Kilt Kountry Part 1...Aberdeen, SCOTLAND!

So a little over a week ago I booked an easyjet flight over to Scotland, a mere 1 1/2 hr. flight from Paris, to go visit my friend Terri who has been living there for a little over a year.  She works in the oil and gas industry and was relocated from Houston to Aberdeen, Scotland which is the oil and gas capital of Europe.  She was gracious enough to open up her flat to me and another of her girlfriends, Tiffany.  I arrived on Thursday, March 11.  My journey there was no easy task, I have officially mastered public transportation and to be honest it feels quite good.  Starting from Paris I took the subway to Gare du Nord to catch the RER train out to Charles de Gaulle Airport.  From there I flew into Edinburgh where I then caught a shuttle bus that took me across town to the Waverly Train Station.  I then hopped a high speed train to Aberdeen that took around 2 1/2 hrs. finally landing me in Aberdeen.  From there it was just a short taxi ride to Terri's door. Whew!  I got there about 11:15 and Terri greeted me with a glass of red wine and a lot of banter that we needed to catch up on.  Tiffany arrived the next morning, her flight went directly into Aberdeen which was nice.  Friday was our first day in the "big city" and Terri had to go into work for a little bit.  We walked with her to her office and met some of her co-workers that we would later be going out with that evening.  While Terri was taking care of a little business, Tiffany and I wandered around the streets near her office and into a little gift store called Nova.  They had lots of cute trinkets and stuff, but neither one of us purchased anything.  At this point we were pretty hungry and snuck into a little sandwich shop called Food Story.  I got a bowl of Thai Chicken Soup and a cheese and bacon sandwich.  Pretty tasty.  Afterwards we met Terri back at her office.  We then decided to go back to Terri's flat and rest up for a little bit before our first big night out.  Plus Tiffany was pretty jet lagged from just getting in earlier that morning as she said she didn't really sleep on the plane.

Around 6:30 we had dinner plans to eat our first round of the delicious Fish and Chips at a restaurant called Ashvale.  My new friend Amber who also lives in Aberdeen with her husband made reservations for all of us.  Amber and her husband Mike also had friends in town visiting from Texas.  At dinner we had a total of 10 Texans, it was Awesome (even if some of them were Aggies...just kidding!).  Here's a shot of our table.

And of course the delicious fish (haddock) and chips with lots of salt and vinegar, yum!

Outside the restaurant they had one of those cheesy little props where you can stick your head through a cutout and take a picture. And since I'm never one to turn down a photo-op...

After filling our bellies full of food, we embark on finding a nice little place to throw back a few.  Our first stop is the Howff, which I would refer to as a traditional pub.  I tried to document all the places we stopped off, but I very well could have missed a few.

After a beer at The Howff, we let our tour guides lead us on our merry way to the next drinking establishment.  I'm not sure of it's name but the whole point of us going in was to check out the really cool bookshelf....or was it even a bookshelf?!

Surprise, it was the women's bathroom!  Kind of a cool design but I'm glad I had friends to tell me where it was otherwise I'd be one of those people with the lost look on their faces when trying to find the WC.  After a few photo's of the bathroom we continued on our journey to the next watering hole, Ma Cameron's.

Above is Amber, Terri, Tiffany, and myself...all proudly representing the Texas State Bobcats...eat 'em up!  Also at Ma Cameron's I discovered a delicious Scottish beer called Tennet's which was a nice break from the usual 1664 I get back in Paris.

After having a pint or 2 at Ma Cameron's it's then time to meet up with a few of Terri's co-workers whom we have heard many a story about.  They decide to take us to Soul which conveniently happens to be a renovated church turned bar.  We learn during our time in Aberdeen that these are quite popular and tend to be the norm.  We snag a table at Soul and the first to arrive are JC who works with Terri, his friend Clarke, another of Terri's co-workers, Andrew and Doug who could easily be mistaken for Alan from The Hangover .  In true gentlemanly fashion they order a bottle of vodka for us at the table with some red bull.  It didn't take us anytime to polish that bad boy off, but in the mean time Tiffany and I said a quick prayer.

Here's a picture of the stained glass window that you can somewhat see in the above picture

And a picture of the church/bar from the outside

Soul closed down around 2am and we emptied the bottle of vodka so what else were we to do? Certainly not go home so we mosey over to Espionage!  This place had 3 levels.  The bottom floor had a bar and dance music but they were spinning oldies tracks like Greece Lightening.  As much love as I have for John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, I just wasn't feeling the bottom floor.  On the 2nd level it was mainly just a bar area and booths to chat and mingle.  This is where most of our group holed up.  And last but not least was the 3rd floor filled with bumping booty shaking music, sweat, and B.O.!  Spent quite a bit of time upstairs dancing the night away with my dance partner and protector, Andrew.  White boy can drop it like it's hot, haha! 

Here is a pic of Terri and Clarke with the Espionage sign above!  I'm pretty sure we closed ol' Espionage down as well which was roughly around 3am.  We took a cab back to Terri's where we went up to her flat and hung out a little more after finally drifting off sometime after the sun started to rise.  And that, my friends, was just night 1 in Scotland.  To be continued!