Week 14 #3: 50 Shades of...

I was in Aberdeen this past Sunday. It rained. And it is probably the first time while being in Scotland that I have witnessed actual Scottish rain. And it doesn't rain vertically like it would anywhere else in the world. It rains horizontally. I'm not kidding you, and it feels like small bullets are thrown in our face. Also, umbrellas are not good for anything because they just get broken.

The day started by setting out towards Aberdeen and Dunottar Castle. I was sitting in the front of the bus and it was so warm and comfy I actually dosed off for half an hour or so before we reached the weirdest gas station I have ever witnessed. The shop contained a mix between 80's stuff and new stuff and useless stuff.
After the stop at the gas station we headed towards Dunottar, the first stop of the tour.

 

Reaching Dunottar, it was raining, obviously, but it was also windy. Creating the luxurious combination of rain-bullets. Many an umbrella had to die or get destroyed on the way down to the castle, but the castle itself is a vast ruin, where just some of the rooms are still standing giving you a hint of an idea towards the magnitude of the castle. There once were over 3000 castles in Scotland, but only approximately 345 remain today, most of them being just ruins.

 

Because of the weather I got to see the waves crashing in on the beach and on the cliffs and rocks, and they left traces of white foam slipping off of the cliffs afterwards. It was beautiful.

After being halfway drenched at Dunottar we went back to the bus to go into old Aberdeen. There is a new Aberdeen and an old Aberdeen, those two parts of the town has merged over the years, but Gary felt it was important to show us old Aberdeen, and I see why because it definitely had its charm.
It was still raining, however, and that seemed to be a general theme of the day.

Gary calls Aberdeen the city of 50 Shades of Grey, and while this is a horrible name for a city it is true. Most of the city is made of the same type of granite stone, and as such it is grey and has mostly the same shade, but in rain, the buildings stand apart.

In old Aberdeen we saw a cathedral, Aberdeen University and the River Don. Two rivers run through Aberdeen called Don and Dee, and this resembles Dundee (link) quite a bit, and Dundee is gaelic and means "the city of the side of the river".

We found Nessie!

We went into the newer parts of Aberdeen, and the first thing I did was head for new socks. My shoes were so soaked I was convinced a small loch was hidden in them, and I changed my socks not only once, but twice during the trip.
Most of the time in Aberdeen was spent in Starbucks and Jamie Oliver's restaurant. The only time we ventured out was when moving between those two places and getting a chance to take a few more pictures of the city.

 

As Aberdeen was the last city I needed to visit in order to visit all 7 cities of Scotland, this concludes the list.

- Glasgow
- Edinburgh
- Aberdeen
- Dundee
- Inverness
- Perth
- Stirling