The Sunniest City in Scotland

‘Oy mates!

I wrote this post the day before yesterday-evening, but as I had no WiFi-connection at that B&B, I couldn’t post it until now J.

Yes, yes, yes! Today was THE day! I finally started my adventure!

Dundee is quite a nice city, well, the part where the buildings aren’t too hideous to look at (most areas are mixed with the old Victorian stuff and buildings from sometime in the 20^th century).

Apparently, Dundee is the sunniest city in Scotland! Too bad it didn’t want to keep up its reputation and we got greeted by grey clouds and pouring rain (OK, it wasn’t raining that badly, but we got wet enough). We’ve actually been told about five times that it usually is way sunnier that anyplace else in Scotland. Also, Dundee was the first Fairtrade City (whatever that might mean) in Scotland. So, I guess that’s a good thing?

But, let’s start at the beginning:

This morning I got up at 6 after which we left for the airport at approximately 7.15. Although there was quite some traffic, we didn’t actually get delayed by it.

Well, my dad had checked us in already, so all we had to do was drop off my (currently non-broken!) suitcase, go through passport check and wait. Well, to kill the time, we got something to drink and eat from Starbucks and my dad purchased a magazine.

9.40: it was finally time to go through security and get to our gate! Well, not much happened then. Our plane took off at, I think, 10.15 and it was quite good: nothing went wrong, we’re still alive J. I actually really enjoyed watching the country from the sky: everything looks so miniature.

We landed at 10.45 (English time), got through passport-control, picked up my suitcase (some of my smiley-stickers have come off! :O) and our rental car and drove to Dundee. On the way stopped at a Burger King, because we were getting quite hungry.

We arrived in Dundee at about 13.30: originally we were supposed to go to the B&B and drop off our luggage, but since we had to be at the university at 14.00, we first went there.

A history-graduate showed us and four other (possible) prospective students around campus: we saw the gym, swimming pool, student union, student dorm, the library and the building where Humanities are taught.

I actually also got to speak to someone from the language-/English-department and she also gave me some papers to give me an idea of what the modules/semesters would be like and what kind of exam-questions could be asked. After that, my dad and I walked back to the Student Admissions centre where we had gathered, so we could ask some others questions about applying to Dundee: you know, the fees, requirements, etc. Our questions got answered very well, so now I know what I need to focus on when applying!

After that we finally went to our B&B: Cullaig Guest House in Dundee, where we just sat in our room, while watching the ending of Brother Bear and the beginning of Atlantis on the Disney Cinemagic-channel (or however it’s called).

Then we decided it was time to eat something, so we walked into town, looking for a pub. We ended up at one in the city-centre that was surprisingly big. Also, the food was quite cheap and really good! So even students that can’t cook can eat good meals for not too big prices :P. I had chips, beans and sausages (I got three!) and that was really filling and satisfying.

Then we had to overcome the challenge of finding our B&B again. Well, first we ended up walking a bit more through the centre, which was good, because that offered us the opportunity to pass the Tesco and buy something to drink for now.

After that, we had found the way to our B&B surprisingly fast! But the walk back was so steep! That’s really not going to be fun to cycle!

What I also must mention though, is that the people who thought of the street names here, did not have much inspiration: Constitution Street, Constitution Road, Constitution Terrace, Upper Constitution Street, et cetera.

So, now we are back in our room again, my dad is watching NCIS while I type this post.

Today was a really good, but very tiring, day. I’m looking forward to tomorrow!

I’ll keep you posted,