ugly beret

I have returned from edinburgh! and scotland was incredible. there were zero problems with the flight (besides a bit of a delay due to wind) but I met a girl named sarah and we wasted time sharing airport horror stories. actually in the air we hit quite a bit of turbulence but it wasn't so bad, although a woman in the back started screaming and carrying on like a maniac. sucks to be her I guess! upon arriving in edinburgh, I realized that flying a few miles north has a huge impact on the temperature. it was freezing. and hilly. scotland is very very hilly. I found catherine up the block from the airport shuttle dropoff and we went to a pub (called something weird that I'll remember later) for a ska show (by a band who's name I don't remember either.) I met a bunch of her mates there too which was cool, a girl or two from toronto actually! the pub was pretty interesting and the band was very good, although the guitarist's voice was like davey havok's and that is just odd to think about. after the set we went back to her res to chill and get ready for tomorrow's adventure!

saturday started well, it was sunny and bright in the city. catherine and I got prepped for our aberdeen tour and the ventured out into the morning (afternoon) to get some eats and then get on a bus. we wandered the streets looking at all of the sites, edinburgh castle, about thirty pizza huts, construction . . . I'm joking, edinburgh was lovely. you could see the sea down at the bottom of the hills that the city is mainly based on, and the architecture was fantastic. we had some problems booking a bus, as the cheapest buses are only bookable by internet, which wouldn't work. so we ended up paying twenty quid for the trip instead of ten, but a three-hour bus ride for twenty is still really good (ahem overpriced greyhound.) while we waited for the bus, we located an incredibly cheap all-you-can-eat chinese buffet! yes yes y'all, I went to scotland to eat chinese food. all of the food was great, except the batch of sweet and sour sauce seemed off. of course, all sauces here across the pond tend to be much more vinegary than north american sauces, so that could have been it as well. the best part was the ice cream bar at the end, with stacks of desserts and a soft serve machine and tons of fruit. hurrah! I chose a slice of cheesecake topped with what looked like lingonberries or something, but ended up being ubersour 'demon berries' as dubbed by catherine.

we arrived in aberdeen around six thirtyish, and asked some locals for directions to our hostel. instead of directing us to queens road, they led us to queen street, which was at the opposite end of where we needed to be. after a whole load of drama with a hotel concierge, we hailed a taxi and got him to figure out where we were going. of course he did, and we arrived at the scottish youth hostel without a problem. after checking in we walked about fifteen minutes to moshulu, the club featuring the go! team for the evening! we thought we'd be pretty late but we arrived as the third opener began. perfect timing! the concert was amazing, I made it my personal duty to hate on all the little dweebs who were standing in the front stock still, preening their hair, and checking their text messages during the show. catherine and I (along with all of the regular people who aren't concertally-challenged) beat them down and taught them a valuable lesson: don't be lame at a show. the best part was when the roadies passed out water bottles, and I cracked mine open and sprayed it around the crowd, making sure to get queen ugly-beret with her posse of space-cases right in the mascara-caked eye :)

the hostel made for a pretty good sleep, cat and I were pretty exhausted after the show. the room was freezing but the duvets weighed about a hundred pounds so we were warm on our little bunk beds. strange side note: aberdeen has porta-urinals that they put out at night for the drunkies. weird! we were going to take a photo but then we noticed that a guy was using the vestibule so we peaced out. we woke up early to venture through aberdeen in the daylight, and the city is beautiful under the sun! it is made up nearly entirely of granite buildings and huge old churches, with a few eighties-style office buildings. our hostel had been converted from a huge (probably) eighteenth century house, as all the rest on the street were the same and were huge and beautiful with turrets and enormous doors. we stopped at a starbucks for coffee and then wandered our way down towards the bus station. we stopped in a shopping centre to browse around but it was sunday and so most places were pretty quiet. then at noon I had to catch the airport shuttle, so I bid catherine adieu and hopped the shuttle to catch a plane back to dublin. the aberdeen scenery outside the city was nice, pastures and fields separated by little old stone walls and rolling hills. oh also, scotland had tons of little outcroppings of crocuses (I didn't remember this mom, catherine had to remind me what the little white, yellow and purple flowers were haha.) the airport was mini and quite nice, and my plane arrived and flew without incident. a poor little baby in the arms of her mum behind me did not enjoy the flight. I figure she spied the rainclouds over dublin because those made me pretty sad as well.