I've been following Serbian politics from Canada for quite some time (I am from there originally) and I'm in disbelief by how much power Vucic has managed to yield over the last few months/years. The sheer amount of loyalists he has, posing as police officers or engaging in intimidation tactics towards the opposition and students, the amount of people who show up to his rallies being paid off with a sandwich and bottle of water...I can't even fathom what kind of incentives this man has promised these people to blindly follow him and protect him the way they do. The extent to which he's been able to affect the ability of the diaspora to vote in this upcoming election as well further cements his level of authority that I can't wrap my head around, for a small balkan country at that.

Are they genuinely this deep into his police state that they refuse to see his political reign for what it is? Has the population gone so far amiss that they see this type of political approach as the only way to get ahead in their lives? It's tragic to see honestly, especially considering how many people there are who really do want a better future for the country...

Can you describe your country using its characteristics without writing its name?

While looking for a holiday home near Málaga, Spain, I came across a SpainHouses property that is offered through a co-ownership concept. The property is in La Herradura, a small seaside town about 50 minutes from Málaga, which I've visited myself and really liked. I'm actually considering buying a share of this property, which is partly why I'm curious to hear other people's experiences.

Basically, several people own actual legal shares of the same property instead of one person buying the entire house or apartment.

For example, if four people each own 25%, they would each have a corresponding amount of personal use during the year. Unlike a traditional timeshare, the idea is that you own a share of the property itself, rather than simply buying the right to use it for a certain number of weeks.

I find the concept quite appealing. I probably wouldn't use a holiday home for more than a few months each year, so buying an entire property that sits empty for the rest of the time doesn't necessarily make sense to me.

Of course, I can also see potential downsides: coordinating holiday dates, agreeing on maintenance and renovations, making joint decisions, and eventually selling your share. For now, though, I feel the potential benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

It made me curious about how people in other European countries approach holiday-home ownership.

• Is co-ownership of holiday homes common in your country?
• Do people usually buy properties together with family or friends, or are there also arrangements between unrelated owners?
• Would you consider owning a legal share of a holiday home instead of buying an entire property?
• If you've experienced this yourself, what worked well and what didn't?

I'd be particularly interested in hearing about real experiences and how these arrangements work in practice across Europe.

I always hear people talk about brexit as though it was some sort of disaster that made the country shit, but I've literally experienced no change at all to my personal life since it happened 10 years ago. Most of the negatives I've heard have been regarding a hypothetical loss of GDP growth and some minor trade friction. It's not like we even had any recessions as a direct result, at least as far as I'm aware. In fact, aren't we currently outperforming the EU's largest members? I dunno, it just seems to have been a bit over exaggerated. Perhaps I'm missing something?

Are Irish pubs fun in your area? As an Irish person, I see them from the perspective of someone who comes from somewhere where all pubs are "Irish pubs". I have been to Irish pubs that are tacky and to some that actually resemble my local pub and have a bit of charm to them.

I always wonder, and I am glad to see so many local people go, what brings people to an Irish pub. I am also always surprised by how common they are; in the last year I have seen them in Tallinn, Copenhagen, Malaga, and Maribor.

How does this work politically and legally for Greenlandic citizens of Denmark?

Since reading a lot about the various efforts in this area I've been thinking about how I could use my spare time and professional experience to help Europe build a more independent technology ecosystem.

I'd love to hear from people already involved in this space:

• Which European tech projects or organisations welcome volunteers?
• Are there open-source projects building alternatives to US technology that need contributors?
• Are there organisations working on digital sovereignty or European technological independence that could benefit from technical mentoring or coaching?
• Are there euro-centric communities where experienced engineers can mentor developers, coach technical leaders, or help open-source teams become more effective?
• If you've volunteered in this space, what has your experience been like, and how did you get started?

If you asked an American to name a battle in the civil war, they would almost always say the battle of Gettysburg. Gettysburg is a town that still exists today….and it’s a small middle of nowhere rural town of around 7000 people. Nothing important has happened there except the battle and the main industry there currently is tourism.

I’m curious what similar or more isolated/forgotten places there are in your country that are known by name for historical reasons but are otherwise unimportant.

Hello there!

Welcome to our daily scheduled post, the Daily Slow Chat.

