For the last research project of my Biochemistry master’s programme with focus on Oncology, I was drawn towards Scotland, which is why I started to search for suitable labs at institutes of CRUK (Cancer Research United Kingdom) in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
After writing multiple initiative applications, I decided for the Gammage Lab at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research based on my gut feeling subsequent to online interviews. I was very lucky with the postdoc I was supposed to be working with, since she was supporting me a lot in the following preparation of my stay, which included the application for my ERASMUS stipend, finding accommodation and determining whether a visa would be required.
For the latter, I contacted ESPA UK (European Student Placement Agency; an organisation you can apply at to get supported placements arranged within the UK and Ireland) and participated in one of their online presentations. Their offer is really great, however, since I organized my internship by myself, they could only help me by answering questions: I found out that there is a specific rule stating that as long as an EU student is doing an unpaid internship as short piece of research (no longer than 6 months) relevant to his or her course of study, there is no visa required to enter the UK. This applies as long as the internship is carried out at an institute that is affiliated with a local university. While there is no visa required, an official invitation letter of this institute, confirming the internship, is needed. In the end, when entering the UK, I was not even asked to present this document, however, it felt safer to have it.
While mentioning the flight situation, I was flying with British Airways via London (both ways) and would not say that this airline is reliable regarding scheduled times. In case you have to get a connecting flight, you should at least have one and a half hours of layover. My first flight started with a delay of half an hour and it was not possible to open the doors upon arrival for another half an hour. This is why I missed my connecting flight and got rebooked on the last flight of the day (make sure you could take this one in emergency and do not book this one already for your planned flight), three hours (plus another hour delay) later. At least they gave me a 10 GBP voucher for food at the airport. Additionally, take into account that after the Brexit, it also takes a little time to enter the UK officially with a passport and a second security control.
In London, I also exchanged my SIM, meaning that I took out my German SIM and added the eSIM from LycaMobile, which I pre-purchased online. I was never able to download the App, but I kept track of my data volume by login via the browser. 20GB per month were a lot, enabling me to use Maps and other services without worrying about my mobile data. I would suggest to get a deal for 5 to 10 GB depending on the price. It is also important to know that you have to switch off automatic renewal in your login, which is the default setting even if you only purchased your SIM for three months.
Regarding finding accommodation, I had some trouble, because airbnb is too expensive for a longer stay and for student accommodations in general, I would have had to stay for at least a whole semester or even an academic year. The postdoc was asking around via the e- mail distribution list, which is how I got in touch with a graduating student, subletting her room at Student Roost for the remaining two months of the academic year. Since this was an expensive option, where neither the start nor the end dates where fitting with my planned stay, I created an account at Facebook, which was the next platform recommended by the postdoc. I entered the vet student group and others, where I finally found two good options for flats shared with only one more person. For the preferred flat, a person posted on behalf of the landlord and connected me with him via e-mail. With this, our conversation began, where everything looked normal to me. He required some documents, including a proof of ID, where he also offered to send me his passport copy to build trust. In addition, he connected me with the roommate, that was supposed to move in a few days after my arrival. He wanted me to sign the contract and reassurance letter for the payment of the deposit (700 GBP, to reserve the room of the flat for me) originally to his custodian account, which did not work via wise. When I told him this, he suddenly switched to the wise account of his partner . After the transfer, he requested a second payment due to a new regulation concerning the residential approval form starting from 1 May. Because of this request, I got suspicious also because the custodian trustee did not have any company logo or was possible to find and he did not answer my questions regarding that. For a more „swift“ conversation, he asked to switch to WhatsApp. Feeling uncomfortable, I reached out to the postdoc and asked if this is normal. After researching on Facebook she found a warning post stating that the person is a scammer, validated by two other comments, also mentioning the deposit payment. I directly called wise, but they were not able to get the money back. In case you have to pay a deposit in advance, always use a card which is protected via Visa or similar! In the following, I had a lot of calls with the English and Scottish police (the website action fraud is only for England) and also filed a report at the German police station, where I was not taken seriously. After being scammed like this, I did not feel comfortable with my second option from Facebook anymore since that person had a lot of excuses for not having a short video call with me and was also emotionally pressuring me to transfer the deposit and first month’s rent. This is why I got back to the graduating student; however, the sublet agreement was already signed two days prior. Fortunately, she asked her roommates (in a flat of in total 6 students), and one of them was able to sublet her room for the first two months of my stay. This was very expensive (209 GBP per week!), however, a safe and secure option, because