My first 10 days in Leeds

Okay so let’s start at the beginning… On the 14th of September I left for Leeds and during my trip there I met some amazing other Dutch students. When I arrived at my accommodation I was a bit shocked. I kind of expected this great and beautiful residence, but instead I got flats with the exact same un-destroyable furniture in each of them. Luckily I have some amazing flatmates from all over the world (Spain, Portugal, United States and Australia).

So the first few days were all about settling in and discovering the university campus of Leeds and of course the city of Leeds. The campus is the most beautiful one I have ever seen (although I have only ever seen the Erasmus campus and the campus of the TU delft). Even though teaching doesn’t start till the 26th (which is, unfortunately, my birthday), the campus was crowded with people and fairs. After we discovered the campus it was time to rent a bike (it’s kind of a Dutch thing). My rented bike is even more awesome then the one I have at home, it has 24 gears! Compared to my bike at home, which only has two gears which work, it is amazing haha. At first I was a bit afraid though because I read in the welcome pack that you should “take your saddle with you, when you leave your bicycle, as this will make the bicycle less attractive to a potential thief”. However I asked around and this is not the case, so my saddle will just stay on my bike.

After some days we went to the city centre of Leeds which is insanely big, and has so many shopping malls it doesn’t even make sense anymore. I am already looking forward to do “some” shopping there. Besides shopping in the city centre it is also a great place to go out at night. There are so many clubs and students that you can go out every day of the week. However at 3am the nightlife is over, which is quite early compared to that in the Netherlands.

Today I went to the Kirkstall abbey, which is one of the​ finest remaining medieval Cistercian abbeys in Britain.​​​​​​​​​​​​ The entry was free so we wandered around the castle for some time, to see the beautiful leftovers of the abbey. Besides discovering Leeds I also planned a few trips for the next weeks, for example tomorrow I will go to Scarborough. Which is according to the lonely planet “where the tradition of English seaside holidays began.”