Tuesday, September 06, 2005

"I really missed this place..."

Through one of the universe's stranger coincidences, myself and my friend Pip lived in Aberdeen at the same time for four years, but never actually knew each other until we both lived in a much larger city and happened to each meet the same canadian. Between us we must have said a million times how we had to go back to the Silver City for a visit, yet somehow it's taken another four years for us both to get organised and actually go. In the meantime while Phil and I've been boring Hame ridgid with stories of our lives in the frozen North, we've also all three met Liz who lived in Aberdeen for the first few years of her life and so also has fond memories of the place (albeit rather different ones!) So this weekend the four of us travelled north for an adventure.

Hame and Pip went on ahead on Friday while Liz and myself had things to do, following on behind on Sunday morning. The others all took pictures which Hamish and Liz have posted here and here respectively. Liz's match my weekend the closest since she and I hung out the whole time.

Somehow in the short time we were there I managed to touch base with most of the different aspects of Aberdeen that I've missed, Sunday night the four of us spent on the town visiting some old haunts (anyone who was at Aberdeen with me will be pleased to hear that Estaminet is pretty much just as we left it) as well as exploring some new ones from the godawful gay club that's squatting in what used to be Oh Henry's to the first rate church conversion bar Soul up at the top end of Union Street...

On Monday Liz and I met back up with Hame and Pip inside my graduation photos, we wandered around Old Aberdeen in the implausibly good weather trying to figure out where we were going to go for lunch* having discovered our intended destination nolonger existed. When Liz's Dad arrived to meet us we all settled on a location chnage to the sea front where we had an excellent lunch and ate ice creams on the Esplanade.

Liz and I spent the afternoon playing on the beach, she bought a very cool kite and then nearly brained me with it. We wrote inscrutable things in the sand and walked until the Haar came in, at which point we decided it was home time and headed back to the car along the river. I'm really lucky with my friends and the more we do this sort of thing the more I find how great they are to travel with. Especially seeing how little we spent weekend road trips might become a more regular thing.

*It's gratifying to note that visitscotland's information on King's College Visitor Centre's "excellent coffee shop" is as out of date as my own: the University's gone and closed it :(

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