Sponsored Roundabouts
Our trip to Aberdeen and Lochnagar this Easter was sound tracked mainly by Kaiser Chiefs – Ruby and The Fratellis – Chelsea Dagger. Books read as a general accompaniment were Michael Chabon – Wonder Boys and Kevin MacNeil – The Stornoway Way.
Photos will follow shortly.
Beginnings
Our adventure started at about 2.30pm on Friday when R. and I set out for Aberdeen. I believe that we should have set out at midday but a bizarre e mail mix up meant a slightly later departure. Speed Kills and Speed Cameras Cost Money and Points so we only travelled at 90mph between the said speed cameras, arriving in Oil City around three hours later.
Interesting Aberdonian Fact – Many of the roundabouts are sponsored – in many cases by oil companies (well obviously really).
We stayed in Aberdeen Youth Hostel in Queens Road. This road and many round about it boast massive impressive granite houses. There is something very imposing about them – far more imposing in my opinion than similar large sandstone houses but I believe that here I am digressing into construction speak.
(Construction Speak – Like Technobabble but with bricks, mortar, roofs and doors)
Dinner on the first night was home (or rather hostel) made pasta made by the fair hands of L. who we met in Aberdeen as she was coming from the other side of the country. The hostel was rather lacking in pots so we had to make do with a pot which was so large that it could have fed the entire hostel.
Nightlife consisted of a club called Espionage. It was fine but there must be more nightclubs in Aberdeen which we just couldn’t find. We drank and made merry and then as is our wont we got lost on the way home. Many hours later after having trailed round Aberdeen several times seriously ill equipped for it in shoe terms we gave up and got a taxi, which took us home in less than five minutes. Such is life.
The Middle Bit
What can I say about Saturday? After rising early in denial of the lateness to bed of the previous night we scoured the shops. I bought far too many books in charity shops and had great fun trailing them back to the hostel. When I will ever find the time to read them is anyone’s guess.
I am the quiet one of the three of us (which quite frankly is somewhat scary considering how “quiet” I am) so I decided to have an early night on the Saturday night before our highlight which was the aforementioned climb to the top of Lochnagar.
Now why is it that the one night that you have an early night, your pals have the best night ever of the whole trip. While on their merry way home from the nightclub (Espionage again in case you hadn’t already guessed) they were treated to a street party through the streets of Aberdeen – a state of affairs which the Aberdonian streets were utterly devoid of on the previous and subsequent evenings. Funny that. Quite the heady fiesta I was led to believe. Well you never know.
The Ascent of Lochnagar
The conquering of the legend that is Lochnagar was our aim. To be fair, Lochnagar is probably only a legend if you are Prince Charles (The author of the seminal work of literary genius that is The Old Man of Lochnagar). Still, old men aside, we were not to be dissuaded in our quest to conquer the mountain.
The path wound its way seductively into the distance and we began the slow ascent, looking rather less than seductive ourselves in sensible walking boots and warm bulky clothing. Our first obstacle was having to cross a fast flowing torrent of a river. OK, it was actually only a small burn but if you had seen our attempts to cross it you would have thought that it was a fast flowing torrent. That done we continued on the ascent. It was a little windy. Just a little at that point but as we climbed higher it got progressively worse, to the point where we were being blown off our feet. Sadly the wind proved to be our undoing and at just under 3,000 feet we had to call it a day. L. tried to carry on but after being blown into a rock, she too decided that this Munro was not to be bagged on this occasion.
Journey’s End
My experience of Aberdeen was extremely positive. It’s a lovely city and all the people we met were extremely friendly.
As we headed home from Aberdeen, I had promised R. and L. that I would show them the spectacular pebble beach at Inverbervie which you must visit if you are ever in the Aberdeenshire area. However I hadn’t counted on our visit to the Lady of the Manse in Inverbervie. G. is the said Lady of the Manse and we spent a good 2 and a half very enjoyable but chaotic hours in the company of her good self and some other very interesting characters. Confidentiality does not permit me to divulge any more on this blog but you really couldn’t have made our afternoon up. Suffice it to say, doors were slammed, rooms were rent asunder and sanity peeped over the parapet waving a torn white flag in surrender.
But seriously, we had a great time. G. is brilliant – there is no other Lady of the Manse quite like her and we did emerge pretty much unscathed to continue off towards home.
We never did get to see that beach at Inverbervie though.
