Oh Aye, This is Aberdeen
Trip Start
Jan 13, 2008
1
13
40
Trip End
Jun 16, 2008
Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Sunday, March 9, 2008
To put this trip in context for you, when i told different locals that i was off to aberdeen, i was met with groans, "why?" and "but it's so remote". My response to all of these was, "i'm thinking about moving to Scotland to work and Aberdeen is where i would be likely to be posted". So, there it is, the main reason that i wanted to visit Aberdeen, to answer the question "could i live here?"
And in response to the "it's so remote"comment, they really need to see Aus before using that word. The population of aberdeen would probably equal the entire mornington peninsula.
So friday morning i was packed and ready for my next adventure and boy was i ready to get out of glasgow. i was feeling more and more overwhelmed as the week progressed and was relieved to get away. the train journey was off to a shaky start (o pun intended). I boarded the train, sat down and unpacked the things to entertain me for the trip. Then came the announcement that the train wouldn't be going to aberdeen and could we go to platform 4.
after i collected my things and boarded the train on platform 4, we were off and the adventure had really begun. i did try to make a phone call but the reception was dodgy and it cut me off.
The view from the train was beautiful (as you will be able to see from the photos, i took more from the train than the rest of the trip).
the 2.5 hour trip was relatively express, only stopping at the major stations along the way: stirling, perth, dundee, arbroath, montrose, stonehaven, portlethen and of course aberdeen.
Once i disembarked the train, i was off to see the maritime museum. now as museums go it was pretty small, but it was so interesting. i spent hours and hours looking through the exhibits. the main claim-to-fame that the aberdeen maritime museum has is the life of an oil rig worker. it shows what a person who is on a rig would wear, what the safety precauions are, the sleeping quarters and also has a giant scale model of one of the oil rigs in the north sea. and for those of you who didn't know, aberdeen is the main land base for the oil rigs in the north sea.
After a trip to the gift shop, i tried to find a bus to get to the hostel, from the info i had the next bus was an hour and 20 minutes away. so i decided to get my gps out and walk the 3km trek to the hostel. it was pretty, so i can't complain too much.
I found the hostel eventually, and checked in. i was in a 4 bedded room with it's own wash basin. i put my stuff down and had a look at the bus timetable the receptionist had given me. it turns out there were many buses to the hostel, just not from the train station. so i got a bus back into the city and found myself somewhere cheap for dinner. less than 5GBP for a burger and chips.
one thing i didn't realise is that everything in aberdeen closes between 5.30pm and 6pm. the only place to look at things was the bookshop. so i picked up a guide for madrid and bought another roald dahl for my collection and got a bus back to the hostel. i took my new books to the reading room in the hostel and read until my eyes were tired. it was 8.50 when i thought i'd go back to my room and read some more. when i got in there the other girls in my room were already sleeping, so i made it an early night and slept for 11 hours.
Saturday i was awake and well rested. Ready to see what else aberdeen had to offer. my first stop was more window shopping and then a trip to the hairdressers. just a cheap haircut, about 12GBP. my fringe had got really emo looking so i was happy to have that shortened. then it was time to see Aberdeen's famous art gallery. so i followed the cobbled street down to it. it was a mix of modern art and 19th century british paintings. as in the maritime museum, there was a no photo policy, so there aren't any to show you. the building was made of marble which was really cool. probably my favourite part was the quilt from the victorian trades council that was a memorial for the people who died in the piper alpha disaster in 1988. this really meant a lot to me that the people of my home wanted to send this quilt as a gesture that the world was grieving along with Aberdeen for the loss of their men.
After the art gallery i went into a kiltmakers and got to see all the different tartan for each clan and i saw a beautiful bag that i had to back away from because it was 80GBP and the more i looked at it, the more i really wanted it. me and my love of bags...
Next was aberdeen's other tourist attraction Provost Skene's House. i provost is like a mayor and this is one of the oldest houses left in aberdeen and is full of period pieces to describe how the people lived in that time. this was also no photos. but it had a temporary display of wedding dresses over the ages. that was really interesting.
Dinner was as uneventful as ever, and i got another early night after reading more of my book.
Sunday was a lazy day. the youth hostel requires you to be out of there by 9.30am and i had really seen most of touristy aberdeen. apparently there was an indoor ice rink but the bus didn't go there on sunday, damn. so i when for a walk at the harbour, it is an industrial harbour so there isn't anywhere to sit and watch the ships so i slowly made my way back to the train station but my ticket was for 5.50pm and it was only midday. so i did some homework preparation and read my book whilst watching people come and go.
the sun started to set once i was on the train back to glasgow.
i was excited to get off the train in glasgow, it felt familiar and homey. it was a great weekend away, i got lots of thinking done and sometimes that's just what i need...
Comments
Very nice...
Glad you are having so much fun! The culture of Scotland is very interesting, I like to read about it from your perspective.
Louise Brown
TravelPod Community Manager