Seal Beach and Dracula Castle
I got a suggestion from Ali that I should write about my experience somewhere that is not touristy. I opened up my camera roll, and I realized all the places I visited were filled with tourists lol. I am only here for three weeks, I am a tourist at the end of the day.
The past weekend, I planned to go couch-surfing to actually meet and talk (for a long time) with locals. I went lurking on many websites on how to do that. It was way too spontaneous to be safe, so I decided to explore Aberdeenshire a bit more. Maybe someday I will actually go couch-surfing.
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Seagulls having a grand time
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Dracula castle from afar
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Seal Beach, Newburgh
In the morning, I went on a long walk along the beach of Aberdeen. It was a pretty low tide day, so I was able to walk really far out on the beach. The walk was chill until I met a couple walking with their dogs. I don't know what breed they were, but one got off the leash and zoomed towards me. The dog was ecstatic because it spotted a human in the distance! The dog kicked some sand and pebbles onto my joggers, and I think some of them got into my mouth as well.
It was around a 3-mile, or a bit more, from where I stay down the beach, closer to downtown Aberdeen. The beach was breezy with calm waves crashing onto the shore, and wind turbines spinning slowly in the distance. The long walk led me to the small fishing town of Fittie. From there, I walked through the harbor towards Union Square, where I took a bus to Newburgh.
There I joined my friend at the Seal Beach. There were not many seals we could see closely, but there were a lot of them on the other side of the beach, sunbathing. Some curious ones decided to hide underwater and bobbed their head up and down in the water to observe people. We took a side quest along a trail and found some brick structures, which I suspect were used in war.
After that, we took the next bus to Slain Castle. It was the castle that inspired Dracula. The trail to the castle was breathtaking. The castle lies on a cliff close to the water, where there are big rocks, a house of the seagulls. It was cloudy when we walked towards the castle, but it got sunnier as we were leaving. I took the time to snatch some pictures, and they were fabulous.