Aberdeen...I want the facts!

Thanks for all your suggestions! The interview is at U of A. I'm interested in going and seeing what the city is like. I fear I'll be there and it will be warm(ish) and sunny, leading to me to believe it's like that all the time! I have to admit, the gray buildings with the gray weather may be a bit too depressing for me. Are there any good places to live outside of the city that could be a little cheaper with an easy commute in (via train or bus)?

It's not really grey. Granite is silver. Hence its other nickname 'Silver city by the golden sands'. It really isn't a typical Scottish city. I think you might be pleasantly surprised.

I came here after a 2 year stint in Chicago. I was hardened before I got here.

If you choose to live out of town, trains to the south are frequent. Stops at Portlethen (10min), Stonehaven (15min), Montrose (40min). Rents should be less than the city. Maybe starting 400/500 per month.

Pray for a calm day. Landing at Aberdeen (Dyce) is fun. Our office (smack dab next to the airport) has floor to ceiling windows facing north, so we watch the planes coming in and it is quite amusing on a windy day, watching the planes.

btw the airport is at Dyce (north of the city). There is a train service from Dyce to the city BUT it is on the other side of the airport!! There are plenty of buses into town. Taxi will set you back 10-12 quid.

Are you actually moving up or just visiting this trip?

What with the remnants of an off shoot of the gulf stream winding its way up Loch Ness? 

I was actually thinking like the top of Mount Everest as the coldest.

Yeah right now it's not so bad, but we had the heating on in summer!

It's not really grey. Granite is silver. Hence its other nickname 'Silver city by the golden sands'. It really isn't a typical Scottish city. I think you might be pleasantly surprised.

I came here after a 2 year stint in Chicago. I was hardened before I got here.

If you choose to live out of town, trains to the south are frequent. Stops at Portlethen (10min), Stonehaven (15min), Montrose (40min). Rents should be less than the city. Maybe starting 400/500 per month.

Pray for a calm day. Landing at Aberdeen (Dyce) is fun. Our office (smack dab next to the airport) has floor to ceiling windows facing north, so we watch the planes coming in and it is quite amusing on a windy day, watching the planes.

btw the airport is at Dyce (north of the city). There is a train service from Dyce to the city BUT it is on the other side of the airport!! There are plenty of buses into town. Taxi will set you back 10-12 quid.

Are you actually moving up or just visiting this trip?

I was living in Baltimore before moving here, so I'm fairly hardened as well. I fear this year in Bath has softened me a bit. I need to toughen myself back up!

I'm actually flying to Edinburgh and taking the train to Aberdeen as this will save me 150 quid than if I had flown directly to Aberdeen!    I'm just going up to interview this week.

So, I'm back from my trip. I really liked it there! The people were really friendly, I stayed right off Union Street and walked up to the university, which was a beautiful area. I did get to see a bit of the sparkle on the granite buildings. It wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be. It did rain a tiny bit on Wednesday, but it was one of those 'it's rainy while it's sunny' days that I've gotten used to while living in England. It's very indusrial feel reminded me a lot of Baltimore. Fingers crossed about the interview!

Inverness.

I find Inverness positively tropical compared to Aberdeen.   

Fingers crossed for you.  Aberdeen is a lovely city (although it only looks nice when the sun shines imo)  My sister (and family) and my parents live north of Aberdeen in a small town called Turiff...i think it's around 30 miles from Aberdeen but the road is windy as hxll so it takes forever to get to and there's one bus a day into Aberdeen so that would be too far to commute...shame though because my sister recently bought a HUGE 4 bedroom house there for £100k!  Same thing in Aberdeen would be at least double that and in Edinburgh it would be off the radar!

Places closer to Aberdeen have a much better transport link and house prices should be more reasonable.

It really can feel like the coldest, greyest (?), wettest place on the planet though so be prepared.  If you can handle the weather, then go for it!

If I get the job it will only be through September, so I should be able to handle the weather for that short period of time!

See we told you the granite sparkles.

Good luck with the position. It's a nice enough place.

As Carol said, house prices are pretty damn good north of the city but places to the south are on the higher end (closer to civilization and all that).

I am an hour south of the city and and always half-heartedly joke to my colleagues about living in the tropics.

You've obviously never lived in Florida, AyouBob, although I'm sure that Scotland is very similar, climate-wise. 

You've obviously never lived in Florida, AyouBob, although I'm sure that Scotland is very similar, climate-wise. 

I have lived in Orlando for a year and a half, spent many summer days over in Pensacola. And I was raised on the gulf coast.

And ifin ya'll came to sunny Caledonia, you see so many similarities to Florida.
We got huge bodies of water on both sides. We got pebble beaches, we got white sand beaches, we share the same sun as Florida, we got oranges (pick 'em at Tesco's), we got surfers, we got golf courses, we got McDonalds, we got Bud-Light, we got palm trees (FACT), we got Reese's PB Cups. Best of all, we have outdoor airconditioning. We got it all   

The only thing we don't have is any Bushes 

. We got it all   

The only thing we don't have is any Bushes 

That is the biggest benefit.

I agree. Bush has been an ongoing disaster and embarassment to the States for almost eight years. Thank god he can't legally run for office again.