Quote from mtzianos:
I was a bit suprised myself that nobody mentioned Greece earlier in this thread. And Cyprus as well. Objectively, they're much better than some other places mentioned.
With regard to the weather on the islands, it can be windy, but there's nearly 300 days of sunshine per year. No way "cold and rainy" (unless temperatures of 5-12deg Celsius are considered cold). In mainland Greece we see snow once every couple of years, lasts for a few days (and we enjoy this rare phenomenon).
Actually there are thousands of islands in Greece, most (the smaller ones) are not suitable for a foreigner to live on permanently (i.e. not just May-Oct), i.e. not much social life, unless you are retired and want to relax.
On the other hand, telecom infrastracture in most islands and mainland is OK (finally) and also there is ADSL (up to 1Mbps).
The country is part of European Union, using the Euro currency for several years now.
So, I'd say it could be an alternative for other Europeans (due to proximity to home countries, otherwise pretty much all are welcome).
"Weaknesses": Overall, the country is less "organised" and "well-run" than other european countries (e.g. Austria or Netherlands) and has a rather buerocratic public sector, but this is only a hinderance if one plans to do bricks-and-mortar biz here. Whereas a trader has a virtual office and doesn't have to worry about this.