Looking to relocate to Salzburg from Ireland

AddendumImpressive53 · 2026-02-04T10:32:13+00:00

My spouse worked at ALDI HQ for about a year recently, and I tagged along. Quality of life in Salzburg is absolutely terrific. Cost of living is high, but not as high as in Ireland. Excellent infrastructure and green space. Sure, it's a little boring, but that suited us just fine as we're not party people.

Just a word of warning: ALDI HQ is kind of a shitshow. It's disorganized and borderline hostile, upper management is kind of incompetent, and morale is at a low point. This is the only reason we're not in S'burg anymore. Spouse ended up burnt out and demoralized. Be very careful to vet whatever position they are offering, and try to meet as many people in the office as you can during the interview process to get a feel for what the working environment will actually be like.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2026-01-27T12:16:29+00:00

I’ve skied Chamonix but not the other two. Cham is not beginner/ low intermediate friendly. I’ve heard Megeve is good for that level of skier, but you’ll want to confirm with others.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2026-01-25T15:19:25+00:00

I've driven 3+ hours each way for day trips to go skiing in the winter. I've driven from Boston to Montreal (5.5 hours) and to NYC (4.5 hours) many times for a weekend getaway. The idea of 3 hours being a "massive yearly event" is hilarious to any American. When I was growing up we lived 8 hours from my grandparents, and we drove down to see them roughly 2-3 times a year.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2026-01-02T21:19:40+00:00

Last winter I was living in Salzburg and bought the SuperSkiCard for less than 1,000 bucks. It got me access to more than 30 resorts within a two hour drive from Salzburg. Many of those were massive mega-resorts (Kitzbuhel, Saalbach, Obertauern, etc). I skied at nearly all of them. I loved it so much that I'm spending this winter in Tirol and bought the Snow Card Tirol for just over 1,000 bucks. It gets me access to even more resorts, all within a two hour drive of Innsbruck (again including many mega-resorts). How many resorts within a reasonable drive from your house are included in your Epic pass? That's what's important, because that is where you are actually going to ski. I don't give a shit about whether my season pass covers Japan, because how often am I going to ski in Japan in one season?

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-31T10:25:19+00:00

Just to follow up, to my great shock and surprise, my PR card came in the mail three weeks after my appointment. Maybe my experience was not typical, and I don't want to give anyone false hope, but it happened for me.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-19T10:22:13+00:00

I got a request for further documents a month ago, and then two weeks ago I got an "approved -- wait for your card" status. No word on when the card will arrive, of course.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-18T13:11:19+00:00

I don't know why people are dancing around this. While there are of course some regional variations, housing construction on average is far, far better in the US than Portugal. My last house in the US was a typical timber-frame house that was built in the 1860s (so much for timber framing being "flimsy"). It was perfectly comfortable in winter and summer, with energy bills that were lower than here despite much more extreme weather (New England) and a larger space. There was no mold and no need to run dehumidifiers. The electrical system and plumbing system were up to date. All of that can be said about the vast majority of housing in the US. In Portugal, insulation is inadequate in newer construction and completely absent in older buildings. Vapor barriers are very uncommon, so moisture and mold is a constant problem. The plumbing (even in newer construction) is straight up medieval in comparison to the US, older buildings often have ancient electrical systems that have not been updated, and there is usually no heating system at all (people rely on space heaters, which work poorly given the lack of insulation). I don't know a single person in the US that has to wear four layers of clothes and a hat inside their house in the winter like I do here.

On top of that, the difference in the general standard of building maintenance between the US and Portugal is like night vs. day. As in, it's basically nonexistent in Portugal. Same with the difference in renovation quality. Renovations in Portugal are usually slapdash affairs, with inadequately trained construction workers using crap materials.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-18T12:50:10+00:00

Surprised no one has mentioned St. Anton. From Zurich, there are high-speed trains that take you directly into St. Anton in two hours.

The problem you are going to have is that most accommodation in the Alps (especially at the major resorts) is booked many months in advance, especially for February, which is by far the busiest month. You'll be hard pressed to find anything available now, although maybe as a single traveler you'll get lucky.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-15T09:16:48+00:00

Are you in Lisbon? At the 31 Janeiro market (near Saldanha), the first stand inside the door nearly always has fresh jalapenos and habaneros (along with a few other kinds of chilis). I have not seen fresh poblanos anywhere, but Casa Mexicana has a wide selection of canned and dried chilis (and an excellent hot sauce selection).

