I have been seriously considering moving to Greece for a couple of years. My friend relocated to Portugal and the whole thing has been a nightmare, (although she has a very lazy hubby who considers he is doing the portugese a favour by being there!) Does it have to be awful? Before I investigate any further, give me the truth guys!

Can`t comment from a personal experience point of view, but a couple of friends of ours did this a few years ago. Moved to Rhodes (where they`d spent many happy holidays). He`s a sort of "odd-job" man and she`s a secretary.

She managed to get work with a local doctor, but I think he didn`t really want to work and found very little of it - kept saying the locals wouldn`t use him because he was English...

They stayed for 5 years, but have now returned to the UK, and whilst my friend says she doesn`t regret it, she wouldn`t go back again....

confirms to some extent what I feel about the whole thing. If you really want to make it work you probably could. I imagine you would need to do a fair bit of research. My friends went on holiday there twice before deciding (bit rash if you ask me) and I think he still thinks of it as a holiday.