Student Bloggers

Earlier this month, I took a day trip to Stirling for another Ceilidh! One of the weirdest things about studying abroad is that castles have lost their novelty. At first, I was so excited- a castle! It was so cool, but now it’s just another castle. Still, I was excited to see Stirling Castle because I knew it played a significant role in Scotland’s history and I was anxious to learn more about it. Stirling actually used to be the capital of Scotland and the home of monarchy before the capital moved to Edinburgh. After touring the castle, we walked around the city for a little bit before grabbing a bite to eat at a pub. The Ceilidh that evening was a ton of fun as well!

After being in Edinburgh for two-ish months, it might be hard to believe that I had never been up Arthur’s Seat prior to this weekend. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Edinburgh scenery, Arthur’s Seat is an extinct volcano that dominates Edinburgh’s skyline.

The hike up wasn’t too difficult. It could have been easier if we had taken a different path, but it wasn’t that bad. I quickly got jelly legs- it made me nervous being so high! When you’re climbing up, you turn around and look down and it’s a steep rocky fall- eek! Holy moly was it windy! Edinburgh is pretty windy to begin with, and the wind is worse when you’re higher up. When we reached the top you could lean into the wind and you wouldn’t fall over, but it was also dangerous because it felt like you could be swooped up in a gust of wind and go over the edge. Lucky for us- the sun was out and shining. The view from the top was amazing and it’s hard to describe it through a blog, but hopefully the pictures help. I loved going now that I’ve been in Edinburgh for a little bit because I knew where things are. I could point out my flat, my favorite coffee shop, etc. The view stretched over all of Edinburgh and out towards the sea. It had an amazing view of the Firth of Forth (I love being so close to water, coming from the Midwest). And if you squinted you could even see the Forth Rail Bridge. This amazing hike up and down Arthur’s seat was topped off with awful wind blown hair.

Looking towards next week: I’m skipping class and headed to Dublin to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. It will be a speedy trip- flying in Monday morning and leaving at 6:30am on Wednesday to make it back for a German test later that day!