“I’m being followed. Can I help you?” When I told people that I was going to Aberdeen, a lot of the first reactions I got was puzzlement. Like, really? Aberdeen? Aberdeen was on the list because there’s this sleeper train that leaves from London, the Caledonian Sleeper. It’s really nice. Kind of brings back that feeling of being in the sort of golden age of travel, when you had a dining car and little sleeper cabins. “Journey of a night time. Get it?” And then there’s what they call the club car, where they serve drinks and things like that. So naturally, I headed there first. So as you might imagine, on a small train, I met some people. “No, stop filming now. Can we do —” “No.” “Can we start again?” We ended up drinking till 2:30 in the morning. “Cheers.” “Cheers!” So I woke up the next morning. “And we’re in Scotland.” When I went to the club car, I had a solid Scottish breakfast. “Good morning, guys.” “Mm, no. No.” And then I was there. My first impressions of Aberdeen were that it’s really gray. I don’t just mean the weather, but the buildings too. It’s like a monochrome city. A lot of the buildings are made of this gray granite, so — gives an interesting feeling to the whole city. “Spooky vibe. Through a graveyard.” I had been connected to someone named Jon Reed. “Yes. My name’s Jon, so I’m the tour guide for today.” He works with Nuart. It’s a street art organization, and they bring in street artists from all over the world to paint murals around the city. There’s so much, and it’s so well done. Artists from everywhere from Argentina to Belgium, and some local Scottish artists too. It really opened up the city for me in a new way. And it made me think, you know, it’s funny to have this gray city that’s being brightened up by street art. It’s almost like all that gray serves as a perfect canvas for these artists. Jon introduced me to some other people, including Ade Adesina, who’s originally Nigerian, but now he has a studio in Aberdeen. A guy named Neil, who works in Peacock Studios, which is a printmaking studio. “Meeting a local can really just change everything. Now I’m way more excited about Aberdeen than I was when I first arrived.” My experience in Aberdeen would have been completely different if I hadn’t met Jon. He took me out to Stonehaven, which is a village on the outskirts of Aberdeen.” “We’re just right here in Stonehaven, where we’re about to go and get some fish and chips from The Bay, which is in my opinion one of the best fish and chip shops in the U.K. Happy days.” While I haven’t had a lot to compare it to, I can confirm it was really good. We visited Dunnottar Castle, and it’s kind of the image most people get when they think of Scotland: You know, an old, medieval castle on top of a hill overlooking the ocean. “This place, Dunnottar Castle, very ‘Game of Thrones.’” And we continued on to Loch Muick. “Here we are in the middle of Scotland, an amazing country full of amazing people. It’s all encapsulated by this amazing landscape that reminds us of who we truly are — which is Highlanders!” Meeting people and seeing their Aberdeen is really what changed my perspective of it. The people can just make a place. Everywhere in the world has some magic in it. Sometimes, the ones that you have to work a little harder for are the most rewarding. If you meet the right people, anywhere in the world can kind of blow your mind a little bit.