Aberdeen, Scotland
 

Since there doesn't seem to be a lot about cities in this forum, i thought i'd add something. I live in Aberdeen in the northeast of Scotland, known as the Granite City for the large quantities of granite used in most of the buildings here, making it a rather dull gray city through-out. It's also known as the Oil-Capital of Europe since oil was found in the north sea, making it rather rich.

I myself quite like Aberdeen, since I've lived here all my life, but still can't wait to escape to Edinburgh this September for Uni, cos it's generally better.

Tell us more! Can you post pics? Billy, our main man in China, posted some great pics of his home and yard, etc. and it was great!

Yes, please
 

Please torture me with pictures of Scotland. It's top on my list of places I want to visit. ;)

Here's the pics you wanted
 

Sorry if some of the images are a bit dark, it's cloudy today and there's rain coming, plus the sun doesnt get very high here in winter.

This is my house. I live in the suburb of Bieldside, one of the well off areas in the city that has grown extensively since the oil boom created many well payed jobs. It's on the north side of the Dee valley about 5 miles from the city centre.

Bieldside
 

This is a view over the Dee valley from the wall that marks the border between the houses and the forest further up the valley. To give an idea of scale, the far side is about 2 miles away.

Greenery
 

Bieldside and the adjacent suburb of Cults are generally quite green, with many tree lined pathways linking cul-de-sacs of houses.

Schools
 

Here are the local primary and secondary schools, Cults Primary and the larger Cults Academy. Both are in walking distance of my house. I went to Cults Primary when i was younger and I'm now in my last year at Cults academy. Both are known to be among the best schools in the city.

Aberdeen
 

Here's a view down the Dee valley towards Aberdeen from Cults. There seems to be some smoke rising from somewhere further dwon, obscuring the view. The second pic is of a 737 flying over the area , coming from Aberdeen Airport. That's about the biggest aircraft that can land in Aberdeen, and many international flights have to re-fuel in England because the runway is too short for a fully fuel laden plane to take off here.

Finally
 

This is the view up the Dee valley towards the mountains. It's a shame the photos aren't that high quality because at this time of year they are topped with snow and it is really quite a view. On a clear day you can see right down to Lochnagar, about 45 miles away and 1154m high, with a huge vertical cliff-face visible even from Aberdeen. It's quite spectacular.

There is quite a lot in Aberdeen itself, which i might be able to snap later if i get the chance.

Apologies for sounding newbish, but i thought i remembered reading in the faq somewhere that there was a limit on the size of image you could upload, but looking at other posts, i see other peoples photos are far better quality. Is there a limit to size or not, because if not i could post much better quality pics than these. Anyone know?

I think the limit is just over 100K per image.

Grazzers-I can't help you with the technical question but I do thank you for the pics! It is so great to see other parts of the world and I really appreciate you sharing with us. This is what makes the Cellar so awesome! Thanks!! :)

Ok thanks HM, i should be able to get a better shot of the mountains at that quality.

ps Brianna, no problem, its the half term holidays and this is a great way to fill my time!

wow, looks like an awesome place to live, i wanna go there!

It's not bad, i can think of worse places to live. Oh, and there is heavy snowfall predicted for the weekend, so i should be able to get some good pics!

Wow, it's beautiful grazzers!! Can I come visit?? :)

it's green! So wonderfully green! I once lived in Italy.... then I had to move to U.S.A.... of all places, and worse yet, Texas... Some green, mostly brown. Makes me sad.

Many thanks for the pictures!

Thanks for the tour, very green for winter. :)
5" x 8" and 72 pixels per inch JPG should give you good pictures well within the limit of 120.

Archergirl and anyone else, your all free to visit, although i suggest going inland to the mountainous areas, where the views are unbelievable, especially at this time of year! It's not usually this green, but we've had a very mild winter so far, but thats set to change, so i'll hopefully get some pics of a snowy landscape online soon!

I hear it's prettymuch always gloomy in Scotland. My friend was disapointed when she moved there. Always wanted to view it with beautiful sunrises and sunsets, she got a little peeved when she didn't see that. Maybe it's where she went. her answering machine has some statement saying "We're in "sunny" Scotland"

Yeah, Scotland isn't notorious for good weather, but here on the East coast it is relatively dry with about 800mm rain per year compared to some West coast areas getting 3000mm, almost a centimeter a day! Britian lies right in the path of any weather system coming in off the Atlantic, but the East coast is luckily sheltered by the mountains, so not much is left by the time it gets here. It's a clear sunny day today so far, apparently the snow arrives tonight though (hopefully).

I haven't seen snow in 15 years.....

Well...
 

It snowed! :D
(and yes, that is me looking like a fool in a hat)

A good 2 inches fell overnight. I took a pic of my house to compare with before it snowed. You can see more snow clouds building behind it.

The gritter/plough things were prepared and turned up at 8.30 this morning, taking away the precious snow. Heres a secluded patch they didn't get. It soon started snowing again, which i guess isn't good for cameras, so i came back inside. Enjoy!

You call that snow? Dude, I can still see the houses and cars and the trees are still green. Around here the snow plows wouldn't even bother to come out for a little dusting like that, not worth the effort. :eyebrow:

Nice neighborhood, nice shots, nice goin Graz.

