Sssh don't tell England but we have it better up here

[UnderOpenSky]

I'm staying near Aberdeen at the moment. I've been to Scotland a fair few times over the years, normally to the highlands walking and a bit of canoeing, but it's the first time I've been to this region. I really like it. The highlands is an awesome place to visit, but I think I'd genuinelly like to live here.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

OK, it's taken me a few days to put my finger on something that's been going round my mind, but where the fuck is everybody?

I went in to Aberdeen today and there seemed to be hardly anyone about. Google maps was telling me the area was as busy as it gets. Even leaving the city at 17.10 traffic seemed really mild. Driving and walking through places like Stonehaven and Montrose, they've just seemed dead. Obviously I expect this when walking in the hills and the emptiness of the coastlines is superb, but the infastructure just seems like it was built for more people. It's fantastic really, but feels strange.

 

[WouldBe]

Are they hiding from you?

 

[iona]

OK, it's taken me a few days to put my finger on something that's been going round my mind, but where the fuck is everybody?

I went in to Aberdeen today and there seemed to be hardly anyone about. Google maps was telling me the area was as busy as it gets. Even leaving the city at 17.10 traffic seemed really mild. Driving and walking through places like Stonehaven and Montrose, they've just seemed dead. Obviously I expect this when walking in the hills and the emptiness of the coastlines is superb, but the infastructure just seems like it was built for more people. It's fantastic really, but feels strange.

I was in Aberdeen on Sunday and it was just as busy as usual

 

[Elpenor]

Half day closing still in operation?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I mean after living on Orkney iona I imagine busy means different things. Just after the last few days where places have seemed really quiet, I expected to see a lot more people today.

I'm loving driving, the roads are superb and there's few people on them. I live in Greater Manchester, but Aberdeen is a similar population to my home town (but seems way nicer). Monday morning is going to seem even worse then normal.

 

[iona]

I mean after living on Orkney iona I imagine busy means different things. Just after the last few days where places have seemed really quiet, I expected to see a lot more people today.

I'm loving driving, the roads are superb and there's few people on them. I live in Greater Manchester, but Aberdeen is a similar population to my home town (but seems way nicer). Monday morning is going to seem even worse then normal.

About the same population as the last city I lived in (Brighton), apparently. It's always felt city busy and not just compared-to-Orkney busy when I've been there.

 

[geminisnake]

I mean after living on Orkney iona

I'm loving driving, the roads are superb

where the fuck are these superb roads? Other than the Aberdeen peripheral route? I did enjoy driving that one so much I forgot to take the turn off and we ended up in Ellon Fortunately I know Ellon reasonably well. Why did you go to Montrose? Not a town I'm happy to go to, it is always cold there ime, even in the summer. Brechin, and Forfar are the better Angus towns imo.

 

[pogofish]

OK, it's taken me a few days to put my finger on something that's been going round my mind, but where the fuck is everybody?

I went in to Aberdeen today and there seemed to be hardly anyone about. Google maps was telling me the area was as busy as it gets. Even leaving the city at 17.10 traffic seemed really mild. Driving and walking through places like Stonehaven and Montrose, they've just seemed dead. Obviously I expect this when walking in the hills and the emptiness of the coastlines is superb, but the infastructure just seems like it was built for more people. It's fantastic really, but feels strange.

Central Aberdeen has taken a hit these last few years I'm afraid. Esp apparent since COVID and the current Economic climate.

A lot of major stores/businesses (national and local) have closed, big employers who had been based in the centre are still substantially WFH/relocated to the periphery/downsized and the increasing traffic restrictions/parking issues mean that a lot of people only go into the centre when they absolutely have to. The changes to public transport, which included service reductions right across the board didn't help either and the "regeneration plans" currently promoted by the council are disjointed and short-termist at best.

Last years mass of roadworks/diversions/traffic restrictions that virtually cut-off the city from the south for eight months or more and made getting about slow/difficult by any means of transport, were also the last straw for a great many people, who are now pretty-much scunnered with the city.

Nightlife/entertainment has also failed to recover to the degree that I've seen in other Scottish cities - a few places are holding-up of course but again, many places have closed or are stumbling along with nothing like the numbers there used to be. Folk don't have the money just now and the lynchpin city policy that assumes we are going to eat and drink ourselves out of the current problems is quite laughable!

That said, there is still plenty to enjoy once you start looking for it.

 

[equationgirl]

I'm with geminisnake on Montrose, I'm afraid. Brechin always seems to have rain but there's a brilliant castle nearby that is one of my favourites.

COVID really battered Glasgow city centre, with big department stores closing along with many smaller ones not to mention restaurants.

 

[lazythursday]

I'm staying just outside Montrose this week. I rather like it - dunes, beach, peaceful sleepy town, all very spacious, lots of green space and not many people. Ok the main street is depressing as fuck, but, like so many places, could be amazing with a bit of wealth added.

