Edinburgh Recap

    Before the official start of our program in London, we had the chance to take a tour around Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands for a few days. These days turned out to be pretty amazing, in my own humble opinion. I’ve never been to Europe at all before this trip and, given the fact that I’m from the Las Vegas desert, things were quite a nice change of scenery. Combine that with some uniquely nice weather and our days were gorgeous, if a little warm at times. Between tours of the city, the castle, the highlands, and Loch Ness, our days gave us a nice perspective on the Scottish capital and the country around it.

    The first day definitely got off to a bit of a rough start, getting to our accommodations and finding our we couldn’t get into our rooms for five hours, but it was made better when the first thing a group of us did was go out for tea.

Clarinda's is definitely a place I'd recommend if you're in the area

    That night saw our first planned activity, a Harry Potter walking tour of the city, which was fun as a fan of the series. The next day was among our longest, with a visit to Edinburgh Castle, a walking tour of the Royal Mile, and a visit to Mary King’s Close that night. Edinburgh Castle is the first historical castle I’ve had the chance to visit and they even had the Scottish crown jewels on display, which were beautiful, and the history surrounding them was intriguing.

The view of the city from the castle

    The next day was our trip to the highlands and Loch Ness, where we sadly did not spot Nessie. We did, however, get a chance to stop and see some of the famous, and very hairy, Highland Cows on our way back, which is definitely not something I ever thought I would see in person.

Loch Ness

Hamish and Hazel the Highland Cows

    Our last full day in Scotland was a free day to explore the city. We stopped at the Elephant House, which we has passed on the Harry Potter walking tour, but this time had a chance to go inside and sit down. We definitely came at the right time (about 10 in the morning) because when we passed by later, the line was out the door. Then we hit every museum we could until meeting up for the farewell dinner that night. Although one other notable occurrence was the lovely owl, also named Hazel, we met, quite by chance, on the street that we got to pet. The next morning, we made it to the train station and, five hours later, were finally in London.

Hazel the owl

Wilson House, home for the next five weeks