Milton Keynes UK has a special place in my heart. It is completely different from any other place I lived in. The full separation of cars and pedestrians is amazing. A while after I moved out from there i came back and I realised I did not have to pay attention to cars, I could just walk from the station to the city centre uninterrupted through the underpasses. The city is car-centric and today probably wouldn’t be built like that anymore but it was a nice, green place to live with all amenities nearby.

When people go abroad, the ones staying at home think that the new country is the country of milk and honey. In a certain way it is, why else would you leave you country if not to have a better life. So there is the expectation of you paying for your own stuff and even supporting your family members in your home country. When immigrants send news/pictures to their relatives at home, or put it on social media, they share good stuff, nice pictres, not a rant about the mundane, negative things in life. So peole at home get a wrong sense of what life abroad is.

I used to live n the UK and during the pandemic was abroad so I could not easily return (unless I would do the 10 days quarantine etc). Instead I went to my homecountry to stay with my parents. When I returned after the borders had reopened, something had changed. Brexit started to grip around and the overall ambience was very negative. So I moved back to my homecountry (in the EU) and thereby forfeited my presettled status. But I am more happy now. Sure, you can make good money in the UK, but the quality of life is worse so for the same quality of life, I have to spend more (housing being the worst thing).

Best: Porto, Portugal. Sure houses aren’t that luxurious but most are solid. I had two great apartments and two less good places but in general, finding a place was relatively easy (through friends) and the places were affordable. Of course Porto has become more expensive the last few years.

Manchester, UK. Because in another country I had spent 3 weeks in a hotel while looking for a place, I looked for a place online with an agent. The room seemed ok (mind you, in the UK housing is so expensive that you are almost forced to share a house). I arrived late at night, totally rained out so I signed the paperwork and went to my room. The day after, I started to really see the state of the house: my window was not attached to the walls, it was held up by a lot of foam. And it was broken so the room was cold. Bathroom was full of dirt and the ventilation was full of mould. Kitchen was the same and the living room dusty. I got into an argument with the landlord and after two months I managed to leave. While the housing market in other countries is bad, the UK one is explicitly one of exploiting renters.

When I did my student exchange (in Portugal) I quickly learned to stay away from my compatriots. They were shallow and like in your experience, wanted everything to be the same as back home. In general, I found the mindset very narrowminded: they would not eat Portuguese food (although it is not that ‘exotic’), and spoke only hello and goodbye but for the rest did not learn Portuguese.

If you don’t have the receipts, be prepared for import taxes because German customs are very strict. Are you sure you can’t find the bill from the Apple Store (assuming yu bought it straight from them). They should be able to produce the receipt again.