Well, I was making less than the author and my savings were two paychecks. I did have a job secured, but so did the author. I guess I could say I "knew" the country, having spent two separate weekends there in the past.
Does this make it closer to the first or the second?
I don't know, I don't know your situation, your background nor which countries you moved between. I'd be inclined to maintain my guess. I struggle to think of any two 2017-era EU countries as different as 2000-Poland and Boston, especially when you English is poor, which yours isn't.
Two weekends was basically my experience with London before moving, and I had few savings. But London simply doesn't feel all that strange from Copenhagen when it comes to the basics.
Well, I wasn't trying to one-up the author, or anything like that. I'm pretty sure his experience had plenty of stresses that mine didn't. Not having to deal with immigration alone is great. I was only referring to those daily routines.
I didn't mean to imply you did! I was offering a possible explanation of the difference in yours and GPs experiences (culture shock vs energising).
Not having to deal with immigration is probably the least of it, at least by the time you're actually making the move (the author had visa sorted, that only unravelled several years later).
But yes, daily routines. I suspect those are a lot more compatible between two present day (western?) European countries than it would have been for the author.
Does this make it closer to the first or the second?