📙 Part 2: Describe a city you've been to and want to visit again

This episode's vocabulary

Alma mater (noun) - the university, school, or college that one formerly attended.

Picturesque (adj.) -  (of a place or building) visually attractive, especially in a quaint or charming way.

Memorabilia (noun) - objects kept or collected because of their associations with memorable people or events.

Monument (noun) - a statue, building, or other structure erected to commemorate a notable person or event.

Artificial (adj.) - made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, especially as a copy of something natural.

To enamour (verb) - be filled with love for.

-

Questions and Answers

Maria: Rory will describe a city he's been to and wants to visit again. He'll say where he visited the city, what he did there, how long he stayed and why he'd like to go back. Could you start speaking now, please?

Rory: I quite like the city of Stirling, actually, that's where my alma mater is. I haven't been there in years now, though I think about it. I think the last time was about ten years ago when I went to see some friends. Oh, no, actually, no, it's not. I went there to give a presentation about job opportunities in Russia. And that was not ten years ago. That was about two years ago. But I still think that's a long time. Anyway, like I said, I went to university there and I lived there for about three years while I completed my first degree. And I had a great time actually. And it's quite a picturesque place with the Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle overlooking the town. So in the case of the former, that's a memorial to one of our national heroes, William Wallace. And inside, there's lots of, well, I suppose, artifacts. I was going to say memorabilia but artifacts is probably a better word to describe it. And the latter is like this huge fortress, which is just off from the city centre. The city, it's got quite a storied history itself. And Stirling Castle features and a lot of these things, there were famous battles there. If you've ever seen Braveheart, for example, in one of the battles is actually the Battle of Stirling Bridge. But the bridge is well, the bridge is easy to get to. The castle is not. It's quite a climb. So you should be ready for that if you ever want to get to the castle itself. And actually, on the subject of things taking a long time to get up the Wallace monuments, quite the hike as well. I think the reason I'm so enamored with it, aside from all the memories that we made there, is the scenery. There's a bridge going over the artificial loch at the heart of the university complex. That's quite a sight. And the town itself is quite historical, like I mentioned. So if anyone is planning a holiday to Scotland that I would definitely recommend going there. It's a place where I made a lot of memories and I think a lot of people have made a lot of memories of their own there, too.

Maria: What about your friends? Would they like to go to the place?

Rory: Actually, my friends came to visit me when I was at Stirling, when I was at university there. So I'd definitely say that they have than had.