@eisfunke A couple tips on living location in particular:
- Transport-wise it tends not to matter too much where you live, we don't really have 'rural' here
- Anything in the Randstad is likely to have good public transport connectivity, including towns you've never heard of
- However, there is a *huge* difference in how easy it is to deal with different municipalities; eg. Dordrecht is always being super difficult and rigid about everything, whereas Den Bosch is very easy-going on the bureaucracy
I'd definitely recommend centering your choice of place to live around "what has the good vibes to you?" and cost-of-living first and foremost, and then just double-checking afterwards that you can get everywhere you need to get, because it will most likely be Fine(tm)