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What is life like in london and barcelona?

Cardiff or London? Life choices!

  • Mr Jujulalia and I have the option of moving to London or Cardiff. Seeking advice from colleagues/friends/the Guardian isn't filling our advice needs. Can you help? To explain further, we're in our early 30s, from a small city in Australia. We left little Australian city over 5 years ago for Europe, and have loved living in bustling cities so far (we've lived in Glasgow, London and are now in Paris). Mr Ju has a very generous job offer in Cardiff, and a less generous offer in London potentially. We're not hipsters but we go to concerts regularly, love art, markets, are painful Guardian reading types. He's in science. I'm in music. I, dear readers, will never make a lot of money in my life. We're not particularly outdoorsy, but I love parks, and miss the green of London. We're not suburby types. We're worried we'll never be able to afford a life in London, I'll get tied back into enormous commutes, slum landlords and we'll be perpetually broke. But we loved living in London. I have always felt at home there (Mama Jujulalia is a Londoner, it's in the blood). We're worried Cardiff will be boring, suburby, without vibrancy. We would like to find a community to be a part of and contribute to. I think we might want a house. Maybe babies. Mr Ju wants a cat. I need to think about that. Where will be better able to do that? London or Cardiff?

  • Answer:

    I have lived in both London and Cardiff. It sounds like Cardiff makes the most sense for you. In Cardiff you can live in a fairly central area that could be walking distance to your job (if the job is in town or at the University, etc) where you have the opportunity to own your home, and the schools are good. This is much harder in London. There is a lot of good live music in Cardiff, as well as a http://www.chapter.org/index.html. If you liked Glasgow I think you could like Cardiff. Although it is much smaller than Glasgow, because it is the capital and the biggest city in Wales it has the government and cultural stuff that goes with that. You could definitely live near a nice big park in Cardiff, such as Roath Park or Bute Park, and you could also live "down the Bay." Cardiff is not boring and suburby unless you want it to be (i.e. you could create a suburban life for yourselves there but it is not the only option). Make sure you look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shopping_arcades_in_Cardiff which are very cool. Also, you can get to London quickly and cheaply (on those 2 hour trains) if you book in advance and don't travel before 9:30am on a weekday.

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They shoot Doctor Who in Cardiff, right? What more do you need?

DirtyOldTown

I say, look for a Ryanair deal and check out Cardiff. You may be pleasantly surprised. I love London too, but to afford it, I'd have to live 1 hour away and pay through the nose to get to the city every day. I'd be broke and soon, I'd be depressed. But, Cardiff is bound to be less expensive, Mr. Ju (or is that Dr. Ju) will make more money, you'll have a nicer place and you can live in town if you like. You can use that extra $$ to make trips to London when it suits you. You can also buzz around to large European cities on value airlines. Welsh people are so friendly and nice, you'll probably meet tons of neat people there to hang with. There appear to be tons of opportunity for arts and entertainment, especially during the summer. I just read the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff and I'M interested in getting a job in Cardiff! So check it out, you may find that you love it. Or not, but you'll have done your due dilligence.

Ruthless Bunny

Wait! London is only an hour away by TRAIN??? Dude!

Ruthless Bunny

London is only an hour away by TRAIN??? The trains I find are 2 h 7 min or longer. Then you have to get from Paddington to wherever you want to go which is probably an additional 30 or 45 min. Also, probably not cheap.

grouse

Just to give a slightly different point of view, I don't earn that much and can still afford to live in London without feeling that I'm missing out on a lot. My commute to work is 45 mins on public transport and 25 mins by bike. I don't think there's anywhere else in the UK that's quite the same as London- obviously it depends on your personal preferences, but don't rule out London as completely unaffordable, it doesn't have to be!

shiny shoes

Go to Cardiff. It's a lively city, excellent art galleries, museums, cinemas, arts centres modern and trad, TV studio....Millenium centre or whatever it's called... People from Bristol go shopping in Cardiff (though people from Cardiff go shopping in Bristol) Interesting ethnicities (ie Welsh), industrial history, docklands, no prescription charges... University, nice big houses, Charlotte Church. There's a number of historic cities I'd rather live in than London, and Cardiff is one of them (and Durham, and York) It's true that there's nowhere in the UK that's quite the same as London, but that's true of Cardiff as well. It certainly isn't an anonymous city.

glasseyes

Could you live in Bristol and your partner commute to Cardiff? That would be my mid-point between the two in terms of your interests and finances!

veids

I have a few friends (admittedly, mostly Welsh ones) who moved from London to Cardiff at around your age; they wouldn't move back, for the reasons you've outlined. It is neither boring nor suburby if you want neither of those things, and it is a large enough city to sustain multiple communities around particular interests without them getting cliquey or dispersed. There are certainly focal points (BBC and government stuff) to those communities, but as Aussies, you're not going to run into any Welsh vs. English sentiment (which is minimal anyway).

holgate

Wales would be my preference if you're remotely outdoorsy. Its gorgeous and there are a lot of young outdoorsy people. Cardiff is a big enough city to have all the city things.

fshgrl

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