Student Bloggers

One of the perks of studying abroad through Arcadia is that they organize optional trips for you to join in on. One of the trips I signed up for was an activity weekend at the University of Edinburgh’s Firbush Outdoor Center. So last Friday, I packed my bags and headed to Killin for an exciting weekend.

Firbush is situated on the shores of Loch Tay- A beautiful loch in the Highlands. This was my first visit to the Highlands and I was very excited to see another part of Scotland. The first night, we had dinner and went to bed in the log cabin style dorm. On Saturday we got up bright and early to watch the sun rise over the loch- cliché, but beautiful. We then drove to Balquhidder and saw Rob Roy MacGregor’s grave (Scottish folk hero and outlaw). From there we began our four-ish hour hike (didn’t time it- I’m guessing here) through the highlands! It a true Scottish experience- fog, rain, snow, mud, even a little bit of sunshine, but it was amazing! When we reached the top of our climb, we sat and had our lunches as we took in the beautiful view. Just kidding, the fog had settled at this point and we couldn’t appreciate the climb. We hiked back down but took a slightly different route and passed a beautiful overlook on another loch. All of these lochs reminded me of Minnesota!

After we came back, we all took a nice shower and I went to bed for 30 minutes. A quick power nap… right. I slept for two hours. That evening we had a traditional Burns Supper, which is typically held on January 25^th which is Burns Night. We had a feast of haggis, neeps, tatties, and whisky! It was fabulous- I really am quite fond of haggis. Then we had a Ceilidh afterwards- which are always a blast.

On Sunday we had options for activities. In the morning I chose to go kayaking! I had never been kayaking before, but I had been canoeing so I figured I’d be okay. I got into a wetsuit, rain jacket, weird rain hat thing, etc. and got into the kayak. We paddled around at first, just trying to get used to it a little bit. After that we played a couple of games, including a modified version of tag and water polo. I had the ball during our water polo game and threw the ball a little too hard and flipped over in my kayak. The water was freezing and I didn’t enjoy it one bit. I promptly climbed out and took a hot shower and had hot chocolate. In the afternoon, I took a road bike and biked into Killin, which is about a two mile ride. We started out the bike ride when it was sunny, but it quickly started raining and then it started hailing. Pretty soon we were flying downhill with hail flying into our faces, but as we reached town it cleared up a little bit. The River Dochart flows through Killin and it was quite impressive. The rapids were huge, and the town itself is situated right in the Highlands so it was cool to see mountains everywhere. We biked around town a little bit before heading back to Firbush. We had soup and scones before heading back to Edinburgh. I was exhausted from the weekend and wanted nothing more than to curl up with Netflix, but I had an essay due Monday that I had to finish! It was a great weekend though, and if you choose a Scotland program with the Firbush option- do it!