Aberdeen... Talk to me !

marshallman05

marshallman05

marshallman05

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436
Location
Devon
So I have the opportunity for a 3 month detachment to Aberdeen in the next few weeks and I would like people's opinions on the city as a whole.

What's it like to live there, good/bad places to live etc...

Thanks all :)
 
Doing what?

I like Aberdeen but I could only live there if I had good enough reason too, and more Aberdeenshire. That's just me, but there isn't much in Aberdeen to keep me interested.

#Sheep.
 
Rosemount is apparently quite nice for young professionals but still quite near to town (~10 minutes walk) and the same for Ferryhill but I've been told that you should avoid Torry as although it looks nice it's pretty dodgy. This is from someone who lived in Aberdeen for many years, personally I've only visited it a few times and it seemed ok - a bit grey both in weather and architecture and there seemed an inordinate amount of roundabouts when I've driven through it on the way elsewhere but aside from that not too bad. There's a fair amount of oil money there so it can be surprisingly expensive though.
 
You should move to Sandilands Drive and get a job that requires you to drive over the Haudagain roundabout every day during rush hour.*


*Note: don't do this.

There isn't really much in Aberdeen to do, other than get drunk. The City Centre is a desolate wasteland of Greggs, bookmakers and pound shops. The council are chocolate fireguard useless, the roads are an absolute disgrace and traffic is a shambles.

You should move to Aberdeen though, because the people are pretty decent.

Where would you be working?
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
There isn't really much in Aberdeen to do, other than get drunk. The City Centre is a desolate wasteland of Greggs, bookmakers and pound shops. The council are chocolate fireguard useless, the roads are an absolute disgrace and traffic is a shambles.
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TBH that sums up most towns and cities in the UK now though.
As said Aberdeen can be expensive due to oil money, and it is very grey. Weather might be a shock too!
 
semi-pro waster said:
True enough, I was speaking mainly about the colour since so much is made from granite. I'm standing by the comment about the weather though...
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Yes, it can get very crappy with the high street just off the harbour.

I actually hadn't thought about it much until I watched a program on British architecture, it wasn't until whoever the architect was said it that the penny dropped a little.

Granite is a very good rock for building with too.

They should just white wash it & plant palm trees all over the place! :D
 
Uther said:
TBH that sums up most towns and cities in the UK now though.
As said Aberdeen can be expensive due to oil money, and it is very grey. Weather might be a shock too!
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Probably right. In the last 2-3 years traffic has really nose-dived into oblivion though. We allow houses to be built absolutely everywhere with no consideration for what that might do to the already congested road network.
Then there's that damn Union Square shopping centre... Market street has pretty much been destroyed by that.

I've only got experience with living in Scottish cities, but weather-wise, Aberdeen is pretty much the same as the rest of them. It's not that bad. :)

Biohazard said:
They should just white wash it & plant palm trees all over the place! :D
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Wins my vote! :D
 
marshallman05 said:
So I have the opportunity for a 3 month detachment to Aberdeen in the next few weeks and I would like people's opinions on the city as a whole.

What's it like to live there, good/bad places to live etc...

Thanks all :)
Click to expand...

Three months of Aberdeen greyness and north sea weather will make Devon seem like paradise when you return.
 
3 months isn't really long but should try and stay close to town (Ferryhill, rosemount, west end) as it makes going out easier, lots of places to eat for somewhere which is basically a small town.

Try and get out to the cairngorms, west coast of Scotland and have a look about, people tend to miss that about Aberdeen that some of the best parts of Scotland are just an hours drive away.

KaHn
 
Aberdeen: Summer is great. Backyard BBQ and at 11PM it's still sunny. Winter is eternal darkness and suffering.

As far as activities, having 2 unis in a small place means that it's all very studenty (eg bars and crap clubs), but if you look carefully enough it's actually really nice. Just small. I liked Old Aberdeen a lot, pottering around the AU campus etc, but I don't think I could hack those long dark nights again.
 
Let us know when you're up and we can show you the sites......

Beer
Cocktails
Shots

:D

KaHn said:
Try and get out to the cairngorms, west coast of Scotland and have a look about, people tend to miss that about Aberdeen that some of the best parts of Scotland are just an hours drive away.

KaHn
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This! Scotland really is God's country and many people never get to see the beauty up here!
 
I moved to Aberdeen from Berkshire nearly a 18 months ago and I quite like it here - lots of bars, pubs and decent restaurants, clubbing is a bit generic but decent enough. In my view it's pretty lively for a place of it's size :).

As others have said, you can't go too wrong with Ferryhill, Rosemount, Holburn Street area and the west end - just try to keep away from the harbour.

Where would you be working, that would help to narrow down where to live to avoid the worst of the traffic.

As others have said there's plenty of beautiful countryside, castles, distilleries, munros, beaches etc not too far from Aberdeen - deffo worth making the effort!
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
You should move to Aberdeen though, because the people are pretty decent.
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I went to school in Westhill, and moved to Glasgow at the first opportunity. The people are amongst the most insular, rude and unfriendly bunch of people I've had the displeasure of meeting. Sure, there's bad in every town but by and large the Aberdonians are the worst. Go into a pub in Glasgow, you'll be able to have a friendly conversation with someone about anything. Go into one in Aberdeen? They'll think your mad, and actively discourage conversation.

On the occasions that I've been back I've found it to be much more violent than Glasgow, and not that many great places to go out and drink and have fun.

Plus sides? It's close to Aberdeenshire which has some interesting things to see if you like castles and countryside. And Codonas is good.
 
Ahleckz said:
I went to school in Westhill, and moved to Glasgow at the first opportunity. The people are amongst the most insular, rude and unfriendly bunch of people I've had the displeasure of meeting. Sure, there's bad in every town but by and large the Aberdonians are the worst. Go into a pub in Glasgow, you'll be able to have a friendly conversation with someone about anything. Go into one in Aberdeen? They'll think your mad, and actively discourage conversation.

On the occasions that I've been back I've found it to be much more violent than Glasgow, and not that many great places to go out and drink and have fun.

Plus sides? It's close to Aberdeenshire which has some interesting things to see if you like castles and countryside. And Codonas is good.
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Luckily due to the oil industry there's a lot of people from outside of Aberdeen so it's quite easy not to socialise with the locals :p
 
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