Dreamhouse Apartments Aberdeen City North

... Edinburgh soon though..

Anyway, day trip to Ellon, which is just half an hour out of town. Yay! Friend from uni lives here so went round, watched movies etc etc. Nothing too interesting, but it was nice to be away from the dorm for a bit! Leaving for holidays in a few weeks so things will finally get just a little more interesting. Until then, back to the books I go..

... way in the future, and found a particular little gem - the opportunity to spend 2 weeks in and around any major city in Australia, doing whatever they need me to do, for just under £450 with food and accomodation. I mean yeah, relatively fixed tour-type thing, ew. But most of my friends know that going down under has been a big dream for me since I was half the age I am now, the country as a whole has always fascinated me. It's so far away ...

... a crapload of work. And I'm also trying to find one of those "job" things so I can get some extra £ for travelling purposes. So no real time for immediate fun, grrr. But I'm hoping at some point I'll be able to do a bit of mountaineering, and also planning on heading down to Glasgow and Edinburgh sometime. There's a couple other Travelpodians scattered around somewhere too, but I think it's ...

... all taken care of the adventuring will begin. I'm starting to think Ill hop over to Dublin for a day or two before I start traveling south because I am dying to taste their Guinness! Ill write as soon as I know, but I think Ill be lounging around Scotland for two weeks while I get my ducks in a line. Obviously there isn't much to log yet but i promise it will get interesting soon!!!!

Tomorrow I'm catching the a 2pm flight out to Heathrow, a couple of hours of transit and off to Istanbul...arriving just after 11pm. There's no public transport other than taxis and its probably gonna be expensive to Sultanahmet where I'm staying. But the flight's cheap so can't complain really. 

For the past few days I've been packing and repacking, readjusting my inventory each time, trying to strike a balance between travelling light and having the ...

... I wish I could find in my own city. It's nice that a city this size (roughly 200,000, I'm told) can be so pedestrian friendly. It's a wonderful thing to live somewhere where you don't have to own a car. Also, there're a lot of small businesses downtown, which is a nice change of atmosphere from our big-box store culture.

All in all, my vacation was exactly what I wanted it to be: quiet, simple, easy.

... The first is an ongoing problem that i've neglected to mention thinking it wasn't worth talking about...but now i'm convinced it's the ghost of Mary Queen of Scots at work. In the time i've been here, I have lost 5 (FIVE!) water bottle caps...2 on the bus, 3 on the street. There's no noise when they dissappear, and even after crawling on my hands and knees, still no sign of the cap(s). It's a conspiracy.
Problem 2 involves my low tolerance level for depressants ...

... off around the block about 50 times to work it off!!! I think we're all a bit sad that we wont' be sharing Christmas together this year, but we've had a great holiday together and we have next Christmas to look forward to when we'll all be together in Australia! The time really flew by, and before I knew it , it was time again to pack and head to the airport... Wonder what travel 'excitement' awaits me on this trip?!? Hmmm...

... throwbombs, the percussive explosions fascinated the chub who kep calling out to them. And S grew more and more tense, no doubt summing up the xenophobic aspects of the working class brits with the general decrepit atmosphere of the section of town facing the station. Even my tellin her that these youths had asked me the time did little to ease her ! Only the eventual arrival of the train did that. This train was an hour after the one we were supposed to take and ...

... three excellent songs which are at times reminiscent of Iron & Wine, Nick Drake and even a tad Gillian Welsh (I think). Went to hear some live music in Stratford at Cox's Yard - my friends Nic and Tom run it during the day - I met them in Vietnam. Heard an acoustic set by a couple of the guys from Ocean Colour Scene and it was a really good gig. Great crowd, very appreciative, they knew all the words (I think the band originally came from ...