I started the two years adventure of studying my joint Masters in Edinburgh, before spending the rest of the semesters in Norway and Hungary. In Edinburgh, I found many nice people who helped me find my feet in a new country: a country which was really different from mine. Living shortly in the UK I gained experiences that might be interesting to a foreigner: – Many things are automated in the UK, for example, there are numerous self-service kiosks in shops. Also, there were times I was expecting someone to approach but instead, I had to work with a machine. – There is something in the UK called price match, meaning when the price on the internet is cheaper than in the shop you can claim it and reduce the price to the one online. – The car driver sits on the right side, be cautious when you want to take a taxi and of course when you want to cross a street. Even if you already know it might forget it sometimes – You cannot easily change a 500Euros cash, I had to take my passport and a UK residency prove document to the post centre for doing it. – be always expecting rain, having a raincoat is a good idea as the heavy wind pushes the umbrella, a windproof umbrella is another option.
Edinburgh
The woman is touching the sculpture’s toe as they say doing it brings luck. Here you can see the Scott monument located in Princess Street. Based on my internet search it is the sculpture of the Scottish author Sir Walter Scott and it is the second-largest monument to a writer in the world. And about Princess Street, it is located in the city centre and it is the main shopping street in Edinburgh. In the river photo, I loved the reflection in the water and how houses are lined along the river. The photo at night is taken from Waverly, Edinburgh’s main station, where Scott’s monument and Princess Street are at the back.
I took these photos from Princess Street on the second floor of Edinburgh’s double-decker buses. You can see Edinburgh’s castle on top of a valley. My Scottish grandmother told me they used to prosecute people in the valley in old times.
These photos are from Princess Street and its surroundings.
I really liked the structure of the buildings. My Scottish grandma told me the buildings have become black because they used to burn coil for keeping the house warm.
The Heriot-Watt University (HWU) campus is green, vast and lovely. As it might get really cold in Scotland, university schools are connected by bridges, while my bachelor’s university located in a not so cold area has schools so far from each other and there is a bus system for transporting between them.
The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge built earlier than 100 years ago. Here you can see a low-quality photo showing a train passing over it 🙂 . Nowadays buses and cars pass over a newer bridge shown in the photo with a bench. These photos are taken on a mostly cloudy, sometimes rainy day, typical weather in Edinburgh’s Autumn!
At Christmas, they bring a few amusement park items to Edinburgh’s city centre. I really enjoyed Christmas Market, the atmosphere and new year fireworks in Edinburgh. Here you can see the atmosphere and the market.
This is a fruit farm you can pick your fruit and pay for it. It has a minimum payment taken in the entrance and on the way out they weigh your baskets and you will pay the difference.
North Berwick
In the beach photo, I liked the curve of the beach and houses in line, the island on the left is the same one in the ocean photo and is called the base rock. Migrating birds use this rock and you can see them with binoculars. My friend told me once she’s been there and had walked among puffins, what an adventure! The puffin doll photo is taken in Scottish Seabird Centre’s shop. I really like North Berwick’s gardens as they were full of various flowers, I put one of many flower photos I took as I loved this one’s colour palette. I liked this website giving information about bass rock.
Falkirkwheel
The Falkirk Wheel is a rotating boat lift that connects the Union Canal to the Forth and Clyde Canal. It is almost an hour from Edinburgh by car. I really liked the atmosphere there: visitors walking around, boats getting on the wheel and the huge wheel turning smoothly, a short dance performance and so on. Seeing a scene of a child on a small scale playing almost close to the big scale wheel carrying two boats was interesting. In the middle photo, I really liked it when accidentally pink, grey, navy blue and green formed a nice colour palette and made a nice photo for my gallery.
Perth
These photos are taken on River Tay bank. The middle photo says Perth which is a city in central Scotland is twined* with Aschaffenburg, a town in northwest Bavaria, Germany. Kinnoull mentioned in the photo on the right is a hill in Perth with a nice view, however, I didn’t get a chance to go there. The flower pictured here seems to be found on the hill based on my internet search. The tayberry is a cultivated shrub and a cross between a blackberry and a red raspberry and is named after the River Tay in Scotland based on Wikipedia.
*”Sister City or twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties” by Wikipedia.
Haddington
I liked Haddington because when I went there it was calm and seemed to be a perfect place to sit by the river, watch the swans and eat your popcorn!
Anstruther
This is when I went to an English café with my Scottish grandma.