All of these countries are very hospitable, both officially and personally, and this country has the added breathing room of being rather firmly in the Western side of the ledger books of the moment. (Though I see the national swerve of the present executive yesterday had an enormous effect, as the much-anticipated and celebrated visa-free program appears to have been derailed. This might land more strongly than might be in evidence in the western-facing discourse. There are countries here in which the citizens likely would never even be allowed to visit London, and there is even one country which prohibits its own citizens from leaving unless they have a sufficient amount of money, in complicance with a treaty agreement with its neighbors. Outside Schengen and the rich West, visas matter.)
The arts are much stronger than in many much wealthier and more-systematized countries. And the ticket prices for classical music and theatre are almost precisely a tenth of prices in the American cities. (The American theatre is based on a production model that maintains these high ticket prices; the number of strong professional actors in the cities who are out of work at any given moment exceeds by far the number working--the guild publishes these numbers regularly.) That said, there are peculiar assymetries. There are countries in which it is hard to buy a cheap, decent computer, countries where the prices are basically the same as in the West, and there are places where the tarriffs are low enough that you could use the Western websites for supply. The same obtains for things like cheap jeans, decent shirts, travel sundries, etc. Some cities keep coffee at a reasonable price, some don't; the more Westernized cities are generally in the latter category--a tall americano in sbux in this city would be (note the subjunctive) twice the cost (>$4) of the cost in the last country. Objects of irrational desire. The more Westernized malls are basically desire machines, enormous adveritsing images of beautiful people on video screens, and those in the less Westernized areas more of places of quiet prosperity and rest (play areas for the children, areas set aside for womens' luxury clothing) though there's generally considerably fewer goods on offer, and what is on offer is generally more expensive.