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[Hanslanda]

Would you consider Canada?
Because I recommend Canada.

Don't listen to him, this is a trap. Canada is a deathland filled with Polar-Grizzly Hybrid Bears and stray daemons from when the whole nation was annihilated in holy fire when they legalized gay universal health stamps. Except for Quebec. We don't talk about what happened in Quebec.

I'm moving to Canada. Daemons make great neighbors.

[scriver]

Swedish summers is too hot for me. I would go further north, but the damn mosquitos. The damn mosquitos man. Also the saunas.

I also think Osmosis' taste for cold beer might go down a bit in the winter as well, though. Might find himself more drawn to the variety of heated wine, like we natives do

[GreatJustice]

The national languages of Estonia are Swedish and Estonian though, which to my knowledge are both pretty horrific (Estonian is closely linked to Finnish, which is the absolute last language you'd want it to be closely linked to).

A very large number of Estonians speak English, though. Russian will also probably get you through (though you'll have to suffer dirty looks aplenty)

---

-> Canada

Well, this is a topic I'm quite knowledgeable about since I am Canadian! Anyhoo:

+ People are somewhat more polite than in the US (in small towns, though; people in the cities are often extremely rude and unpleasant in my experience)
+ Cold weather (if you're into that sort of thing, which I am)
+ No PATRIOT Act, NDAA, TSA, etc
+ No internet censorship (yet; with Harper in power, I'm not sure how long that will last)
+ Beautiful landscapes (especially northern Ontario, BC and Alberta, though for the love of god don't move to Saskatchewan if this is your thing)
+ Not much danger of being drafted compared to the US
+ We speak English
+ High quality maple syrup (not that stuff you get from Vermont)

- Stephen Harper's a crazed pro-American goon on all the wrong issues (read: foreign policy, deporting people)
- Canadian politics is composed of three major parties, none of which are any good:
* A sleazy party that will say or do anything to get elected and damn the national consequences (Liberals)
* A sleazy party that will say or do anything to get elected and has a tendency towards wars, prisons, tax cuts and sucking up to Americans (Conservatives)
* A not especially sleazy party (with sleazy members, such as Svend Robinson) that makes outlandish promises, follows through on some of them, and utterly screws things up by being generally incompetent (NDP)
-Bagged milk is NOT, as some would claim, the only kind of milk in Canada. In fact, it only really exists in Ontario so far as I know. However, it must be getting a subsidy in Ontario or something because cartons are almost twice the price for half the volume of milk which is nonsense because bags of milk are unwieldy and unfun
-Some really obnoxious people that tend to breed in big cities (those environmentalists who scream about "MANS RAPE OF THE ENVIRONMENT" or those rich smug people bragging about their "SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY", especially in Vancouver and Toronto)
-Don't go to Quebec, speaking English (or speaking French with an English accent) outside of Montreal will get you spat on and laughed at
-/+ Healthcare is a bit of a mixed bag compared to the US, as how sick you are will determine which system works better for you. If you aren't sick at all, the American system is probably preferable as you'll be paying for everyone else's medication in Canada. If you're a bit sick or you break some bones or need stitches or what have you then the Canadian system is generally preferable since lazy surgeons often prioritize simple things to fill up their work quota, meaning you won't have to wait too long for treatment and won't have to pay either, the same applying to basic medication (exception: some places, like Nova Scotia, are lacking doctors and actually have major shortages so avoid them at all costs). If you're have an emergency situation but it isn't something unusual and is just basic surgery, Canadian is PROBABLY better since the costs in the US might be extortionate, but there is the odd chance you'll actually not be admitted and have to be put on a waiting list. If you have an exotic condition, a tricky problem, or a condition requiring more expensive surgery (especially heart surgery), American is better since in Canada you either will have to wait months or won't get it at all (though it may be very expensive in the US). Similarly, if it needs equipment like CT scanners, American is preferable since Canada rations those out most of the time.

Also, if you want to leave the US without leaving the attitudes, etc behind, go to Alberta. The Albertans are a weird bunch and are very American in nature, so you might like them if that's your thing.

[Osmosis Jones]

Swedish summers is too hot for me. I would go further north, but the damn mosquitos. The damn mosquitos man. Also the saunas.

I also think Osmosis' taste for cold beer might go down a bit in the winter as well, though. Might find himself more drawn to the variety of heated wine, like we natives do

Well, mulled wine is delicious, and last night we fought off some cold weather with a hot buttered rum/spices cocktail (seriously, if you're ever in Melb, go to Madame Brussels), but a cool beer is still tasty next a raging fire

[Jervill]

Also, when it comes to cold weather, there is nothing more awesome than a bar made entirely from ice.  Not sure if you have those over there, though.