If you want to just chat about your day, if you have questions for the moderators (please mark these [Mod] so we can find them), or if you just want talk about oatmeal then this is the thread for you!

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Now that is has snowed 20cm in Puolanka and winter tires are in season it's safe to say that the summer is over.

North Finland had an unusually cool summer with only a handful of days above +25C. A single scorching +30C day would have been nice, but you can't have everything. Did your country have a chilly summer or did you enjoy a proper heat wave?

Parts of Finland had the rainiest September in the whole recorded history. We had the rainiest summer in 60 years. Flash floods were a common problem all over the country and even banks and libraries getting flooded. How was it in your country: grim, cloudy and rainy or just sunshine and happiness?

Edit: Fixed the link about flooding. Fixed the rain stats.

For the longest time I have dreamt of owning and renovating an old cabin in the woods. I love the idea of being closer to nature, the work involved in maintaining it and creating a little garden to have some food I produce and maintain. The space and quiet are the biggest draws for me personally.

The fantasy is:

1. Find a cheap cabin around £30k (I understand there would be many compromises to make this work - far from towns / cities, off road, not connected to energy grid / waste etc )
   
2. Pick one that has some legal capacity to extend or improve the building (nothing crazy, just making it homely)
   
3. Spend some time there renovating it using a mixture of local tradespeople and myself doing some parts
   
4. My partner is a EU resident and we both have WFH jobs so we could spend more time there doing it up and maybe renting somewhere near by if it was completely uninhabitable.

Are there any places in Europe that are easier to achieve this than others. I have seen some in Sweden for example that look achievable. But conscious I’m very naive and probably not considering any of the bureaucracy/ hidden costs etc etc

Anyway it will probably remain a fantasy but still interesting to hear other people’s stories / thoughts / considerations etc.

Which area are you in? What are the positive sides of living there? Any special kind of food?

I live and work in the Gulf (UAE). It's common for people here to have more than one phone.

I, myself, have two. One for the UAE (work) and one for the Philippines (family and friends).

Since I don't need to bring both, I just link my home country phone WhatsApp to my work phone whenever I'm out and vice versa.

I've noticed that in many European countries it's considered the norm to get both a bachelor's and a master's (if you go to uni at all, that is). In fact, in Italy about 2/3 of bachelor's graduates go on to get their master's. This number goes up to 80% for engineering grads.

Is it the same in your country? If so, is it common to take a break between your bachelor's and your master's to get some work experience?

Or maybe not things, abstract concepts.

As a passionate of literature, my knowledge of great, juicy, chonky classics has unfortunately been very limited to the most popular (aka, the most widely translated). Of course everyone knows the works of Victor Hugo, or Dostoyevski, or Dumas, or James Joyce.

But I know every one of our countries harbours a list of great classics that are not so well known elsewhere. Beautiful, immersive, influential, the kind that you can't escape, and yet, for lack of good translations, they are virtually unknown to the rest of us.

So please, share with us that one great work from your country that you love and we're missing out on.

Hello there!

Welcome to our daily scheduled post, the Daily Slow Chat.

If you want to just chat about your day, if you have questions for the moderators (please mark these [Mod] so we can find them), or if you just want talk about oatmeal then this is the thread for you!

Enjoying the small talk? We have a Discord server too! We'd love to have more of you over there. Do both of us a favour and use this link to join the fun.

The mod-team wishes you a nice day!

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Like in the title

The whole point of hostels is to provide a cheaper alternative to hotels by sharing the room with other, but i was looking in some big european cities and hostels especially weekends the cheapest option was like 60€ and the average was 100€

How did we get to this level ??

What is next? capsules coming up as a cheap alternatives to hostels, and then after some year you find a capsule costing 100€ too?

By safe I include harassment in that as well.

Hi, I'm French, and my friends and I were wondering about something last night: how heavy-handed are the police in other European countries?

Here it feels like police brutality is the norm rather than the exception, and our guess was that, apart from the US, France probably has the most violent police force in the Western world. So I'm curious how things compare elsewhere in Europe.

(sorry for Claude traduction I'm a big brèle in English)

I mean not drinking and partying, but go shopping, eating or non-drunk socialising in the middle of the night.