What is Edinburgh like?
vintage_girl
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I'm moving there soon, for various reasons, but still need to find a job there. Was just wondering, what are people's experiences of it, be it as a visitor or as a resident?
I went to visit briefly, but because I had so much to get done I didn't really see much of the place.
And what's Scotland like in general?
I went to visit briefly, but because I had so much to get done I didn't really see much of the place.
And what's Scotland like in general?
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i dunno where you are from or anything about you to give comparisons. london is miles bigger and less personal. glasgow is also a lot bigger than edinburgh, but it has more/better clubs/pubs and live music venues. it has great shops for clothes too, but you have a right mix of good and bad people
in edinburgh the crap areas are more on the outskirts of town than in the middle
you have the castle and palace and all that for visitors, but you won't be interested in that if you are living there
right now there are great bloody tramworks creating a nightmare in town which will last another year or two. no-one in edinburgh is looking forward to the trams or wants them
The city itself is fairly compact, especially the city centre. It's extremely easy to get around as it has an extensive bus service that is high quality, quite cheap, clean and runs 24 hours a day on main routes. Generally the city centre is clean (except early on a Saturday and Sunday mornings after the drinkers have been out), but the council get it cleaned up quickly before the shoppers and tourists arrive. There are a lot of good areas to live. The thing I liked most about Edinburgh is that each area of the city still had it's own feel, and it's own sense of community. It was more like a collection of small towns/villages all joined together.
Great pubs, great restaurants, good cinemas, good theatres and plenty of other things to see and do.
Like any city it has it's rougher areas, but they are on the outskirts of the city and are easy to avoid.
And if you want to get away from the city you are only half an hours drive from some beautiful countryside, or an hour and half to two hours and you can be in the highlands.
If your from NI you'll find Edinburgh drier and colder - and very windy.
Because the city is coastal there is a big difference in the weather between the north (coast) side and the south side - in particular in summer you can get a really miserable cold misty day in Leith and 3 miles away in Tollcross it can be roasting.
Very good bus service - runs 24/7
Very busy with tourists in the summer especially
Edinburgh is a jumpin' place and is a lot more cosmopolitan than the rest of the country - bit like London being very different from the rest of England.
I lived there from 0-45 y/o and still go back regularly for a fix!
So residents would be quite happy to see the castle and palace demolished then?
as long as the council don't take 10 years to do it and go over budget, i'm sure many residents would be happy to never see a tourist again
My main dislike, apart from the road works for the tram, are the bloody chuggers in Princess Street. They are a menace!
I loved the tourists. Especially the young American laydees, they were quite easy to chat up by putting on a Sean Connery accent. I was bad boy back then, I had three on the go at one time. It was expensive but I got some good holidays in the States as a result
Sometimes you'd be forgiven for thinking you're in Poland as there are soooo many Polish people there.
For public transport, the taxi drivers will take you on detours and the bus drivers are generally very rude compared to other parts of Scotland.
When you don't know the place and unless you have lots of money, you'd think the city is just for tourists, but when you get to know the place, there is something for everyone.
Given how small the city is, I'd suggest getting a monthly bus pass, and just hop on random buses in the daytime and sit up stairs. It's a good way to view the city, and then the bus will eventually get back to where you got on. Buses can sometimes be a little intimidating to outsiders just after big football or rugby games.
In saying all that, it's a nice place, but weird in the sense at many times I really wanted to leave there, and when I left, I really wanted to go back.
What a sad attitude. You should be grateful that you live in a city which people all over the world wish to visit.
That's not true by any means.
I used to work there rather than visiting as a tourist and it all seemed a bit twee and fake.
I was working in the city centre and it also used to be a bit irritating the way it was impossible to find anywhere to park on the street so you could nip into a shop and buy summat.
There's heaps of stuff to see and do there but I don't think I'd want to live there, especially not in the city centre.
well bang goes that half a mile then
Its more than the shopping street ffs:rolleyes:
There are also some wonderful pubs and restaurants. It does get absolutely bloody freezing in Winter though, seriously cold and windy, though not as wet as the West Coast.
I think it was, weirdly, Arthur C Clarke who summed up Edinburgh best in "Childhood's End". A city of light and dark, of science and magic, where both are treated as equals. If you've got a soul you'll love it.
If you go for a visit for a weekend you don't tend to go and visit suburbs you mainly stay in the centre of the city
Right now I live in a small town, so Edinburgh would be a lot bigger and a welcome change from the countryside (not that there's anything wrong with the countryside, but I'm a city girl at heart).
I'm surprised to hear that it's a small city, I thought that what with being the capital it would be fairly big.
My main concern is finding a job, I will probably be looking for any experience I can get, anywhere in the UK to begin with (I'm just about to finish uni). I have some work experience, but probably not enough. I would eventually want to find something to sustain me in Edinburgh, or Glasgow (I can commute), preferably in the print/online media, or marketing/PR, that sort of area. But to begin with I'd take anything I can get.
I would love to live somewhere with trams again, I grew up in a European city with trams and I like them
I like the fact that there's so much culture and arts in Edinburgh, as I really love those things and want to get into that sector, be it in the media, or PR/marketing side.
To those who have lived and worked in Scotland, would Edinburgh be a good place for that, or have I got the wrong impression?
That's OK, I can handle cold and dry, it's the contstant rain in NI that gets me the most. I like that the transport is good as well, several people have mentioned that. Although I may be driving...but we'll see.
When did Aberdeen become the benchmark for these things?
Edinburgh feels more like a city than Glasgow, mainly because the latter is a permanent building site, but I'd rather go for a pint in Glasgow than Edinburgh.
Really? When I visited briefly I thought that everyone I spoke to was very warm and friendly. Maybe it was because I was there as a visitor...
The rest sounds great, I think I will enjoy it.
One more thing, I've heard it's very expensive, what would be the average rent there for say, a one bedroom flat or a double room in a shared house? (I'm going to use Google too, but just want to hear from residents, what would be a reasonable price to pay).