[Svarte Troner]

Also, when it comes to cold weather, there is nothing more awesome than a bar made entirely from ice.  Not sure if you have those over there, though.

Speaking of which, the annual ice hotel in Lappland, Finland, sounds like an awesome place:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think they may have at least one in Sweden too.

[Starver]

Very little mention (once, briefly, on the first page?) for the UK.  Blighty, Limeyland, for some of you possibly where your Pilgrim ancestors came from, when they were fed up of the religious freedoms enjoyed here?

I'm not saying it's going to be brilliant.  The weather can be... Well, British.  (Floods and hail and stuff, the other day, meanwhile I'm just recovering from sunburn after one particular day in short-sleeves and no appropriate clothing/slap-on preparation.  We actually have more tornadoes than you do, but admittedly they're smaller fry.  We're located at 50-odd degrees north of the equator, but thanks to your kind provision of the Stream from the Gulf, it doesn't tend to feel like it.  Until and unless the Jet Stream wanders south and we're struck with colder weather than we expect.  At which point those in London see half an inch of snow and tremble in fear at the breakdown of society, while those in the North of England and Scotland... just get on with things.  Or so it seems!)  The cuisine, likewise.  (Really, we like importing things.  Including fries.  Despite having chips.   Which are nothing like crisps.  And what's all this "English Muffin" thing?  Apart from possibly something to look for on PornTube or similar... )  A lot of the TV and an almost overwhelming majority of the films are American, so very little change there, except, of course, that we have a few originals that were so good that they took and redid in the US to... varying acclaim (Red Dwarf to Being Human being the main spectrum, by my experience...  And I've seen a single clip from the US version of Dad's Army...  Woah...  Anyway, these days there are often near-simultaneous releases of anything sufficiently hyped up, whether broadcast TV or film, although other things may take time to trickle across the pond.)

Our spelling is Johnson's, not Webster's (giving it our own flavour and colour, right down the centre) and our accents are many and varied probably beyond your belief.  We generally don't mind you rebellious colonials too much, as long as you aren't obnoxious about it.  Our politics is perhaps a tad more left wing, but our Liberals are not "Pinko Commie Stalinist Trotskyites" (and, indeed, are currently in bed with the Right Wing party), but then our Labour Party has been far from that too for the last decade and a half, at least.  Oh, and our Left Wingers use the colour red, and our Right Wingers use the colour blue.  None of them use pachyderm or equine symbols (lessee: a rose to the 'left'; a phoenix, I think, to the 'middle'; and... are the right using a sort of tree motif at the moment?  I forget).  We haven't had a black Prime Minister (and of course not Head Of State), but we had a woman as Prime Minister more than three decades ago (with varying degrees of popularity among the voting masses, but mostly due to politics, rather than chauvinism) and of course the Queen is in her 60th year of being in that position (accidents of birth, notwithstanding, most people think it's a happy accident, and Charles has a lot to live up to if/when he finally becomes (possibly) George VII).  Nothing is particularly poisonous or dangerous, well, as far as wildlife is concerned, ignoring everything that's technically poisonous but that couldn't do any real thing to a human.  Rogue livestock and pets are probably most of the problem, after removing the human menaces from the equation.  But with guns largely a rarity, you can (except for often well-reported exceptions to this rule) generally rule out being killed by criminal, civilian or law-enforcement firearms.  The most common lethal weapon in the UK (intentionally or otherwise) is probably the car.

Which leads us on to suggesting that the fuel prices are probably what you'd consider extortionate.  Petrol(eum), or Gas(oline) to you, of the "Regular Unleaded" type, has recently in my area gone down in price to 'merely' 137.9 to 139.9 pence-per-litre in most local outlets (though some are still above 140, with the obligatory ".9" ending).  Let's see, if I have used the various on-line converters correctly, at the lower end that's roughly US$2.16 for slightly over a quarter of your gallons, or nearly US$8.20 for one US gallon.  Randomly checking, in DC, US$3.26 to 3.33.  Orange County can apparently afford to pay 3.49 to 3.53.  In Anchorage it's still all less than US$4 (Mostly low to mid 3.90s).  Honolulu is slightly above $4.  That probably affects all forms of transport.  However, while I wouldn't say our Public Transport system is brilliant (or always cheap) but, OTOH, you're pretty likely to have a route to and from your destination unless you're regularly doing a rural->city commute of some kind, if you're not going to try driving on the rightcorrect side of the road, for a change...

