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Catalans Abroad
6 February 2022 2.00 h

Anna Cantón. marcela topor. mtopor@cataloniatoday.cat

Language lovers’ heaven

Why did you leave Cat­alo­nia?
I’m am­bi­tious, al­ways try­ing to im­prove, and I’ve al­ways had a gift for lan­guages. I love trav­el­ling and I con­stantly feel the need to dis­cover new cul­tures and tra­di­tions and meet peo­ple from all over the world. When I re­ceived the job offer in Lux­em­bourg I didn’t think twice. I’ve al­ways wanted to live and work abroad but the fact of not hav­ing good work­ing con­di­tions in Cat­alo­nia and not feel­ing val­ued enough at work ac­cel­er­ated the whole process. I ac­cepted the offer in De­cem­ber and we moved in Feb­ru­ary. I do think that I men­tally pre­pared my­self for that mo­ment my whole life and that’s why I wasn’t ner­vous and I didn’t hes­i­tate or re­gret my de­ci­sion to leave Cat­alo­nia.
Why did you choose to work in Lux­em­bourg?
It was quite a co­in­ci­dence. I al­ready worked in the same com­pany in Barcelona and sud­denly they needed peo­ple at the cen­tral of­fice in Lux­em­bourg. Be­fore that I had never thought of liv­ing in Lux­em­bourg. The first time I vis­ited it was in De­cem­ber 2019 to do the in­ter­view and I loved it, the fi­nan­cial dis­trict left me im­pressed. I said to the taxi dri­ver: I want to work here! We’ve been here for three years now.
Are you happy with the job op­por­tu­ni­ties you found in your adop­tive coun­try?
Hap­pier than I thought. At the be­gin­ning I strug­gled a lot to adapt to the cul­ture. I didn’t have prob­lems with the lan­guages be­cause I al­ready spoke Eng­lish and Ger­man and since the com­pany is close to the Ger­man bor­der hav­ing a high level of French was not es­sen­tial. Lux­em­bourg is an am­bi­tious city with prospects, it of­fers a very in­ter­est­ing range of job op­por­tu­ni­ties with good work con­di­tions and high salaries. They take care of you as a worker and value you, they show you that you are im­por­tant and they re­ward you for it by giv­ing you sup­port in many as­pects.
Are you in con­tact with the Cata­lan expat com­mu­nity in your area?
Yes, I’m in con­tact with the “Cen­tre Català” in Lux­em­bourg. We cel­e­brate the calçotada every year, as well as doing talks, con­certs, din­ners, Cata­lan courses…
What do you think is the best thing about liv­ing there?
Lux­em­bourg has one of the high­est min­i­mum wages in Eu­rope and has a much lower with­hold­ing tax rate than most coun­tries in the Eu­ro­pean Union. I would say that the work con­di­tions, tax ad­van­tages, high salaries and job prospects are the best things about work­ing in Lux­em­bourg. Fur­ther­more, it is a very well-lo­cated city, which makes trav­el­ling much eas­ier and also many lan­guages are spo­ken in Lux­em­bourg: Lux­em­bour­gish, French, Ger­man and Eng­lish. It’s the per­fect match for lan­guage lovers like me! As for Ger­many, the best is the stan­dard of liv­ing, which is much more af­ford­able than in Lux­em­bourg. The prices of rents, su­per­mar­kets and restau­rants, for in­stance, are more like those in Cat­alo­nia, there­fore it is very pos­i­tive to live in Ger­many and work in Lux­em­bourg. It is pos­si­ble, be­cause they have a mu­tual agree­ment re­gard­ing bor­der work­ers and we enjoy the same fis­cal ad­van­tages and so­cial se­cu­rity, even if we live in any of the three bor­der coun­tries: Bel­gium, France or Ger­many.
What would you most like to change?
After three years I still strug­gle with some cul­tural as­pects, such as flex­i­bil­ity. In Cat­alo­nia we tend to be more easy-going and we adapt to changes. Here many times there is no other way out if it’s not the stan­dard one. Al­ter­na­tives are not usu­ally of­fered. Things are as they are and can­not be ne­go­ti­ated. I would also change the weather con­di­tions and the gas­tron­omy of both coun­tries if I could. There’s noth­ing quite like Mediter­ranean food.
What do you take with you as a pre­sent from your new home when you go back to your own coun­try?
When I go home, I usu­ally take “crémant”, a kind of typ­i­cal “cava” from Lux­em­bourg, Ger­man beer, usu­ally “Bit­burger”, which is the one made near Trier and “Ries­ling”, the Mosel re­gion wine.
Where are the best places for vis­i­tors to stay?
In Trier there are quite a few ho­tels but I would rec­om­mend stay­ing in a big­ger city, maybe Lux­em­bourg cap­i­tal, Frank­furt or Cologne. There are also many charm­ing vil­lages near Trier with cosy ac­com­mo­da­tion: Cochem, Bernkas­tel Kues, Saar­burg…
What do you con­sider the high­lights for any brief visit for the first time?
In Trier: Porta Nigra, the “dom”, the am­phithe­ater, “Palast­garten”, the whole city cen­tre and the neigh­bour­hood called “Zurlaubener Ufer” next to the Mosel River. In Lux­em­bourg: the “Grund” neigh­bour­hood, the whole city cen­tre, the Adolphe Bridge and the phil­har­monic in Kirch­berg, the fi­nan­cial dis­trict.
And if vis­i­tors have more time or make a re­turn visit?
Near Trier: cozy and charm­ing towns like Saar­burg, Cochem and Bernkas­tel-Kues. In Lux­em­bourg: all the cas­tles around the city like Vian­den, Beau­fort, Laro­chette, and for those who like hik­ing I rec­om­mend going to the “Pe­tite Su­isse” in Mullerthal, a won­der­ful for­est with trails of all lev­els, plenty of wa­ter­falls and in­cred­i­ble land­scapes.
What is the best ex­pe­ri­ence you’ve had in your adop­tive coun­try?
I have had very ex­cit­ing ex­pe­ri­ences here, even hav­ing spent two years in the mid­dle of a pan­demic. Get­ting to know my friends, my fam­ily here, feel­ing in­te­grated, cre­at­ing our home from scratch, over­com­ing the fear of dri­ving in bad weather, start­ing a mas­ter’s de­gree at the Uni­ver­sity of Lux­em­bourg and meet­ing won­der­ful peo­ple, im­prov­ing and learn­ing new lan­guages, learn­ing to man­age many new sit­u­a­tions and emo­tions, get­ting to know both coun­tries and all those around, trav­el­ling with ease (be­fore Covid), learn­ing to ap­pre­ci­ate what I had at home and above all see­ing how we grew so fast, how much we pro­gressed in such a short time.
Do you plan to go back to Cat­alo­nia?
Yes. For sure. I’m here to learn, to grow both pro­fes­sion­ally and per­son­ally, to gain ex­pe­ri­ence and to enjoy this won­der­ful op­por­tu­nity. But this is not my place. Not my place to stay for­ever. Per­haps we will live in other coun­tries be­fore re­turn­ing, you never know, but if I’m clear about any­thing its’ that my home is Cat­alo­nia and once we feel ready and we have ful­filled all the ob­jec­tives that we had when we ar­rived, then we will start prepar­ing our­selves to go back.