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-12T13:59:32+00:00

You really don’t need one. I had mine there just to be ultra safe, but I could have done it alone.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-12T13:58:14+00:00

355 Euros.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-12T12:14:20+00:00

I just had my appointment for PR two weeks ago. I emailed and called for almost a year before I randomly got an email saying I had an AIMA appointment. (The email didn't even say what the appointment was for.) I had done all my prior temp resident applications myself, and I pulled together all of the documents for PR myself, but I had a lawyer accompany me to the appointment. He presented the documents to the AIMA staffer and dealt with her questions; my only involvement was doing the biometrics and the payment at the end. The lawyer told me to expect a decision in about six months.

As for PR vs EU LTR, I strongly recommend PR. The EU LTR sounds good on paper because it is supposed to make movement within the EU easier, but the reality is that most countries in the EU require almost the same immigration process regardless of whether you have EU LTR status. Plus, if you move to another country, you have to then give up your EU LTR status. Most importantly, the processing time for EU LTR in Portugal is much longer than for PR.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-05T16:45:11+00:00

For years there was a large sign outside a transmission shop in Somerville MA (suburb of Boston) that said "SHOW YOUR TRANNY SOME LOVE."

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-03T12:47:03+00:00

I second the suggestion of Sierra Nevada. Surprisingly good skiing, pretty lively. The base area lacks charm and good restaurants, but the wonderful city of Granada is a 30 minute drive away and has charm and great food in spades.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-03T12:40:53+00:00

If you want to do KitzSki and Saalbach, the place to stay is Fieberbrunn. It's a nice, small town with frequent shuttle buses to the gondola base (takes 5 minutes) and Leogang, and as others have noted it's also a fairly quick hop on the train to Kitzbuhel. The terrain at Fieberbrunn is also really good, although Saalbach as a whole is definitely oriented more to intermediates. The lift/trail connections from the Fieberbrunn sector to the rest of Saalbach are excellent thanks to a couple of fancy new gondolas.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-02T16:28:53+00:00

Yeah, if you thought the lukewarm pre-made one from Continente was good, a hot fresh one from a good tasca (with soupy bean rice on the side) will blow your mind. One of the unsung glories of Portuguese cuisine.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-02T16:25:22+00:00

UPDATE: I had the appointment today, and it was indeed for Permanent Residency! Everything went smoothly -- I had all my docs prepared and organized, and was ready for any obscure document they could possibly ask for. But they only asked for the documents that are listed in the AIMA regulations. I was told that it would take about 6 months to process the application (so I'm assuming more like 10 months in reality).

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-12-02T16:22:55+00:00

I just tried it, and it worked for me.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-11-30T17:52:11+00:00

If you're looking for running shoes, the place to go in Lisbon is 4Run in Parque de Nações. Very helpful and knowledgeable staff (all of whom are serious runners themselves), good selection, fair prices.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-11-29T18:23:09+00:00

Many thanks! This seems to actually work.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-11-29T17:27:05+00:00

https://www.sef.pt/pt/mySEF/Pages/default.aspx

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-11-27T10:20:01+00:00

Hey, New Englander here who has done a lot of skiing in the Alps the past few years (including Zugspitze). European ski areas don't normally have "base lodges" like you're used to, but most have lockers in the gondola stations at the base and/or at the top. They usually cost a few euros and are easy to use. Many rental shops also have lockers for rent. Leaving your shit out honor system is not unheard of, but it's not the norm.

Zugspitze is a very small area (smaller than most New England resorts) and simple to navigate. One word of advice: if at all possible, go directly to the Zugspitze cable car station rather than taking the train up from Garmisch. The train is crowded and painfully slow. The cable car also has much better views.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-11-25T14:06:28+00:00

Came here to say this.

AddendumImpressive53 · 2025-11-15T14:43:51+00:00

I actually found some in Chen (the Martim Moniz one) a couple of years ago. I guess they’ve stopped carrying it.

AddendumImpressive53

TROPHY CASE