What's it like to live in a Microstate?

Question

The Microstates are;

Malta, Monaco, Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vatican

Can anyone give me an insight?

Answer 1

the thing everyone will tell you most probably would be that everyone knows everyone.  that is, you'll probably meet a person again in the future, or would know a relative of a person you have just met.  that means, you'd better keep your opinions to yourself about a person, or you risk getting a bad reputation.

i'll tell you this little story:  i once went to a group interview for a job.  there we had to pair up with someone else, tell them something about us, and then the other person will introduce us to the rest of the group.  this was just an exercise to get to know each other.  anyway, i paired up with this guy next to me, and we began talking.  when talking about our past work experience, i mentioned i worked in a hotel in a particular place.  he asked which hotel, because he happened to know the place.  i did not think he knew the hotel though, because it was a small, 3 star hotel, tucked in an unimportant place.  i told him anyway, and he was all 'oh really?!?  my uncle is the owner of that hotel... i used to go help him sometime long ago!'

heh... imagine i were to tell this guy how fed up i had been working at that place!  that would have raised a bit of an awkward situation...

another thing (this time nice) about living in a microstate is the distance one has to travel.  you arrive at a place quickly, and dont need to waste a lot of time travelling.  thus you have more time to spend with family and friends.

that's all i can come up with... there are other things to consider, which i think are basically the same as any other place on earth... after all, we are still people like you, and so have the same basic needs.  those that i mentioned are caused by the limit of available space and the presence of big families and small space, leading to people knowing each other's families as far back as one can go.  i must say i like living in a microstate (malta in my case - which is further isolated by the fact that malta is surrounded by the mediterranean and so people cant cross borders as easily as the other places you mentioned).  however, it can become a little tedious sometimes, always seeing the same places over and over.  but as they say, as long as you've got good company, you can be anywhere and not notice the time flying by!  and you find many talkative people on these islands believe me....

hope this helped!