the further organisation was taking place with the people from Student Roost itself (a lot of paperwork but without issues). The small ensuite room was in the basement of Student Roost at Gibson Street, located in the West End, which is a lovely area for students. Student Roost did not provide any cooking devices/tableware or bedding/towels. I inherited a lot of stuff from former roommates and borrowed bedding/towels from the postdoc. This was just amazing of her! For the last remaining month of my stay, I got in touch with a PhD Student from the institute (also managed by the postdoc via the e-mail distribution list) and loosely agreed to talk about the room availability in the first week of my internship. This worked well, and I was also able to visit the room. We agreed on everything verbally, but he was delaying a written agreement until he cancelled on me shortly before the moving date with the reason that he found a flatmate for a longer period. I was lucky to find another graduating student at the institute, who was planning to visit her family for a month after submitting her thesis. Our dates aligned quite well (I just had to cover two nights in between, which was exactly when my parents visited). After examination of the room within the flat with two other female roommates, we agreed on the details and drafted a written sublet agreement. Also for the deposit, she wrote a confirmation and I received the remaining deposit completely back after subtracting the bills. In this flat, the only problem was the heating, which started working at the end of September, meaning that I was living at 10°C room temperature for four weeks. Also during my little round trip in Scotland after completing my internship, I experienced interesting heating procedures in airbnbs, where the heating is turned off during the night, so keep this in mind when planning accommodations in Scotland!
My health insurance abroad I got at the ADAC. It is important to start the insurance period before the flight date. I would recommend to finalise the paperwork at least two weeks before traveling. Normally, one appointment is sufficient for this. Since I did not have any health issues apart from a cold, I did not make use of the insurance in the end, nevertheless, I was content with it in general.
Talking about money: Cash is not really necessary to have. For my 3.5 month stay, I would say that 150 GBP would have been sufficient to have in cash. It is often the cheapest to order cash via your bank. Usually, they are sending it too. This worked with the Commerzbank very well, the Targobank, however, had some delays, so I would recommend to factor in at least two weeks for the money to arrive before traveling. The most important feature regarding money was having the DKB Visa Debitcard. According to my research, this is the card with the least fees (the GBP price is directly converted to euros with a quite normal ratio), when traveling and paying in different currencies. For this, it is important to be an active customer, meaning to have a monthly influx of at least 700 €. After opening the account, the first three months are automatically active. As App for exchanging money of different currencies (instead of Paypal or wise), I was introduced to Revolut by my lab colleagues and only made positive experiences because the fees are very low and the exchange ratio not really altered from the official.
The cheapest supermarket was Lidl – they also have the Lidl App with amazing prices depending on the amount of money spend per month. I made use of their coupons and discounts a lot and also found out that some branches take empty plastic bottles from juices back: Per bottle you received 5 pence on the bill, which you could subtract from your shopping within the next 7 days in exactly the same branch where you returned the bottles.
The public transportation system in Glasgow was a little difficult because it has multiple operators. I did not find any suitable tickets for my stay with any of the operators. The subway is an adorable circular line consisting of 15 stations and loved by most of the students. One ticket costs 1.80 GBP. There are Buses by First Bus and by West Coast Motors. Two general advices: make sure to wave at the bus driver so that he is stopping at your station and keep an eye on Maps to not miss your stop since they are mostly not written/announced. Day tickets (around 5 GBP but less expensive online!) are only worth it when taking three busses or more within 24 hours and only valid for one operator. This is why I was buying a bike in a second-hand store called Bike for Good. They did not answer to my online inquiry via contact form, so I just visited them on my first day in Glasgow and was lucky, choosing the only foldable bike of its kind they had to offer on that day. They have a 90-day warranty (not including tire rupture or rust), which was extremely necessary for me since I had an issue with my bike approximately every two weeks. Maybe, I was also using it above its limits; always cycling half an hour to work and another half an hour back home every day of the week, also passing through wooden parts and doing cycling tours on the weekend. Here, I can only emphasise how important rain proof shoes, trousers, jacket, gloves and cape are! Bike for Good was very good :), they always fixed my bike for free. I just had two cases, where I had to get it fixed elsewhere (not for free), because I was on a daytrip with a flat tire and because the chain ripped after their opening hours (9am to 5pm from Tuesday to Saturday). In the store, they are also fixing nextbikes, for which I also got a free voucher, as person without/with low income they are signing you up for free, when you ask the right person (Bikes for All). With this, I was able to rent a nextbike (no electric) for up to one hour without paying. Strangely, the system had troubles with me and was always blocking me after each first ride of the month and trying to charge me. Then, I was mailing the responsible person and they fixed the issue. This was annoying but still an emergency solution when my own bike had to be repaired. I was able to sell my foldable bike at the end of my stay to another person.
