Aberdeen

The day after we went to Abbotsford we went on an excursion. A lot of the other students didn't go to Abbotsford for that reason. Everyone was sick (literally) of the ketchup bottle (aka our big red van). However, I didn't want to just waste my time hanging out at the dorms. I mean, HELLO! We are in Scotland! Anyway, the excursion was a three day trip to Aberdeen and Inverness. Aberdeen is  located on the east coast of Scotland, about a 2.5 hour drive from Glasgow. You can take a route along the oceanside, but instead we went north into central Scotland so that we could see Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire. Balmoral Castle is a royal estate where the royal family stays during their trips to Scotland (unless they are staying in Edinburg at the Holyrood Palace.) The castle was purchased by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, but the area had been used as hunting grounds for the royal family before then. Prince Albert and Queen Victoria LOVED coming here and would sometimes spend up to 4 months at a time at Balmoral. This was part of the reason Queen Victoria was so well liked by the Scots, which is not very common for an English queen/king. Since their deaths the castle is mostly used as a tourist spot.

 Entrance to the grounds

 Inside this room on the first floor they had a display of Queen Elizabeth's gowns. I about died. They were soooo beautiful. Besides the ones from the 70s and 80s of course. There are also about a gazillion portraits of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. I was a little disappointed that we paid so much money only to see two rooms, but then I went out to the grounds....

 I don't know why I didn't take more pictures, because the gardens were beautiful. 

 A view of the castle from the gardens. 

 Most of the area was landscaped and filled with tourists, but I went on a little adventure and found a bunch of little dirt paths to these ponds and meadows. It was nice to be on my own for a few minutes...(shhh it technically wasn't allowed) But seriously, spending literally ALL your time around the same 15 other people who you didn't choose to be with can sometimes be overwhelming. Luckily I didn't get involved with the drama, but believe me it was in full force by the time we hit mid-July. 

 I love how green everything is and how flowers just grow anywhere and everywhere. 

 Roof of an archway in the garden.

 On the other side of the castle was this beautiful stream with a walking path running alongside it. I remember suddenly feeling right at home. Doesn't this look like it could be somewhere in the Utah mountains?

After Balmoral Castle, we piled back into the van and were back on our way to Aberdeen. For lunch we stopped at a random little town and spent some time walking around. It wasn't super exciting, especially since I had packed my usual PB&J and Cadbury Fingers. (I couldn't eat PB&Js for about two months after I got home. I ate them all the time since it was so cheap. However, European peanut butter is not the same as American peanut butter and I don't think it's very popular there. This doesn't really surprise me though because it tastes all musty and weird. But the Cadbury Fingers? Those were amazing. But let's get real- anything chocolate over there is amazing.) Sorry about the food rant. The point is, I had nothing to do during my lunch break since I wasn't getting lunch, so another PB&J girl and I wandered into the local church and discovered these incredible stained glass windows. I loved the old churches in Europe. There is so much detail and thought put into each church or cathedral. Not saying there is anything wrong with the Mormon chapels, but I loved how each church I went in seemed like it had its own personality.

About 30 minutes from Aberdeen, we stopped on the coast to see Dunnottar Castle. Back in February during the prep class my professor showed us pictures of this castle and it instantly became the number one site I wanted to visit. The castle is practically on its own island. In order to reach it, you walk out to the edge of a grassy cliff, take a set of stairs down to sea level, and then climb back up to the castle.

 First view of the castle

 Carolyn and I

 These tiny trickling waterfalls are all over the place, especially in the highlands. 

 Path out to the edge of the cliff

 Is that not the coolest thing you've ever seen?

 Bottom of the cliff. This could be the exact spot where Chris Guthrie and Ewan had their first kiss. Yes, we did read Scottish romance novels for class. Okay, I guess Sunset Song is technically more tragedy than romance since Ewan goes crazy and ends up getting killed, but at least the scene at Dunnottar Castle was a good moment for him. 

 This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip because it captures the wind blowing through the grass. I can't even describe how beautiful it is watching the grass ripple back and forth changing colors with the wind. It almost looks like water. 

 I love ruins. There is so much history in these walls, I wish they could tell me all about the centuries and centuries of life they have seen.

Courtyard of Dunnottar Castle

Can you imagine having to haul all the rocks up to the top of the cliff to build this? People were so tough back then. 

When I think of Scotland, I think of these colors- green, dark grey, blue, and white

In the kitchen! Madi is demonstrating how to make medieval pizza using the oven.

View from the top

I didn't get a picture, but we saw about 5 dolphins swimming in the ocean! 

Heading back to the other side.

Right as we were leaving we noticed a little bridge that led to a neighboring cliff. Look at that view!

After seeing the castle, we finally made it to Aberdeen! Honestly, it may have been one of my least favorite cities we visited. I just found it really boring. All the buildings look very similar in the downtown area. Everything is gray. Gray house after gray house after gray house. It wasn't much to look at. Our hostel was pretty clean though, which was a major plus. My bunk bed didn't have any obscenities written on it and there weren't any stains or mysterious hairs on my pillow. My professor actually taught at the University of Aberdeen for a few years, so he showed us around his old neighborhood. I liked this area much better than downtown Aberdeen. 

Since there isn't really too much to see in Aberdeen we ended up going to the mall. So American of us! Apparently we really were feeling American because we all ate dinner at a burger joint and then got Ben and Jerry's ice cream. We came this close to seeing Despicable Me 2 but then decided that would be pushing it. I mean, we were in Scotland. You shouldn't waste time doing things that can be done in America. (Sometimes I just didn't care about this philosophy though. Like that one time we went to McDonalds and ate chicken nuggets and french fries-woops!). 

I think that's all from Glasgow to Aberdeen!