404, they wear kilts. They're not waiting for the snow to get deep. :lol:

Thanks grazzers, I hadn't seen any of Scotland that looks like your area. It looks much like many upscale American suburbs.

A Scottish sunset for Dunlavy
 

I think your friend must have been in the wrong place ...

It is now 9.30pm and it's still snowing, but i think i'll put any more snow photos in the snow thread. I'll try to get some photos of the centre of town, since this is the Aberdeen thread, maybe if school is cancelled on Monday (fingers crossed).

Ceilidh
 

Well, we had snow all week and its snowing again now, but school has been on the whole time. Just thought since this is the Aberdeen, Scotland thread i might add a taster of Scottish life. On Friday I went to a Fundraising Ceilidh (traditional Scottish dance) set up the people who went to Mexico last summer (including me) to raise money for the Orphanage we helped out at. Ceilidhs are basically traditional dances that everybody knows or was forced to learn at school, like me. There was lots of dancing and getting drunk and a raffle (which my mum won the top prize, woo!). There were also stovies. How do you describe stovies... theyre basically meat and potatoes put in a big pan and cooked, to wierd, mushy results. A fun evening was had by all.

This is the sort of thing that happens a lot in Scotland, because us Scots do love a party :biggrin: . More stuff on Scottish life to come...

Thank You. :biggrin:

Sounds like a nice place.

Indeed it is. Here's a bit of an update, it's still been snowing recently, but thats about to change as its forecast to be 15*C by midweek, which is pretty good for Aberdeen in March. I still have to try and get some more photos of the centre of Aberdeen but I'm incredibly busy at the moment being in my final year of school with final exams less than 2 months away. Easter Hols soon , i'll post again then.

I need more info on the stovies. What kind of meat and potatoes? And just fry them together in one skillet? Hamburger or what?? Details, man, details! :)

i searched on google for recipes, the first link is www.stovies.com with some lovely pics of the mass of warmed wierdness that people here called stovies. The Ceilidh was the first time i've had stovies in a long time, and to be honest, i wasnt that impressed, but its good drinking food, went well with my pint. The stovies also come with oatcakes, which you can see on that site. Just basically oaty biscuit things, maybe we only really have them here, but quite nice.

Sotvies are common for Ceilidhs and Weddings, things like that, about as common as Haggis, which i prefer. I can give plenty more details of Scottish life, just ask here!

Worse than Haggis! :eek: Stovies must be really bad. :sick:

Thanks for the link! Kinda reminds me of home-made roast beef hash...OK--question about Scottish life: Tell me about the Fry shops (true about deep-frying Mars bars?) and is Sean Connery really worshipped as a diety? ;)

Oh yes, the deep fried mars bars really are true, started at the Bervie Chipper in Inverbervie, not too far down the coast from here. Never tried one i have to say, but i could see if i could just to review it for you guys. You can get quite a lot of deep fried food here from "Fish & Chip Shops," even though they probably should just be called Fry Shops seeing as everything there is fried. Fish, chicken, sausage, haggis, black pudding, and i've even heard of deep fried pizza :biggrin: . All these are probably the reason that Scottish kids are generally more unhealthy than the average american, if you can believe that :biggrin: . All these usually come as a "supper", with lots of extra fatty chips, and a bottle of Irn Bru to wash it down. Irn Bru is the only thing to truly rival Coca Cola in Scotland, and i think is the most popular soft drink here. Its a wierd, fruity, incredibly sweet and unhealthy drink that is only popular here and in Russia i think, but is banned in America because of some additives or something. Something thats too unhealthy for America :confused: . Anyway, feel free to ask more!

Greasy fish and chips eaten out of oil soaked newspaper. I had that in Britain once. Yuck.

Fish and chips isnt that bad, if you go to a decent chip shop and take it home to eat on a plate instead of from a newspaper. Sadly, there are a lot of bad chips shops out there, and so a lot of people are put off. I get mine from a chip shop a couple of miles away. I always have Chicken Pie and chips, and its great, although has to be limited to once a month or so, or else i would probably put on weight pretty fast.

What about drinking ale with everything? Do you do that? I will admit (sheepishly) to reading Rosamund Pilcher (too old for you, I am sure) but she's always going on and on about drinking Scotch and soda and beer, etc. etc. until I can't stand it anymore and have to have a drink. If you read her stuff you will believe that people are tossing back Scotch at breakfast! (Admittedly, an idea not entirely without merit) oh--and I can't think that your diet is worse than ours in terms of fat/fried food. Did you see the nine dollar Cheesesteak Image of the Day? Philadelphia rivals anyone with claims to fame where greasy, cheesy, fried and yummy food is concerned.

Contains: Carbonated Water, Sugar, Citric Acid, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Caffeine, Ferric Ammonium Citrate, FD & C Yellow No. 5, FD & C Red No. 40 and FD & C Yellow No. 6.
:)

As you can see from the Irn Bru ingredients list, there is absolutely no nutritional value to this drink at all, and sugar is the 2nd largest constituent after water :yelsick: . Personally i hate the stuff, but many children, teenagers and even some adults here are absolutley addicted to it. Wierd people.

