Thistle Writing: Stonehaven

Bay walk in Stonehaven. There was a Dog Show
so we were seeing dogs all day

Saturday, I went with Iveta and Lisa to Stonehaven. What a beautiful city! It was definately some exercise to get to the main attractions which were the war memorial and Dunnotar castle. It only cost me £3.40 with my railcard. We didn't pay to go inside the actual castle but I did buy the £2 postcards. It was all beautiful and the weather deemed to be nice and sunny. I wish I could get you a full recap and I will. However that will have to come on a later date. Otherwise I would check back on the last two posts since I have added more to them.

26/10/2010

Right this is getting ridiculus. I was taking way too long on getting this out for everyone. I do not have much more to add. I mean most of the story can be said in the first paragraph and you can see in the pictures. What I have to add is not much.

War Memorial

Like I said it was a 15 minute ride from Aberdeen to Stonheaven on the train. I really do enjoy the train. So far this is my second time on it. When we got to Stonehaven it seemed we were going on my sence of direction as well as ideas. Now how on earth did that happen? I really just followed the signs so thankfully we didn't get lost. It was 1 1/2 miles to the harbor while it was 3 miles to Dunnotar Castle. We wanted to have our packed lunches so we decided on the harbor first. We passed through the main town and we walked down a delightful boardwalk. There were a lot of people with their dogs thanks to the dog show that was happening. Also there was a pebble artist, stone artist, or beach artist. I have no idea what you call him. He was some kind of artist that used rocks to form shapes on the beach. They were quite good and apparently he has gotten some credit in some paper for it. I didn't take a picture of them though.

We actually thought that the boardwalk we were on was at the harbor. Or at least I thought so. It turns out we had to go around a few bends to see that. Now that was a quaint little harbor. I quite liked it though I was quite peeved by the dang bathrooms where one stall had no door, there were no toilet seats, and then the one toilet didn't flush. Two older ladies had to start a queue but that was fine since they were quite funny. I wonder now if they didn't have a wee draft with their lunch as well.

Dunnotar Castle

We asked for directions from an older man which it seems he wasn't from the area but he was kind enough to help us find the path to the War Memorial and the castle. He also was funny and we started up the hill laughing. Oh we were laughing most of the time since it was really just all fun with the three of us. However back up a second. I said we walked up the hill. Well here is the thing. That didn't feel like a hill. It was more like a bloody mountain! I apologize for my mouth. The view was worth the hike. First we stopped at the memorial. It was solumn but looked built for time. I couldn't be solumn because like I said earlier I was having too much fun. I have a picture of me goofing off on the steps but I thought that it would be better to post one without me being silly. It was all fun because Iveta and Lisa also liked what I did and we took the chance to all do the same thing.

Walking over to the castle was a treat. I doubt you can tell that was somewhat sarcastic. The pathway is so near the edge it was like walking over. Just to say I have a fear of hights but it wasn't as bad as Ivetas. Felt bad for her but it was over fast. Lisa was practically galloping through the ups and downs of it. She also has a fear of heights but the terrain was reminding her of home and horse riding so her actions weren't hampered by the six story drop on our left side.

Is it ever steep!

Lisa took this as well for me since I didn't want to dig out my camera

Like I said in the pic description the steps to the castle were vera steep. That, and there was a lot of them. We weren't expecting to pay to get in so we didn't. That's all right it was nice to just get up close to it and the postcards are awesome. After the castle I wanted to get down by the shore to see what made the rocks black and hopefully find one for Bekka, my best friend's sister. Turns out the black stones are cemented together by nature so that was nixed. Lisa really got into looking for one that was movable and climbed out to sea as far as she could. Iveta and I waited on shore. We then headed back up the impossibly steep and impossibly many steps and back down the mountain-not-a-hill to the harbor where we had a small dinner. It was a little pricy and the cheapest item happened to be mac and cheese with chips and then chicken fingers with chips. Since I dislike any forms of mac and cheese I bought the chicken fingers. I wanted to buy the soup but I talked myself out of it. that was actually cheaper and most likely that would have been better since the chicken fingers were way too much food after nearly 6 miles of walking. We paid more for dinner then we did the entire trip. Dang. It was a nice restaurant. Just wish my friends were brave enough to try haggis again with me (I didn't order it because they weren't).

After this it was just the walk back to the station and back to Aberdeen. We had thought to go out to club afterwards but all day Iveta was sick and I just was to tuckered out so I went to bed.