There's a lot said about our Healthcare system.  Especially some of the bad things being picked up by the anti-Medicare (or whatever it is) people, Stateside.  But I'll give you a for-instance on this...  Was chatting online with a group of people, once, and one of them complained that his nosebleed wasn't stopping.  He didn't want to go to his local A&E because he was in the US and he was worried about the insurance/cost issues.  I've suffered from nosebleeds a lot, and when I had an instance where it wasn't stopping, I went to a hospital (not even my own, I was on holiday in another part of the UK) and got seen as an outpatient and treated and... well, no costs.  Whatever else you might think of the welfare state system, I'm pretty thankful that I could get that sorted (never mind the other instances in my many-decade life-so-far when I've needed medical care).  I have absolutely no idea what happened with the US guy with the nosebleed.  He was still prevaricating when I had to drop offline.  I can only hope that he saw sense, if he didn't recover on his own, and there was no practical way to even attempt to get back in touch.

What else... Well, I'm not sure what I can say that won't be even more biased (towards or against the UK) than than I already have been in some of the above.  Military?  Well, smaller and smaller, but my general impression is they're very professional.  And when properly deployed seem to get the job done, without apparently using the US gung-hoiness we expect.  (Old WW2 joke: "When the Luftwaffe planes attack, the British duck; When the RAF places attack, the Germans duck; when the USAF planes attack everyone ducks!".  Ok, it is an old one, but...)  If anyone talks about the US having to get us out of a jam in WWs 1&2, I'd riposte that they came late to the party, but I'd rather not go into that kind of mudslinging in the first place.  (Besides, what won the war for the Allies was the Godwinated one's decision to attack Russia, far more arguably...)


So, yeah, maybe you'd like to look at this wet (or scorching, windy, becalmed, flat, hilly, friendly, insular, forward-looking, backward-thinking, properly-speaking, badly-spelling, healthcare-conscious, badly-toothy, happy, grumbling, decently well-off, taxed-to-death, left-wing, right-wing, politically-averse, war-winning, lap-dogging...) little island.  We don't bite.  Much.

[RedKing]

Also, when it comes to cold weather, there is nothing more awesome than a bar made entirely from ice.  Not sure if you have those over there, though.

Speaking of which, the annual ice hotel in Lappland, Finland, sounds like an awesome place:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think they may have at least one in Sweden too.

D:
D:
D:

DO NOT WANT

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Duuvian]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_by_country

US, no censorship?

what be this madness? badness?

I'm surprised there is internet in North Korea. Or is that just Dear Leader's memorial site permanently displayed on all 3 computer monitors in the whole country?

I was playing TF2 one on a Doublecross server one late night and a supposed North Korean programmer was playing as well. This surprised me enough to ask him some questions about how his life was. He said his life, personally, wasn't too bad. That said, I would probably say that publicly too if I lived in NK.

[Trollheiming]

Also, when it comes to cold weather, there is nothing more awesome than a bar made entirely from ice.  Not sure if you have those over there, though.

Speaking of which, the annual ice hotel in Lappland, Finland, sounds like an awesome place:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I think they may have at least one in Sweden too.

That's nothing. In Harbin, China, they build an entire city out of ice every year. The ice has colored lights frozen inside and the walls glow and pulse with various colors.

 

Video would be better because the colors change. When I went there, however, my digital camera broke from the -30 degrees centigrade temperatures. In general, I spent three years in China. I recommend the girls, but not much of anything else. Actually, it's really quite a dump. Somehow, I'm not surprised it hasn't been suggested yet!

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I don't think many people would suggest moving from a democracy to an autocracy.

[RedKing]

I thought about Harbin as well, but it's not frozen year-round (I suppose if you want to be technical, Lappland isn't either)

[Digital Hellhound]

As a Finn, I feel like I should represent my country here and list some bad sides.

-We have our share of terrible politicians as well. On the other hand, we nearly got an openly gay Green Party candidate elected president just now. But err, anyway, xenophobic nationalist right-wingers abound.
-We have horrible taste in food. Utterly horrible.
-If snow's not your thing, you're out of luck. If it is, we don't always get that much of it here in the south (the only part of the country worth living in, obviously).
-Aaaand I hope some of my countrymen will help me out here.

I'd like to mention you'll have none of that silly dubbing thing in TV shows and movies you'd find in Germany, Italy, etc., so you can hear all your favorite shows in propah Amurican. (I mean, jeez, learn to read, large-part-of-Europe, subtitles are a thing.)

[RedKing]

-We have horrible taste in food. Utterly horrible.

I dunno...rye pastries with cloudberry jam is pretty good. But considering most everything else seems to involve some form of herring....
And then there's salmiakki. 

[olemars]

-We have horrible taste in food. Utterly horrible.

I bought some delicious-looking sweet pastry in Turku once. Lovely up until the moment I bit into it and discovered that the filling was baby fish fried whole. Rabbit piirakka is delicious though, as is sauna ham with lanttulaatikko.