#this is way too many words for somebody who hasn't been further north than like perth in god knows how many years

[anewbrainjughead]

I’m Scotland anon! We’re flying into Inverness and driving to visit my sister who’s living outside Aberdeen. It would be cool to know a couple good places to go, but also any tips to not embarrass myself as a tourist?? Ty!

Hi! I'm going to be honest, i haven't spent a ton of time up the north end of the country, at least not for a good few years, so i'm afraid i don't have a ton of insight on what places to go around aberdeen, especially if you're looking for nightlife and the like. I know that inverness has a castle and a really cool bookshop called Leakey's and thats about it. I've been to aberdeen exactly 3 times and all i remember about it was that the sea had foam so thick and yellow that it looked like old mattresses and that the seagulls there are massive hulking mutants who run that city through intimidation and stolen chips

I'm not sure whether you're planning on spending most of your time in the city or if you want to see more of the country, but there's some lovely countryside around the north/northeast. Stonehaven is a really nice picturesque seaside town about half an hour from aberdeen. There's a castle/ruins you can take a tour of, and tbh there's few things more scottish than eating ice cream and chips on a beach on a cold day, assuming you're going to be visiting sometime between now and like april lol. If you have the time it's worth checking out some of the islands. Skye is beautiful and one of the closer islands to aberdeen. I think there's a pretty regular ferry from there to the mainland and its less than an hour journey.

(i'm about to go on a food rant sorry) Scotland definitely isn't renowned for its food, but if you are looking to eat 'traditional' scottish food then the best thing to get is fish/seafood. You can get some really good, really fresh stuff in seafood shacks by the beach, but also just in restaurants in any coastal town/city, though i'd make sure to look at locals reviews on google so you don't get ripped off. Scotland is overall pretty good for vegan/vegetarian food too, and we have a lot of really solid indian restaurants and takeaways, which i'd def recommend. Honestly scotland's best culinary offerings are probably curry, ice cream, and whiskey. Also if you find a sweet shop (or more likely a newsagents selling old fashioned sweets) you should try soor plooms, these bright green boiled sweets (or hard candies if you're american).

I really don't think you need to be worrying about embarrassing yourself, i promise you that as long as you have basic human courtesy and aren't super condescending about scottish accents/culture nobody will be bothered by you. I will say that aberdonian accents, and accents around that part of the country are really fucking weird and not very similiar to any of the accents you'd likely have heard on tv, which tend to lean more towards a stereotypical highlands or glaswegian accent, so if you're alarmed by how people talk you aren't going crazy, they just do talk like that. I doubt this will come up, but scottish ppl might get pissy if you mispronounce certain things. Like scottish gaelic is pronounced gah-lick not gay-lick, edinburgh is pronounced edin-bruh, and glasgow is pronounced glaz-go. Also never refer to scotland as being a part of or the same as england, and generally don't refer to scottish people as british. Not everyone will be offended by being considered british, but it's generally a sore spot for people, and the english thing is just plain wrong. Also if you're american and have scottish ancestry its perfectly fine to be excited about being in scotland but if you're too enthusiastic about it people will give you the side eye and think you're obnoxious tbh

sorry i couldn't be more of a help, i actually would have advice about travelling around the middle/south of the country but i'm not sure whether you're planning on travelling down that far and i've already rambled on way too much. If you are thinking of travelling further down the country, especially around edinburgh or glasgow i would be happy to give more salient advice on where to go and what to do. I hope this helped in some way at least :) I really hope you have a good trip nonetheless