= new reply since forum marked as read
several times and often thought of living there, at least for a while -- I'm even
eligible for "Right of Return" dual citizenship because of my Croatian grandparents..I'm
learning the language (Ucim Hrvatske jezik!) and have made at least one good friend there.
One thing I am concerned about, though, since I've encountered it in my travels,
though not in Croatia, is the level of Anti-Americanism one encounters. I used to
joke that, difficult as it's been here, the one thing I don't have to deal with
is Anti-Americanism, lol.
I'd be interested in your experiences...Thanks. 
Thanks for your information.
I live in Europe and speak 9 European languages (9 and a half if you include "Schwyzerdüütsch"
.
I also know a few words in several other languages that I don't really speak, such as Polish, Finnish, Romanian, Hungarian, Croatian, etc.
It's unbelievable how quickly any existing ice melts the second you show them you are aware of their culture and took the effort to learn a few words.
Croatian is not very hard if you've studied Russian.
One of my teachers told me that, apart from the Alphabet, which is Roman
in Croatia's case, among the Eastern European languages, Russian is closest to Croatian.
I could be wrong, but I get the sense that there is quite a bit of unpleasant stuff happening in all the former communist countries. While in Croatia, my teacher talked about "the Serbian Mafia" running up and down the Adriatic".
In any case, DFW, You sound like you've had some VERY interesting adventures in Europe! 
One funny time was when I was in Zagreb, and a pair of sisters invited me up for tea in their apartment. The elder one had her boyfriend there, and he wanted to discuss Credence and Johnny Winter, where I wanted to talk about tambouritsa music. He spoke no English, so his girlfriend translated for him. He was amazed that I cared in the slightest about Croatian folk music, and expressed his amazement (in Croatian) that I had an interest in "naša muzika," and I answered in English, "and all you care about is OUR music." Both sisters broke out laughing, saying we maybe couldn't speak to each other, but we understood each other.
There is a mafia for every Balkan ethnic group these days. Croatians, Serbs, Albanians, Romanians, Bulgarians, you name it. They all have groups of well-trained ex-military guys who like money, and are eager to use their skills. In western Europe, people tend to be unarmed, and get indicted if they defend themselves, so we are "easy pickins" here.
Although Hrvatski uses the Latin alphabet, the Cyrillic one isn't hard to learn, and it is completely phonetic, so once you learn how a letter is pronounced, it is almost always pronounced that way,
I've had a few adventures over here for sure. My favorite one was marrying one of the friendly natives
Dutch is closer to English than any other language except for Frisian, but most English speakers find Dutch closer to German than English. I took a little German many years ago, and I can often understand a fair amount of Dutch text simply by reading it aloud -- the differences in spelling disguise the linguistic similarities.
If I could move to Europe, the Netherlands would be one of my top choices, even if I had no language experience at all. Belgium would also be up there.
English is very commonly spoken in the Netherlands, reflecting centuries of commerce and cultural exchanges with England even before today's tourism industry brought so many English speakers through Dutch port cities and airports. And if you really need to take a break in an English-speaking country, there's this:
http://www.seat61.com/Netherlands.htm#.VIB0O2c55j4
I'm very jealous.
But just like foreigners who stage phony marriages to come to the States, the authorities will go through a thorough and sometimes intrusive verification process.
Dutch takes some getting used to as far as pronunciation goes, but has many words similar to English (only Swedish was easier to learn, in my experience), and once you get used to their sentence structure (halfway between German and English/Swedish), you'll be fine. It may seem like gibberish at first, but it's easier than it seems in the beginning.
They don't have any "too old" clauses, but what they don't want is a stream of people coming in asking for pensions they never paid into. Germany had to cope with this after 1989, and got robbed of billions by so-called "ethnic Germans" from all over Eastern Europe coming to Germany asking for pensions for life ("me German, papa fight for Nazis in war, give me money" . As with Greece now, the German taxpayers were furious at having to pay for people coming with outstretched hands asking for money because their own governments were too corrupt/inefficient to pay for their own pensions.
However, come with a legit claim, especially a will to somehow pay your own way, or at least try, and they won't give you too hard a time.
And don't forget to tell them you like stroopwaffeltjes!
Both can conscript you for military service in times of crisis, both can tax you, depending on the circumstances, and Germany, at least, has restriction on citizenship if your German citizenship is acquired and your second nationality. They often make adults choose at age 18 or 21 if German citizenship was acquired later. If you have a German parent and have been both from birth, that is one circumstance where Germany and the USA let you keep both for life. My daughters are in exactly that situation. The older one lives in the USA and is paid there, so she only has to pay US taxes, but the younger one lives in Germany and is paid there, so she has to fill out both tax returns every year.
The advantage is that they can live and work in either country at will. The older one will have trouble if she decides to move back to Germany without having paid a dime into the national retirement fund ("Rentenkasse" , and would need either extremely expensive health insurance or a steady job that would give it to her. My wife took many years off from work to raise our daughters, and because of that is looking at maybe $1000 a month in pension money (she was a lowly social worker) and either expensive or minimal health insurance. Without me, she'd be a near poverty case.
with the conscription thing as we are both in our sixties and have no children.
Those tax collectors sound like the "new gestapo", if you will!
If one is paying US taxes, though, is he or she still responsible for German taxes?
Thanks.
