Edinburgh, Scotland
This past weekend I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland with two friends from my program. It’s so hard to try and describe my experience with words, but if I had to pick one to sum up the weekend it would be ENCHANTING. I know there’s debate about a picture being worth a thousand words and such, but in this case, I think my photos can tell a way better story than my words can, so I’ll keep the word count to a minimum on this one (:
DAY ONE
We left Griffith College before dawn to catch our flight to Edinburgh on Friday, so we had a full day there. From the moment we first arrived, I was in awe of the architecture and beauty of the place. It was unlike anything I’d ever seen.
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Once we arrived in the city, we roamed the beautiful streets in search of food and coffee. We’d expected a huge storm to be passing through that weekend, but to our delight, the sun came out as we sat in our quaint café.
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After wandering up the Royal Mile, and taking in the sheer grandeur of the place, our first stop was the National Museum of Scotland. We sat in the lobby for quite some time just soaking in the natural light and beautiful lines of the ceiling before meandering through all 5 floors (and the rooftop viewing area).
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After the museum, we popped into the Royal Mile Market – a very cool, very funky artisan market set up in what looks to be an old cathedral. I got a cool painting of the city, and later found the part of the skyline that it featured!
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We dropped our things off at our hostel, which was called Argyle Backpackers. With only 9 rooms, a kitchen, and a sun room, it felt much more like a bed and breakfast. It was cozy and perfect for the 3 of us!
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After a quick cat nap, we geared up to hike Arthurs Seat. It seemed surreal that this rugged mountain just sits at the top of the city. The view from the top was even more dream-like, and we got there just as the sun was setting.
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After grabbing some pizza for dinner, we called it a night on day one, and went back to the hostel to catch up on sleep after a long and phenomenal day.
DAY TWO
We were up and at ‘em pretty early the next day, stopping for some scrumptious bagels and then making our way to the Edinburgh Castle. As we made our way to the castle, I was surprised and charmed to find out that people really do play bagpipes in Scotland – in traditional kilts!
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The castle sits at the top of a hill, which only adds to the effect of its splendor. In my experience, castles and kings and queens are things out of story books, so it didn’t feel real that we were exploring the place that housed King James; a magnificent castle with real armor on the wall of the great hall, and cannons at its walls.
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After taking our sweet time exploring the castle we decided to peruse some shops. We’d only made it about ½ way down the Royal Mile before I stopped in my tracks. Standing right there, on the side of the street, was a man holding a majestic, striking owl. Now, if you know me, you know that I love owls. If you don’t know me, let me put it in perspective for you… I have 7 owl related things in my room in Ireland right now. That’s about 10% of all the owl related things I own, and I thought all of them were important enough to take up valuable real estate in my 2 suitcase packing limit. SO, I love owls. Not to mention, I was wearing an OWL SHIRT when this moment occurred. To my utter astonishment and enchantment, the man let me hold the owl, Gwenevere. To say that I was giddy would be an major understatement.
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Still reeling from what might possibly have been the BEST MOMENT OF MY LIFE, we stopped for a light light lunch before heading to St. Giles Cathedral. This was another place that absolutely took my breath away.
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We left the cathedral and made our way to the Elephant House… the birthplace of Harry Potter (the café where J.K. Rowling wrote most of the first book.) The walls of the bathroom are COVERED in Sharpie messages and quotes from the books. We wandered into Greyfrier Graveyard next door; where the tombstones hold some of the names from the series.
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That night, we treated ourselves to a fancy dinner, and even tried haggis: a tradition Scottish dish – it’s a savoury pudding containing sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs); minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt. It sounds a bit odd, especially to American tastebuds, but served with some mashed potatoes and gravy it was actually quite tasty. After dinner, we found a bar with live acoustic music, hung out for a while, and then made our way back home. We flew out early again the next morning and said a bitter-sweet goodbye to our ovely weekend in Scotland.
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