As for Scottish drinking habits, i dont really drink still being 17 and all, maybe a pint sometimes with a meal, thats about it. Most people here drink about the same as anyone else in the world, and i dont really know any Scotch drinkers. The real drinkers are young folk on a Friday or Saturday night. Then people drink like theres no tomorrow. Binge drinking is a big problem here, people go out to intentionally get completely drunk. There is no logic behind it, they just go out and drink ALOT. Beer, vodka, whatever is relatively cheap and gets you drunk fast. Union Street, Aberdeens main street, is mad at 11ish on a Saturday night, drunk blokes shouting or throwing up etc. Strange thing is there is no evidence left by the following morning. Maybe its like this in every city, i dunno.

Anyway, enough of spoiling the image of Scotland as a peaceful, mountainous country with happy, welcoming, red-headed folk that most of the world seems to have of us. Keep the questions coming!

What's the area of Scotland to visit for someone who's never seen it before? The definitive Scottish destination, as it were?

If it had to be only one area? I'd vote Edinburgh. Many days' worth of sights and entertainment there. But that's a foreigner speaking...

I would agree with Clodfobble, Edinburgh is a good place to start. There's the castle and other historic sites close by, but it's quite a touristy city. If you want a more true Scottish feel, you would probably want to head further north. Inverness would be good, as its a lot further from England and any major tourist centres, so has retained a more local feel. Its not far from Loch Ness, where the world famous Nessie is said to lurk. Its also surrounded by the Highlands and many of the views that make Scotland such a great place to visit. Kind of harder to get to Inverness, it has an airport but most flights are internal, not international, but it is probably worth it if you want to see the real Scotland.

Hello, first post here! :)

I'm living in Sweden and I'm going to Aberdeen through my school this summer. I'm traveling with my friend whom is 18 years while I'm still 17 at that time of the year... will be 18 a couple of months later. Do you think I will have problems with this? :P Can you buy alchohol in shops at 18?

Will I have a hard time to understand the people in Aberdeen or is it like "normal" english?

Sorry to pull up such an old post!

Hey Tengil,
I can't answer your question. I just wanted to say "welcome to the Cellar." Your English is outstanding. Much better than my Swedish.

As far as scottish versus "normal" english, it's all in the ear.

The scottish brogue is one of my all time favorite accents (my knees go weak just hearing it) but it is something you have to train your ear to really understand. And there is a difference in dialects between Aberdeen and Edinburgh, in the way they pronounce things.

The language itself isn't much different between British English, but can be very different from American English. (A boot in Britain is the storage compartment of a car, but in the US it's what you wear on your feet. In the US, the storage compartment on a car is called a trunk, which is luggage in the UK. A bonnet in the UK is what Americans call the "hood" of the car, but in the US, a "bonnet" is a rarely used term for a ladies hat.)

So, bottom line is: it's takes some getting used to and time in country before you can understand it properly, and train your ear. I love Billy Connelly and laugh hysterically when I see his comedy specials, my husband insists he's not speaking English. Cannot understand more than 1 or 2 words per sentence.

Enjoy!

hi, first post so apologies for any etiquette mistakes!

I'm from Aberdeen but currently a student in Edinburgh. Found the site through idle googling of the alma mater, I went to the same school as grazzers.
So Tengil, about the alcohol, you can buy it legally when you're 18 in shops and pubs but if you look young and they ask for ID and you don't have any, you won't get served. They won't usually make you leave the pub but you can't have anything alcoholic. If you're in a pub, don't try and get your own drink, ask your 18 year old friend to buy it for you. They should have no problem if they have ID, with their date of birth and photo on it of course. A passport or driving licence is fine. If you try to buy your own drink and are refused and then the pub employees see you drinking alcohol, you could get both yourself and your friend thrown out.
Aberdeen accents range from perfect English to some kind of hideous Neanderthal dialect consisting of grunts and spitting that I still don't even understand. But on the whole, you should understand most of what you hear and if you don't, just ask them to repeat it and they'll realise that they need to speak more clearly.
I think the most difficult Scottish accent for visitors to understand is the Glasgow accent, it can sometimes sound like a totally different language. Billy Connelly has a Glasgow accent. Edinburgh and Aberdeen accents shouldn't be much of a problem in comparison.

p.s. if grazzers is still around, I haven't been back in Aberdeen for over a year. What's with the railing type things i see in your photo of what looks like the path between the Earlswells and Earslpark sections of Cults and Bieldside? Why did they do that?

I would SO love to go to Scotland. I've heard it's beautiful, though a bit cold, and that accent....read the phone book to me, baby! :D

Scotland, Ireland, Greece, and Italy...one day...*sigh*....hopefully...

Billy Connolly kills me....I rented one of his shows once, and while I'm the "ha ha, that was cute" kind of person, I swear, I thought I was going to hyperventilate, I laughed so hard. :lol2:

As Mr Connelly says it "Glaazzguuuue".

I got to go to Edinburgh on business once. It was beautiful. And not all that cold considering it was the first week in December.