(Lots of pictures of) a week living in Scotland + nerd stuff!

Hey there and welcome back to my blog!

Intro.

Earlier in August I travelled along my family to Scotland on a very unsual trip, yet amazing trip! My dad was playing golf there for a week, and the rest of us joined him.

We flew to Edinburgh, rented a car (my mum was brave enough to drive on the left), and stayed in a lovely home at St Andrews.

I was very happy to have a room for my own, with a double-sized bed! It also had a large desk, which allowed me to work during the rainy Scottish mornings.

Day 0

In our first evening there, we visited the beautiful beach of St Andrews, well-known Chariots of Fire‘s starting location.

Day 1

It rained a lot particularly on the first day after we arrived. Nevertheless visited the School of Mathematics & Statistics of the University of St Andrews:

Fun fact: It was the only one of my UCAS choices that rejected my application!

Day 2

We visited the most remarkable places of the city of St. Andrews. I found them all stunning, so I will let you see the pictures:

A college (not exactly the same style as Cambridge colleges):

Views from the ruins of the castle:

The castle had a mine, and it was fun to visit it, since we had to walk through narrow underground passages.

Above: Ruins of the Cathedral.

Below: Views from the Cathedral’s Tower (with over a hundred steps).

Views from the Pier:

Curiosity: Students of the St Andrews University walk through the Pier on Graduation Day, wearing their red gowns!

Following days

Since you have already seen enough pictures of Scotland’s grey sky, I will go now with nerdy things. Feel free to skip this part!

We visited Wallace’s monument, which has 246 steps! In one of the exhibition rooms, there was a space dedicated to the greatest scottish women. It included mathematician Mary Somerville:

The monument was near Stirling, a city we also visited.

If you are mathmo, then you will be already thinking about the formula for the asymptotic behaviour of n! It turns out that mathematician James Stirling was born a few miles away from Stirling.

They had a street named after Maxwell too!

James Clerk Maxwell was a Scottish mathematical physicist. His scientific legacy is huge, so I won’t write about it. But, remarkably, he studied at Cambridge University (Trinity College) and was the Second Wrangler of his year.

Edinburgh

After a week living in St Andrews, we left to Edinburgh. It was the last day before we returned home.

Probably due to the rain, I didn’t take lots of pictures in Edinburgh. It is a nice, vibrant city. We visited the stunning medieval castle, ans walked around the city.

We stopped by a Harry Potter styled cemetery, where Stirling is buried:

Finally, my boyfriend suggested me to visit Maxwell Statue, at the city centre. Maxwell was born there, and also attended Edinburgh’s University.

I definitely have a close relationship with Maxwell’s Equations:

I got them in one of my papers (actually, that was the question -from all papers- which gave me more marks).
I came across them in my trip to U.S.
Here they are again!
And more to come on my second year…

Final words

I took lots pictures on this trip. You can see some at my Instagram story.

However, what I enjoyed most were the little things: Playing minigolf with my family, with my brother at a park or in a ride from the local fair.

I liked living in a home, with a desk I could sometimes work on. It was nice to have some freedom to walk around the city and explore nice spots.

The sky was grey and rainy for most of the time -next picture was taken in a surprisingly sunny afternoon-. It was also quite cold, a good break from Spanish hot summer weather.