Furryboots toon (Aberdeen in General)

Member Name: K7AYLOR

Product:	Aberdeen in General
Date:	24/02/09 (79 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's home

Disadvantages: It's cold, grey, rains a lot

As an Aberdonian I felt it was time to add my opinion of my home city.
Aberdeen or the Granite City as it is affectionately known is a city situated in the North East of Scotland and is famed for being the Oil Capital. However ask most Scots and you will be told that Aberdeen is known as "furryboots toon" because of the local dialect of Doric, where most locals will as "fur aboots yeh fae?" (Where are you from?).

Aberdeen is steeped in history but today boasts a decent number of shops and places to go and things to do. We have the Galleria Shopping Centre, The Academy, The Bon-Accord Centre, The Trinity Centre (unless you're tryng to make it sound posh then it's the Mall Trinity) and last but not least the St Nicholas Centre. These shopping centres hosting between them all if not most of the major shopping names on the high street.

If you're brave and venture off Union Street you will find some great little shops on the likes of Belmot Street and Schoolhill.

If historical and sightseeing are more your thing then there is an abundance of places to go and things to see. In the city itself there is the Maritime Museum. This is quite interesting, and best of all free! Here you will find out all about North Sea Oil, the fishing industry as well as seeing a scale model of an oil rig which runs from the ground floor of the museum to the top. Lots of audiovisual presentations and a gift shop and cafeteria.

For those more interested in the history aspect there is Provost Skene's House. This is a little 16th century building hidden away behind the Marks and Spencers (this makes it so much easier to direct tourists to!) and again is free entry. It has been converted into two houses, re-converted into a boarding house and also used to billet the Duke of Cumberland's troops on their march to Culloden. Now it is named after Provost George Skene, a wealthy merchant who lived there in the seventeenth century

And continuing the historical element there is Aberdeen University, my alma mater.
Not the oldest Scottish university, St Andrew's gets that crown, but one of the ancient universities nonetheless. Lots of interesting buildings to look at and explore.

For those more interested in gardens and the likes there are the Duthie Park and Hazlehead Park, Johnston Gardens and also Westburn Park.

The Hazlehead Park is a great family place to visit, with an adventure playground for the kids, pets corner and crazy golf, oh and the maze! There is also the Piper Alpha memorial in the Rose Gardens.

The Duthie Park on the other hand is more of a garden really. There are the winter gardens, terrapin ponds, a small boating pond (for toy boats), lots of open grass areas for kids to run around


It's worth mentioning that you can easily hop on a bus to go adventuring in the Shire, or along up Royal Deeside to see if you can spot the Queen.

I will however offer a warning to tourists, avoid the harbour area pubs and eateries, these are generally not geared towards tourists and generally serves the local harbour workers and boys coming in off the rigs. You're far better sticking to the pubs etc on Union Street, were the service and food are better.

Summary: Aberdeen by an Aberdonian