I also took my bike to day trips, which I either reached via Scotrail (online day tickets anytime return are the cheapest with included bikes) or via busses of Midland Bluebird (day ticket for students only 9 GBP when paying in the bus). For the first trip, I went to Edinburgh via train, where the bike is not the best idea for exploring the central area or hiking to Arthur’s Seat. Secondly, I went to Largs via train and took the 10 min ferry to Great Cumbrae Island (book via Caledonian MacBrayne or on site), which is amazing to cycle around (they also have bikes for rent). To Loch Katrine I took the X10/X10A in connection with the Trossachs Explorer (all same operator) and cycled the beautiful 14 miles around the lake to take back the boat (prebooking important!). You can also rent a bike there, however, taking a bike on the boat also costs extra (3 GBP for rental, 5 GBP for own) – because mine was foldable, I was also able to take it on the boat (as well as busses in general) without paying extra. As forth day trip outside of Glasgow, I visited the old mill in New Lanark via train to Lanark and cycling to New Lanark. Tickets are available on site and the walk along the River Clyde was very nice. Concluding the transportation part during my internship, I can only highlight how much I loved my foldable bike and how much money I saved by having it.
Regarding my final tour around Scotland, I got a rental car, which was cheapest through Arnold Clark. As young driver (under 25 years) the fees are enormous everywhere and at some companies you are not even allowed to drive a car. Arnold Clark takes additional 25 GBP per day for a young driver. A second driver would cost another 15 GBP per day (plus the young driver fee in case the additional driver is also younger than 25 years). Since I was not used to left sided traffic, I decided for reducing the excess from 1000 GBP to 0 GBP, which cost 15 GBP per day. For another extra cost, it is also possible to return the car at a different location in Scotland. In Glasgow however, they also offered a free shuttle before the pickup and after the drop off. They also did not need a Credit Card – Visa Debit was sufficient for them. It was also possible to prepurchase a full or half tank, in order to return the car empty or only half full. The small car was an automatic Hybrid and of very high quality. Parking in Glasgow is very expensive during the day (1 GBP per 15min is common), which is why I can recommend Just Park, where you can purchase a parking spot for a specific time frame.
Regarding things to do in Glasgow, there is a long list. I went to the Tourist Information in the city centre to receive a map of Glasgow with its main attractions. This includes the Cathedral with the Necropolis, the botanical garden and the main university building. Museums or also free in Scotland (as long as sponsored by government and not private). I very much enjoyed the Hunterian Museum, the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museums and the Riverside Museum. For eating/drinking, Ashton Lane as well as Byres Road are beautiful. I loved Minted for ice cream and Dulce Dessert for sweet treats (10% discount for students) as well as Café Francoise for sandwiches. The tenement house (student entry 6 GBP) was very small, but interesting to understand former way of living in Glasgow. The Clydeside Distillery had a nice tour for whiskey and also passes the trying glasses along. The region around the Clyde Arc Bridge is lovely at night but as far as I know, the magenta light on the Arc itself is only switched on after 9pm. Glasgow is also very green, with my favourite parks being Pollok Country Park and its highland cows, the hilly Queen’s Park, the flat Glasgow Green and the wonderful Kelvingrove Park. There are also great cycling paths along the River Kelvin. Some activities you should not miss are drinking afternoon tea in a tea room, joining a pub quiz and dancing Ceilidh! In case you want to write postcards, be prepared to pay 2.80 GBP per stamp and if you are unsure to buy something, do not buy it online when you are at home – the postage costs are crazy expensive even if the object is very small! Glasgow is a big Scottish city, sharing a lot of similarities with Berlin. The people are extremely nice (except for most bus drivers). The weather was especially wet in August, but also quite warm in July (I experienced up to 25°C) and towards October we had between 0°C and 18°C with blue skies, sun and some short grey and rainy hours. With insects I did not have any issues at all.
I very much enjoyed my stay in Glasgow and had the best laboratory experience ever (the science quality is quite high at the Beatson Institute). So please do not hesitate because of any difficulties, it is absolutely worth it!