Some of my views are very much like those expressed here by JayNektarios. I consider myself to have transitioned from Orthodoxy to Catholicism rather than to have converted. Even my Catholic priest refused to call mine a conversion. I, also, love Eastern Orthodoxy. When, mostly through reading and researching, I first approached Christianity ten or fifteen years ago, I encountered saints and thinkers from both east and west. However, I landed on Orthodoxy, having fallen in love with its liturgical chanting, and the hesychastic teachings.
That said, although I encountered some vitriolic anti-Catholic writing, I remained as an Orthodox fond of such thinkers as Thomas Merton and Thomas a’ Kempis, and drew inspiration from my earlier encounter with Catholic saints. My recent transition into Catholicism was due, I must admit, mostly to circumstances. I have only made it to two Orthodox services since I relocated last October. The nearest parish is a mission church with infrequent services (about one a month, most months), and is 1.5-2 hours away by car. I decided to begin attending the nearby Catholic services, and within a short amount of time, I felt in many ways more at home than I ever did for my six years as an Orthodox Christian.
In my experience, it may be practical to become an Orthodox convert in big cities, but as I have found, in rural Canada, it is not always so practical. Aside from travel times, I did encounter a good deal of cultural isolation at some of the churches I attended. Due to several relocations, I attended Korean, Greek, Russian, Ukranian, Antiochian, and “American” parishes. I found that there were two kinds of parishes, in my experience. The ethnocentric parishes (with signs that said things like: “Such and such Hellenic Centre and Greek Orthodox Church”), or convert churches. I was received kindly by some individuals in these churches, but by and large was made to feel as a strange kind of anomaly, even not welcome, in a few cases. I appreciated these churches more, in a way, because the older parishioners worshiped in such a natural, non-pretentious manner. They were true cradle Orthodox Christians, probably going back generations. Parishes where the priests and the majority of parishioners were converts often felt a little… inauthentic to me, at times. Technically, they weren’t, and I didn’t mean to judge anyone. But sometimes hearing middle class white Canadians try to sing like Arabs or Greeks, or seeing them dressing up like Russian monks and nuns, seemed a little forced to me at times, so I tended to go to the ethnic churches wherever possible.
Catholics, as JayNektarios pointed out, are generally more charitable towards the Orthodox than the other way around. I appreciate the rich theological history of the Catholic Church. And having been in both Eastern and Western traditions, I believe that each have their strengths. Evangelization is not a strength of the East; Orthodoxy is outright unapproachable at times, under certain circumstances. The East through its rigidity, however, has preserved much of infinite value in the way of liturgical and mystical emphasis and beauty. As a Catholic, I feel I can embrace and appreciate both East and West. I have the devout “cradle” Catholics to learn from, but it doesn’t feel like I am entering someone else’s house, but my/our house of worship. As I said above, I feel at home here. My Catholic parish has a wonderful priest and friendly and helpful parishioners, weekday Mass, and plenty of opportunity to grow spiritually. I love both traditions, but the Catholic Church is home for me.