Adventures in Traveling

First off, apologies for not updating this blog over the past several days! I have no excuses really, just being lazy.

Anyway, This weekend marked the first of a few journeys outside of London that I will be taking over the semester. I went with a few other girls in my program to Edinburgh, Scotland. Kind of a random destination, and not somewhere I was completely set on going but I am so glad I did. Scotland (at least all of the parts I saw, and I did see a lot) is beautiful. We took a tour through the Highlands our first full day there, and it was definitely worth it. Our tour went from Edinburgh all the way up to Loch Ness (home to Nessie, of course!) and then down the other side. I saw plenty of lochs, mountains, and fields. The pictures do not do any of it justice, it was absolutely breathtaking.
Here is an example of some of the scenery I saw:

Pretty cool! Although I was told these mountains are only half the size of the Rockies, so I'm thinking that's first on my list of places I want to go in the US.

Edinburgh itself was such a cool city! It was full of beautiful buildings, and much quieter than London. Probably because it is only double the size of Madison, at just over half a million people. My favorite part was The Elephant House, where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book.

It's kind of small, but straight out the window is the Edinburgh Castle. I have a feeling this had to have given her inspiration for Hogwarts. Amazing!

This weekend also marked my first time staying in a hostel. I was a little apprehensive going in to it (I enjoy comfortable beds, only sharing a room with the people I'm traveling with etc.) but it was not bad at all. We ended up rooming with girls from the US, who were studying abroad in London as well. They were from the University of Minnesota, so that made it even better! It was nice to talk to some fellow midwesterners who weren't from our program. Made it feel a little more like home. The hostel itself was clean, the showers had good pressure, and the staff was very friendly. They recommended that we eat at a restaurant called Biddy Mulligans, which was delicious! We ended up going back there for dinner yesterday.

Deciding to be adventurous, I tried haggis, a popular Scottish dish. I won't say what it's made of, it's kind of gross! But it tasted suprisingly good.

Next up on the list is Windsor Castle, and then Switzerland. I've almost been here a month and it still seems surreal to me!