Raemoir House Hotel Aberdeen Banchory

A month in and no activity? What's going on, Sarah?

WELL.

Moved in OK, Freshers week was a blast, but I just haven't quite gotten to the exploring part yet. Made a trip down to the beach, a few around town.. And it's actually quite nice here. It's cold yes, but it's a fairly quiet city. Not too big but not too isolated.

However uni [the evil *******s] have decided to give ...

... 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.

... Aberdeen, Hanna, Heather, and I went out for Loud Music Night. We went to a bar where they knew the person singing, and I just sat nursing a pint of McEwan's and watched as young Scottish folks trickled into the bar and, astonishingly, danced to such undanceable music as The Cranberries' "Zombie," Oasis' "Wonderwall," and so forth. A must-see for those traveling in Scotland for the first time.

... exciting, but, as they say, when in Rome . . .

Things picked up as the evening wore on, and I ended my night at Cheerz, Aberdeen's gay bar and club. I took in a drag queen contest over a pint of Foster's, and even joined a conga line around the block. I called it a night after they played The Proclaimers' "500 Miles," as what evening is not complete at that point?

... t true. For example, "Turn left at King Street" might be rendered in Scottish as "OytearnloftaytKyngsdreed."

I left Tucson at around noon on Aug. 17, when the sun was high, and the temperature was starting to climb into the hundreds. Just short of 24 hours later, I arrived in Aberdeen to a temperature in the sixties and an overcast sky that spit occasional droplets of something called rain. Those of you who have suffered thru my laments about missing winter this year on account of my trip to Africa will guess that I'm really loving this weather ...

We are staying Aberdeen to sleep and probably nothing else. This is a good spot to rest our heads for the evening and we will be out at the castle trail tomorrow that is close to here. The hotel is clean, but pland, and the fire alarm woke us up at 4am. Thank you Thistle!

... of down time. Later that evening we were taken to a lovely evening at the Banchory Hotel which is right on the River Dee. I must admit that I have never seen so many pieces of silverware in a place setting. Fortunately we all made it through dinner without any major faux pas. We then drank our first toast from a quaitch and it was back to our host families for the rest of the evening.