in someone's house, but we weren't convinced with this solution. Putting our daughter in a nurs...

Budapest is just a six-hour drive from where we live, and we pass by it in many car journeys to the South of Europe, but the last time we visited it was more than a decade ago (no kids!), so we decided it was time to make it our destination for a short winter break. In the last couple of (pandemic) years we happened to travel only in the high season, and it was a nice change to visit various places without the usual crowds and have some space to breathe in the city’s atmosphere. At the end of November, the Christmas season was only starting, with the Christmas markets and an outdoor ice rink opening that weekend, so the city was vibrant and lively enough, but without the overwhelming crowds. Buda – castle hill Into a long stroll with some of the most picturesque city views? Then the Buda Castle grounds are for you. Cobblestone streets will bring you to the Fisherman Bastion, likely the first spot you’d be looking for. From there, you get the scenic views of the Pest part of the c...

Photo credit: Ricardo Torres, instagram: @rtowers141 When we left Liverpool, we expected it to be a place that we will visit regularly, a place that will still be present in our lives. Back then, we couldn’t imagine that we wouldn’t be able to come back for even a short visit for almost two years. Even though it’s no longer our home, there will always be people and places that we miss and want to meet and see again. To compensate for not being able to visit, I started to make a list of those memories.  I miss dropping off my daughter at school and being greeted by teachers, other parents and kids in a way that made me feel part of the community.  I miss our tiny cute English house, with a garden bigger than the house itself.  I miss having dinner with my international friends.  I miss being in the same meeting room with colleagues from all over the world: Africa, Asia and Europe.  I miss the Cheshire countryside in summertime.  The Saturday cinema mornings ...

It seems that Croatia is our pandemic holiday destination – we decided to go back to the same place that we went the year before, and this is a new thing for us to do. You can read about our last year’s travel here . Croatia has it all, beaches, nature, amazing historical and cultural heritage. I don’t think you can ever be bored in here, even coming two years in a row, there is always new places to see and new things to do. So what was new this time? Cities and towns Trogir This seems to be a rule now that every coastal town of Croatia we visit for the first time leaves us in awe and all we want to do is to wonder on its old narrow streets, wherever they take us. Last year we felt like this about Sibenik, and you can read about our impressions here . Of course, this time we visited Sibenik again, and decided to drive a bit further to Trogir, expecting a similar Mediterranean charm. We made no mistake, Trogir, with its old town on an island, made us equally (or perhaps even more)...

The Brexit referendum was a big trigger of this question. The anti-immigrant propaganda created by some, so-called, media and a particular group of politicians did the job. It gave permission to be open about one’s intolerance towards immigrants. The media reported cases of assaults towards immigrants. Clearly, not a friendly environment? But there is this friendliness which I described in Be nice and carry on .  What is the true picture then? Like any question which suggest that we speak about a nation as a whole, this one is also impossible to answer. We can only describe our own subjective experiences as immigrants in Britain, and recognise that these experiences can be different for others. One thing you can tell for sure is that the British society is very diverse and represents people of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Our feeling is that it is easier for immigrants to settle in such societies than in the homogenous ones. However, also within Britain you will fin...

Heath care The health care during your pregnancy is free under the NHS – National Health Service. You will regularly (but not too often) see a midwife, who will do an interview, check your blood pressure, test your urine sample, measure your bump and a few times refer you to get your basic blood tests. If everything seems fine, you will most probably not even see a doctor for the whole pregnancy. The frequency of midwife appointments increases towards the end of the pregnancy. Note that you are not examined gynecologically during your appointments. Scans are done twice – around week 12 and half-way through your pregnancy. If you have pregnancy experiences from another country, you will notice some tests that are routinely offered to pregnant women there, might not be offered here, which is due to costs they would create for the NHS. One of them is GBS, for which pregnant women in most European countries are routinely tested towards the end of their pregnancy. You can arrange to h...