The Brussels hotel was cooler in the morning, of course, and my room even offered a weak coffee from a Nespresso-esque machine, to wake me up while I packed and dressed.
After getting a takeaway breakfast from Mondo Dolce (it wouldn’t have been takeaway if they had been quicker), Genti gave me a run into Bari to catch my train.
Hello from Split, a buzzing, overpriced port town where the girls are all young, sunburnt and not wearing much, and the main language seems to be English. As you can imagine, I’m fitting right in 🙄 My Croatian for Beginners is scoring me no brownie points here.
I managed to get a shower and some sleep on the train, but sleeper trains are sadly not that restful. The two ladies I was sharing with (Aleen and Suzie) were lovely, though, and we had a lot in common, so we had a nice chat before the beds were put down.
I’m in St Andrews for the umpteenth time but with me this time is my niece Susannah, who has never been before, so this post is going to be me interviewing Susanna about her first impressions of St Andrews.
Me: So, Susannah, what strikes you most about St Andrews?
Susannah: I think what struck me most was the fact that it’s sunny in Scotland!
Me: Was there any other weather today? *knowing full well that we got blown sideways on the West Sands*
Susannah: Yes, there was quite bit of wind and rain when we were on the West Sands.
Me: That’s one of the three beaches in St Andrews, and what are the three main streets called?
Susannah: North Street, South Street and Market Street.
Me: Well done! And what’s the other one at the side?
Susannah: The.. Something?
Me: That’s right 😂, The Scores. What do you think of the shops we’ve seen so far?
Susannah: Yeah, there seems to be a lot selling souvenirs and also some shops saying some pretty random things as well.
Me: Yes pretty, random things. Lovely. And we went out to a restaurant for dinner which was called Mitchell’s. What did you think of dinner?
Susannah: It was delicious but it was quite small.
Me: Yes it was it was quite small – and my fish was greasy. The chips were good, though.
Me: We’ve seen a few different university departments, mostly from the outside. We’ve seen Languages and Theology, Psychology. We’ve seen a lot of the halls of residence as well. Oh yeah, where are we now?!
Susannah: We are in one of the halls!
Me: Which is officially called McIntosh Hall but everyone here calls (or used to call) it Chattan, for a reason I don’t know. What do you think of the hall?
In Chattan
Susannah: It’s quite nice. The rooms have got a lot of space and the bathrooms are quite clean.
Me: We’re not inside the room just now, we’re in the living room, or the common room, or the TV room, or whatever you want to call it. We have it entirely to ourselves and it seats what would you say, 15 people?
Susannah: Probably, yeah.
Me: Maybe more, and we have it entirely to ourselves, which is nice. (Some people came in but quickly ran away when they saw it was occupied.) What do you think of how long the days are in June?
Susannah: I think it’s quite surprising really that it’s like 9 o’clock at night and it’s still light, but I suppose being this far north it does tend to happen.
Me: So why are the two of us in St Andrews anyway?
Susannah: Because I want to go to St Andrews, the university, because I think it’s very good university and it’s also just a great town.
Me: There’s a good advert! And you would be studying – what is the current plan?
K C Murdarasi 