Also been to Arbroath, Edzell, Stonehaven. Much as UnderOpenSky says, it all feels quite eerie from an English perspective - not many cars, not many people, but surprisingly grand buildings and infrastructure dotted about.. Lunan beach was absolutely stunning today, . I'm not sure I could live here but it's a great place to visit.

 

[gosub]

 

[dessiato]

We're selling up and leaving Scotland. After two years we've decided enough is enough. Village life and the never ending cold and grey is not for us.

It's a beautiful country with amazing beaches and some wonderful people. I think we will miss it, but not the weather. It's too depressing.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

We're selling up and leaving Scotland. After two years we've decided enough is enough. Village life and the never ending cold and grey is not for us.

It's a beautiful country with amazing beaches and some wonderful people. I think we will miss it, but not the weather. It's too depressing.

Where are you off to?

 

[dessiato]

Where are you off to?

Not sure yet. We'll sell here, live in our holiday home for a while, then to either Almuñecar or Motril.

 

[quimcunx]

We're selling up and leaving Scotland. After two years we've decided enough is enough. Village life and the never ending cold and grey is not for us.

It's a beautiful country with amazing beaches and some wonderful people. I think we will miss it, but not the weather. It's too depressing.

Glad to hear it. Spain suits you much better. Warm flesh and blood is more important than cold bricks and mortar.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

Not sure yet. We'll sell here, live in our holiday home for a while, then to either Almuñecar or Motril.

Nice. Our plans to retire to Spain have been complicated by Brexit.

 

[dessiato]

Nice. Our plans to retire to Spain have been complicated by Brexit.

Luckily we have residencia permante so can easily move back.

 

[danny la rouge]

Luckily we have residencia permante so can easily move back.

I’m glad. I was worried about you. Nobody should be as miserable as you sounded.

 

[dessiato]

I’m glad. I was worried about you. Nobody should be as miserable as you sounded.

Thank you. My wife tells me I’m obviously happier away from here, as is she. So, as much as our hearts think it would be nice to stay, our heads say it’s time for new horizons.

 

[lazythursday]

I have discovered something that's better in England. No £2 bus tickets! Just Stagecoach daylight robbery.

 

[gosub]

We're selling up and leaving Scotland. After two years we've decided enough is enough. Village life and the never ending cold and grey is not for us.

It's a beautiful country with amazing beaches and some wonderful people. I think we will miss it, but not the weather. It's too depressing.

Good luck to you! There's enough localised weather that if you've savee its not all cold and grey (though it'll never be the Med). It's more the light and through the bad bit of that for a few months.

Defo not a bad place and got some good bits. As a lot of places can be.

 

[isvicthere?]

New to this thread, but is the date of the OP in any way significant?

My own Scotland tale: Our friends Antonio and Carmen (from SE Spain) spent their August summer holidays in Linlithgow/Edinburgh a few years ago. They loved it, but Carmen couldn´t go outside without putting on three layers. At the end, she asked their friends if they would come again, and their response was, "Yes, but next time we´ll come in the summer."

 

[gosub]

It was not a gag

 

[steeplejack]

Why did you go to Montrose? Not a town I'm happy to go to, it is always cold there ime, even in the summer. Brechin, and Forfar are the better Angus towns imo.

This is definitely a contrarian position

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I love Scotland, my housing insurance isn't sky high thanks to it.

 

[Elpenor]

I have discovered something that's better in England. No £2 bus tickets! Just Stagecoach daylight robbery.

Not sure how they’re lasting in England maybe till end of the year?

 

[steeplejack]

Forfar: stuck in a dreary weekend in 1958. Since 1958. Full of permanently raging middle aged folk in rugby jerseys. One decent pub. Forfar takes at least ten years to be on nodding terms with you and twenty to actually say ‘hello’. One decent pub. Desperately, desperately boring.

Brechin: a weirdly divided place. Plenty of rich Tories who look down their nose at the rest of the town with chilly disapproval. After you’ve seen the vintage railway, the castle and, err, Mackie Motors, its time to leave. There’s some lovely surrounding countryside but nothing whatever to detain you in the town itself.

Montrose: a beautiful beach that the town is oddly indifferent to. A really quirky high street which I’d be the first to admit has seen better days. Several really good pubs. Dining is not what it was. An actual cinema & some artists / interesting folk. Montrose basin, the walk to Scurdie Ness lighthouse. Seen better days for sure but where hasn’t in the UK of 2024?

Sadly all three places with the possible exception of Forfar are now little more than commuter towns. In the last 40 years Montrose lost a distillery, the last of its industry. Its a weird halfwayhouse, slightly more beholden to Aberdeen than Dundee and equally suspicious of both. Brechin & Forfar hollowed out after the Beeching cuts.

 

[gosub]

Amount of sunburn around today was quite impressive

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Not sure how they’re lasting in England maybe till end of the year?

depends if the election is in january.

the current deal is until end of december 2024. the original plan is that it would have gone up to 2.50 some time last year, but that got shelved almost at the last minute.

a lot of government funding of buses since covid has all been a bit short term and keeps getting kicked down the road - possibly in the hope it will be someone else's problem to sort out...