CATA­LANS ABROAD Lux­em­bourg / Trier (Ger­many)

SOME SUGGESTIONS:

Can you recommend a place to have lunch with friends?
In Trier: Louisiana, Bitburger Wirtshaus, Coyote or Treza. In Luxembourg city centre: Urban, Wëllem, Mamacitas, Mama Shelter or any restaurant in Clausen, in the “Grund” neighbourhood.
Where would you have a special dinner for two?
In Trier there’s a wonderful restaurant next to the Mosel in “Zurlaubener Ufer” called Bagatelle. It has nice views and the food is amazing. Brasserie and Krämerei are also a must. In Luxembourg city centre there are a lot of restaurants, like l’Osteria or Brasserie Guillaume which are nice but I would also recommend Apel in Nittel or Bistro Quai in Grevenmacher, both close to Luxembourg.
When is the best time of year to plan a visit?
Summer or early autumn if you’re lucky and it doesn’t rain. It’s still cold in spring and in winter there are only a few hours of daylight. Summer is a good time if it’s not too warm; there are a couple of weeks mostly in August when the heat is unbearable. You can always swim in the Mosel or in some lakes if that happens.
What is the best kept secret about the area?
If you go to the war museum in Diekirch, Luxembourg, you’ll find out all about the country’s history. They are not secrets, just curiosities: Trier is the oldest city in Germany, and Kirchberg, the financial district in Luxembourg, was built in the last ten years. And in Luxembourg the public transport is free! I’d say the top secret in Luxembourg is its finance. How do they manage to have such a low tax rate?
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