I've been preaching about this issue for years, even to my friends working in banks as IT security, but for some reason they are more obsessed about solving the wrong problems with buying expensive hardware.
I've met Matt on several occasions, and while he was a challenging character, he was also full of life and ideas, and an inspiration. He was a genius in an old-school, no-compromise way. I have been away from Perl for a long time, but some of my best memories and some of the most intelligent conversations took place while with MST and the rest of that amazing community. Fly high.
I started using DDG a week ago instead of Google, and honestly I don't see that much of a difference. If I don't get a good result I go back to Google only to find it doesn't give me anything better than DDG. Might it be that people are just used to Google and not that it really produces better results?
I second this, I would add Croatia to the list if you stay out of Zagreb and Split and even seaside tourist towns are doable for $300 out of season (October to June). Also Croatia offers a digital nomad visa which means you don't pay most of the taxes there.