downtown

I made my first excursion to downtown today (about a 40min walk), so I could run a couple errands and it turned out to be a little harder to navigate than I thought. After stopping to read my own map twice, I finally found a city map that actually told me where I was. This was a huge help and got me going in the right direction. Once I picked up my railpass from the railway station, I was pretty sure I knew how to get to the grocery store. Eventually, however, I ended up having to ask for directions. Oh yeah, just in case you didn't know, you have to pay for plastic bags over here, but you are also allowed to bring in your own bag. Since we were given one cloth bag by the Scotland Program, I decided to make sure everything fit into that one bag. This made for one heavy bag to carry back. The groceries may have only cost 10 pounds but it must have weighed 40. The only thing that got me through the whole ordeal is the cadbury egg I bought as a reward for making the journy. I don't know if it was the walk or the fact that I'm so close to the cadbury chocolate factory, but I'm pretty sure it was the best egg I've ever eaten.
Not only did I walk through downtown, I got to go on a free bus tour of Aberdeen today. We started at the harbor and got to walk through a really cool, old fishing village. The last fisherman to live there died about 3 years ago but people do live there still. We made it a lot further than I would ever go on foot where, all the granite mansions are. Most were converted to private schools or offices, I'm pretty sure none of them are still used as housing. If people do live there, they were split up into multiple flats. It was upsetting because my camera's flash didn't work through the bus windows and the pictures were almost always blurry without a flash.
I am just about to leave for Mass in the awesome church that was built in 1509. I'm pretty excited, I'll let you know how it goes.