In early January I was sitting in the office in Budapest in front of my workstation. I was scratching my head with some tricky business logic and thinking how to transfer my knowledge to other team members. Luckily there were some bright minds to take over my tasks on the team so it was not that big change for the project schedule (I hope!) when I packed and left.

After handing over my keys in Budapest many things have changed. Edinburgh is much smaller than Budapest and many central locations are within walking distance. But traffic is still pretty insane during rush hours and ongoing tram line construction is causing delays. It will be interesting to see whether Budapest Metro 4 is completed before Edinburgh tram line.

Population in Edinburgh is much more diverse than in Budapest. So, in addition to various Scottish dialects I hear Polish and many other languages while traveling to work. While sitting I usually check local free newspaper and I learn about violence, celebrities and football. Maybe the news are the reason why I consider Scotland a bit unsafe. In 2005 Scotland had second highest murder rate in Europe. The first position on that list went to Finland but for some strange reason I would not consider streets in Finnish cities unsafe.

Back to the office. In Budapest I was working in a new office premise with high spec workstation and proper coffee while following well defined procedures. In my new job surroundings are a bit different as the office building is most likely over 100 years old. Also the way of working is something that got a moment to get used to. My new colleagues have very different backgrounds compared to my colleagues in my previous job where almost everyone was a Java developer. Oh, and I do not have access to Csocsó table anymore which makes me a bit sad. That one would go to hygiene part in Herzberg's two factor theory.

My social life outside work is still developing but it seems to be quite easy to get to know new people simply by joining some Mac or Java user group meetings. It is also possible to learn something new while drinking beer with fellow geeks. For example the last Mac meeting covered potential downsides of HD video with adult content.

I think I have had quite good time here so far. But it will take some several months to get bigger and better picture about life quality here.