A few weeks ago, Marvin and I went down to Dundee and St. Andrews for the weekend. We spent a day in each, exploring the cities and of course exploring the local food options! My dad suggested we check out the new V&A museum in Dundee so we made that our first stop of the trip. I didn’t really know what to expect at a design museum, but we were quite chuffed (Marvin especially) to find they had an exhibition all about video games. We spent a couple hours there before wandering through town and stopping for not so good pizza at Mozza. Once we were all fed up we took a taxi to our hotel to drop off our things and have a cup of tea. We stayed at the Best Western which ended up being walking distance to Broughty Castle. It was a really nice walk along the beach to get to the castle, and when we finished looking around we discovered a nice wee chippy for my first deep fried cheese burger close by.
The next morning we took the bus over to St. Andrews. Our first stop was the Tailend for fish and chips (yes, I will have to be rolled onto the plane home) which was amazing. We walked our full bellies over to the cathedral and then down to the beach. The sun made an appearance for our stop in St. Andrews which was much appreciated! From the beach there is a beautiful walk along the coastline which goes by the castle and eventually takes you to the old golf course. The course is stunning, and though I’m not one for golf, it was incredible to walk around the course and stop in at the hotel there for a drink.
We headed back to Dundee for cocktails before getting back on the bus home. Marvin wanted to check out a rum bar, The King of Islington, which had really nice drinks and a very friendly bartender who recommended a speakeasy around the corner from them. We took his recommendation and stopped in at Draffens where we were immediately transported to the ’20s. This was my favourite stop on the trip and didn’t end up being too tricky to find the lamp outside the secret entrance of the bar.
St. Andrews was as beautiful as I expected, but Dundee was a surprise to me for how much I enjoyed it. Definitely a place to come back to! I have a couple more stops in Scotland planned before heading on the next adventure and then returning home next month. It’s been such a blast and I’m so happy to finally be on vacation after my first year of teaching!
xx