Living in Aberdeen Part 2

A week into living and working in Aberdeen has meant that I've now had the opportunity to have some of the other experiences of moving city, such as exploring the area and getting accustomed to a new method of public transport. I'll start with the latter.

Having lived and studied in London my whole life, I was very used to how Transport for London (TFL) operate, which includes bus and underground services. Most the services are run by a single operator in London, and using an Oyster card is how I've been getting around for as long as I can remember. Up in Aberdeen, it's rather different, with there being no single public transport provider (as well as no such thing as an underground rail network). Different companies serve different bus routes, such as First Bus and Stagecoach. There are various ways to pay for a journey, and in my case usually by a daily return ticket (it looks like a receipt) on the bus (which you can pay for using contactless). I tend to use the bus only to go to work and back (as everything else is in close walking distance). The cost of a return trip (at the time of writing this blog) was £4.20, but I do believe various concessions are available for students etc, so it's worth checking. Like everywhere else, you can get bus passes on an app which covers you for multiple days, depending on how frequently you're going to use the bus.

What I found useful is that some of the bus stops have a live bus arrival board, which gives you an estimate for how long until the bus arrives. I say 'estimate' as it really is just that, I quickly found out during my first week here that the buses do not always arrive on time, so if you need to be somewhere allow plenty of time! Something which I found quite interesting is that the bus I take to get the work is entirely powered by hydrogen as part of a project to roll out hydrogen powered transport, meaning it is pretty quiet on the roads.

To get to most other places, like the supermarket or the city centre, I tend to walk as most things are within a 20 minute walking radius I'd say. As well as exploring the beach in my last blog, I've also had a wander around Aberdeen city centre. Compared to London, it is very quiet and reminds me more of somewhere like Cambridge, although I would say it is more car centric here. There's a variety of pubs, shops, restaurants dotted around, with some narrower cobbled streets. Something consistent about Aberdeen is the grey colour of most buildings here, and it owes this distinctive appearance to the local grey granite that many of the buildings are made from, giving it the nickname of the 'Granite City'. By the 19th century, the trading of granite was a big business, with it then being shipped all over the world.

Some areas of Aberdeen are more appealing than others, even within the city centre itself. There's a long stretch of road (a mile in length I believe) called Union Street, which is a great example of showcasing the use of granite in the city. Many of the bars and pubs can be found along here, with also some chain shopping stores. This highroad is really wide too, with 3-4 lanes, which isn't the case for the rest of the road network in the city. Cycling doesn't seem to be a majorly popular way of getting around, although I was told at work that Aberdeen is great for those who enjoy their outdoor sports, like mountain biking, hiking and even surfing! Hopefully over the coming weeks I'll get to explore what nature has to offer in and around the city, with the countryside of Aberdeenshire not being far off at all.

Below are some of the pictures I managed to snap when walking around which hopefully illustrate the granite-vibe of the city, and as always thanks for reading this blog!

PS: Is there something that you'd like me to find out about or explore in Aberdeen in particular? Feel free to drop me a message with any suggestions!