Beginnings
Our adventure started at about 2.30pm on Friday when R. and I set out for Aberdeen. I believe that we should have set out at midday but a bizarre e mail mix up meant a slightly later departure. Speed Kills and Speed Cameras Cost Money and Points so we only travelled at 90mph between the said speed cameras, arriving in Oil City around three hours later.
Interesting Aberdonian Fact – Many of the roundabouts are sponsored – in many cases by oil companies (well obviously really).
We stayed in Aberdeen Youth Hostel in Queens Road. This road and many round about it boast massive impressive granite houses. There is something very imposing about them – far more imposing in my opinion than similar large sandstone houses but I believe that here I am digressing into construction speak.
(Construction Speak – Like Technobabble but with bricks, mortar, roofs and doors)
Dinner on the first night was home (or rather hostel) made pasta made by the fair hands of L. who we met in Aberdeen as she was coming from the other side of the country. The hostel was rather lacking in pots so we had to make do with a pot which was so large that it could have fed the entire hostel.
Nightlife consisted of a club called Espionage. It was fine but there must be more nightclubs in Aberdeen which we just couldn’t find. We drank and made merry and then as is our wont we got lost on the way home. Many hours later after having trailed round Aberdeen several times seriously ill equipped for it in shoe terms we gave up and got a taxi, which took us home in less than five minutes. Such is life.
The Middle Bit
What can I say about Saturday? After rising early in denial of the lateness to bed of the previous night we scoured the shops. I bought far too many books in charity shops and had great fun trailing them back to the hostel. When I will ever find the time to read them is anyone’s guess.
I am the quiet one of the three of us (which quite frankly is somewhat scary considering how “quiet” I am) so I decided to have an early night on the Saturday night before our highlight which was the aforementioned climb to the top of Lochnagar.
Now why is it that the one night that you have an early night, your pals have the best night ever of the whole trip. While on their merry way home from the nightclub (Espionage again in case you hadn’t already guessed) they were treated to a street party through the streets of Aberdeen – a state of affairs which the Aberdonian streets were utterly devoid of on the previous and subsequent evenings. Funny that. Quite the heady fiesta I was led to believe. Well you never know.
The Ascent of Lochnagar
The conquering of the legend that is Lochnagar was our aim. To be fair, Lochnagar is probably only a legend if you are Prince Charles (The author of the seminal work of literary genius that is The Old Man of Lochnagar). Still, old men aside, we were not to be dissuaded in our quest to conquer the mountain.
The path wound its way seductively into the distance and we began the slow ascent, looking rather less than seductive ourselves in sensible walking boots and warm bulky clothing. Our first obstacle was having to cross a fast flowing torrent of a river. OK, it was actually only a small burn but if you had seen our attempts to cross it you would have thought that it was a fast flowing torrent. That done we continued on the ascent. It was a little windy. Just a little at that point but as we climbed higher it got progressively worse, to the point where we were being blown off our feet. Sadly the wind proved to be our undoing and at just under 3,000 feet we had to call it a day. L. tried to carry on but after being blown into a rock, she too decided that this Munro was not to be bagged on this occasion.
Journey’s End
My experience of Aberdeen was extremely positive. It’s a lovely city and all the people we met were extremely friendly.
As we headed home from Aberdeen, I had promised R. and L. that I would show them the spectacular pebble beach at Inverbervie which you must visit if you are ever in the Aberdeenshire area. However I hadn’t counted on our visit to the Lady of the Manse in Inverbervie. G. is the said Lady of the Manse and we spent a good 2 and a half very enjoyable but chaotic hours in the company of her good self and some other very interesting characters. Confidentiality does not permit me to divulge any more on this blog but you really couldn’t have made our afternoon up. Suffice it to say, doors were slammed, rooms were rent asunder and sanity peeped over the parapet waving a torn white flag in surrender.
But seriously, we had a great time. G. is brilliant – there is no other Lady of the Manse quite like her and we did emerge pretty much unscathed to continue off towards home.
We never did get to see that beach at Inverbervie though.
2 comments:
I'm glad you enjoyed Aberdeen. People tend to say bad things about it, but I ventured up there last spring and rather liked it. I never made it out to the nightclubs, though.
Hi Katie
I'm glad you liked Aberdeen. What bad things do people say about it? I had never heard anything too bad. I suppose the only thing was that it can be a bit expensive and that is certainly true - but it's not hugely worse than Glasgow.
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