Student Bloggers

The beautiful greenery of Scotland! One of two countries I thought that I wouldn’t get to see when I came abroad. Yet a friend really wanted to see the city of Edinburgh, so on Halloween we were off for a really fun and relaxing weekend.

I have to say that for as much hype I was given about Ryanair being a really crazy experience for a cheap flight service, I am disappointed. Sometimes the landing would have you be thankful for your life but all in all it’s just like any other airline. You just have to know the tricks on keeping your cheap flight, cheap. I am also thankful that such a thing like Ryanair exists because despite early 6 am flights, they have made it easier to see more places with my budget! So safe and cheap? I guess there’s not much to complain about here.

On the day we arrived, it was Halloween. If you don’t know me that well than you wouldn’t know that Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday! Sure I love the feeling of Christmas time, but that starts when people are preparing for Halloween. It kick starts everything about fall including pumpkin anything. There’s nothing I enjoy more in fall than some baked pumpkin seeds!! Also, one (or several) nights in October you get to dress up in whatever you want. Creativity is key to this holiday and I love every bit of it!

Unfortunately due to problems with technology the day before, I had to spend the morning of my first day in Scotland on a computer in the hostel trying to finish my class project that was due that afternoon. Thankfully, only two or so hours was lost getting that done and so my friend, Emilie, and I went off to see the botanical gardens! We took the bus partway there and walked the rest. The botanical gardens themselves are definitely a place you could spend all day in. There are so many different trails to walk and beautiful gardens to see that the two hours we spent were hardly enough to see much of it. There were a few children already in their Halloween costumes which got me excited for the rest of the day. And as we walked through one part we happened to walk by a wedding! It was so cute, the wedding party was small and all the men wore kilts. The whole scene took place in between two trees and just had a beautiful scenery to it. I even snuck a picture or two of the wedding before we changed routes so as not to disturb the wedding party.

We walked back all the way to the hostel instead of taking the bus when we finished at the gardens. Our next adventure was Potter Trails! As it was Halloween, I bought a tiny witch hat to wear for the occasion and we walked towards our meeting place. This happened to be by the Elephant House Cafe, aka “The Birthplace of Harry Potter.” Since we had about an hour before the tour, naturally we Harry Potter fans went into the café and ordered some tea. There were so many pictures of JK Rowling and even the toilets in the ladies bathroom had writing on them such as “JK’s toilet” which we found randomly. When we finished our tea we stopped by the cute little statue of Greyfriar’s Bobby. We began to talk to other members of the tour before we noticed a guy in a black cape standing across the street from us; our tour guide. Then our tour began and he gave us all wands which Emilie and I were excited about. We started in Greyfriar’s cemetery where JK Rowling got some of her inspiration to write the series and even took some names from the tombstones like Tom Riddell and McGonagall. When we got to see the school that inspired Hogwarts, one of us got to be sorted into one of the houses. I was that lucky person and it was not Slytherin, thank goodness! I got sorted into Gryffindor and we then ventured around the rest of the stops on our trails. Our tour guide was fantastic! Emilie and I were not sure what to expect from the tour but we kept our minds open and ended up having a blast, being super fans and joking with the guide while walking to the next stop. At the end of the tour Emilie and I kept our wands and went off to dinner before our next adventure.

After dinner it was time to get ready for our late night ghost tour! At this point in the night, to our surprise the streets were flooded with people dressed up for Halloween and kids trick or treating. So it’s not just big in America after all!! We first ended up in another hostel at a Halloween party they were hosting and got to know quite a few Australians who were travelling too! We could have spent more time there but we were going to be late so off we went. Our guide was also really great on this tour as well. His Scottish accent was so thick it was hard to understand what he was saying but he was quite animated and so we enjoyed his tour even if we got a little lost as to what he was saying. Our ghost tour took place in the Greyfriar’s cemetery…again. How fitting to spend the majority of Halloween in an old cemetery! We learned a little history about old Edinburgh, the fights with the king and even Lord Byron’s great scary story competition that inspired Frankenstein and The Vampyre (two books I happened to have to read for my literature class). We were then sent into this locked area that held a supernatural force that was “much stronger than a poltergeist.” We knew that as a ghost tour we were supposed to be scared but even if you know you still can’t prepare yourself. Our guide was quite talkative at this point, stating all the things that could happen to you once we were inside. The last part in the tour we were in a vault and our guide was in the middle of talking when some cloaked figure ran into the vault and screamed bloody murder. I am not afraid to admit that I screamed my head off. So much so that my throat hurt afterwards! Well worth it I say! All in all Halloween did not disappoint and I was happy to be in a country that loves the holiday as much as I do!

On the first of November we were off to see Edinburgh castle. I had been before but it was really cool to see everything again, especially the tiny church that helped kick start my passion for my hobby in photography. We spent a good couple of hours exploring the castle ground before heading for lunch. On the way down the Royal Mile a scheduled protest started behind us for what I can’t even remember. It was just weird walking while everyone behind you held signs and chanted! After lunch we relaxed a bit at the hostel before we were going to tackle Arthur’s Seat (the highest point in Edinburgh). This was the one thing Emilie had been looking forward to doing and I at first was hesitant. Good thing I packed my running shoes!! It took ten minutes to walk to the starting point, walking first through old town Edinburgh and the parliament area. At the starting point we noticed an ice cream truck and wondered who’d be crazy enough to eat ice cream before a hike, which we later realized it was definitely a reward for after! About 20 minutes in we are breathing a little heavier because of the steep incline but we can see the top and were excited that we were going to finish! Then when we got to a point in the hill, I horribly turned my head left and found that we were nowhere near finishing and pointed to Emilie that where were going was not the top, but that point wayyyyyyy up over there was it. Grumbling we pushed on. We certainly got our workout because after the steep hill it was time to walk up a million high steps! 45 minutes in we reach the second highest point, which has a gorgeous meadow. We stopped to catch our breath and take a look at the view of the city before finishing the last leg of the hike. When we reached the top it was so windy that we sometimes lost our balance and had to hold onto something! Yet, despite the long hike, despite how tired we were, despite the incredibly chilling wind, the view we had of Edinburgh was worth it. At that point I thought how much my dad would have enjoyed this hike and wished that my family was with me. But that will have to be done another day, I’ll just have to experience it for them right now! After wandering around the top point, getting our selfies and looking around it was time to climb back down. Now I don’t claim to be a perfect person and make the smartest choices and at this moment, I definitely did not make a smart choice. Instead of going the path we came, we followed another couple who were going a different route. What we ended up doing was basically rock climb down a very steep hill which was clearly meant to be closed off to the hikers. We found this out when we saw the fence barrier at the bottom after we were so happy to have made it down alive and unharmed! We then took a nice flat patch back to where we started and laughed at how stupid we must have looked climbing down when just 40 or so feet away there was a marked trail.

Afterwards we walked around old town Edinburgh where I got to go to a yearlong Christmas store which reminded me of Leavenworth back home. The rest of the night we ended up getting to know some people in our hostel. We talked with our roommates who were a daughter and mom from Australia travelling Europe for the mom’s birthday. They were wonderful and we even got their contacts to keep in touch as we talked for hours! We also ended up having dinner with a girl from Oregon who quit her job and was backpacking for a year. She is much braver than I am, I don’t know if I could have made it a year backpacking! We got on a really nice conversation about experiencing independence and a life abroad. It’s a true blessing to be around so many people like yourself to help you on your journey abroad no matter how long you are away from home. It certainly got me to appreciate how far I’ve come on this journey and how studying abroad has changed my life so much already even though I didn’t see it right away.