Aberdeen is just another city, but go 20 miles or so away you have beautiful countryside, lots of scope for various pastimes. I spent 17 years up there, but only worked out of Aberdeen for a few years. Still have a house there and plan to retire between my caravan on mainland Europe and Scotland. Most of the time it's all in the mind, it is another country and you have to adapt. Compare it to "home" all the time and you will never settle.