Concluding my stay in Dundee, along with a new collection of unsorted pictures I took there last year.
In the last ten years, I moved at least once per year. This rollercoaster got a bit stable since 2016, as except for a few stages abroad, I continued to change my addresses only within one city: Dundee.
Dundee brands itself as "One City, Many Discoveries," and I took it as a challenge when I moved here. I spent every opportunity to explore the city.
At first, everything was new and fresh, and I enjoyed making these small urban adventures. I started with easy targets, such as the city's museums, castles, and parks. In between, I browsed its random streets, looking for anything that would catch my eye. As I lugged my camera during these walks, I had loads of pictures of my discoveries. Back then, I published a photo collection from the city every month.
While I never stopped going out for a walk, the frequency gradually declined. I found my way around, and I also started discovering the beautiful Scottish Highlands. No surprise, the motivation for city leisure dropped.
Fast forward, 2020 brought restrictions limiting trips outside the city, so I had to re-kindle the local ones. However, the number of new places was limited, so I often returned to the proven ones to experience them in a different light or find new angles to see them.
I no longer had a priority in searching for exciting places; I went out to relax. Sometimes, though, it pointed me to some neat spots, too. The city kept delivering.
The photo above shows a Neolithic stone circle within the city limits, about which I had no idea for nearly three years of living here. You know there are plenty of things to see when such a feature escapes one's attention.
I developed a few techniques to maintain the sense of something new while staying in familiar places, such as using them other than just sightseeing. Swimming, for example.
As everything closed, I could also slackline in areas that wouldn't otherwise be possible.
And every time I needed to ship something, I went to a different post office. After the first few parcels, these journeys easily exceeded an hour and often included scenic detours.
Those parcels had stuff that I sold, among others, because I had a hunch that my time here might be nearing its end.
Small and big discoveries about the world and myself came from many sources, but stepping into three continents was a vital contributing factor. However, changing places, communities, and systems is tiring, and the four years in Dundee allowed me to discover the value of stability. But I also found that learning is a lifelong process and that sometimes, a change is the best we can do. Long story short, that hunch materialized.
Staying somewhere four years is a small fraction of an average human lifespan. But when the person is just before reaching 30, and those four years were the longest consecutive period out of the last decade, suddenly it seems more significant. So, while I am moving on, I am not leaving it behind; Dundee reserved a place in my heart.
Yet, at least for the near future, this is my last photo collection from here. To me, most of these pictures capture moments I relished rather than the places themselves, but I hope you can enjoy them too.
You can visit all the posts I did about Dundee; alternatively, see my Blog Archives for more categories and topics. Thanks for reading!
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