On the road again...to Scotland!

Our entire program got to go on a group trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. We had Friday classes off and left at 9 am for an 8 hour bus ride.

Reasons I’m lucky:
1. I got to sit next to Meg on the 8 hour bus ride to Edinburgh. We spent time chatting, sleeping, reading and giggling. Having her to sit next to made the trip pass pretty quickly.
2. England has a fine appreciation for chocolate. My greatest find so far is “Maltesers”—basically an even better version of Whoppers, my favorite. It is like walking into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory whenever we go into a gas station with all of the chocolate choices.
3. We got to stop at Fountains Abbey on our way to Edinburgh. It was absolutely breathtaking, (although one student told me not to be “extremist” when I described it that way.) We walked down a small pathway through trees and were hit like a gust of wind with the impressive visual images of the Abbey. Words simply cannot explain how gorgeous it was. At first glance, it is an obviously very impressive abbey in sheer size, but what most impressed me was that around every corner, there were new surprises. People just don’t build buildings like that anymore. Meg and I decided that the Europeans are so spoiled to have these phenomenal historical buildings in their backyards. We walked around the building and it was so incredible with archways, stone work and construction. I took tons of pictures, but I honestly think I could spend years there and never be satisfied or feel like I captured everything. If you are reading this, Dad, we are definitely going to have to draw some inspiration from these pictures for our next sand-abbeys, haha. Meg and I got scones for lunch and then got back on the road again.
4. Universities in Europe give students singles. It was nice to settle into my new room at Pollock Halls, (part of the University of Edinburgh, about 30 minutes outside of the town center), and was pleasantly surprised to have a sink in the room!
5. Dinner was an all-you-can-eat buffet. It was just what I wanted after a long day on the bus. The choices were overwhelming, but it was delicious.
6. I have friends here who like exploring. We walked into the town center and started off at a pub called the “Auld Hoose.” It wasn’t quite our typical place with heavy metal head banging music, but the company was good and it was pretty relaxing. I tried a pear cider that was really good. We moved on from there to a more down town locale. We asked for directions and got to hear a few great Scottish accents. At the next bar, Biblos, Meg and I got Pimms and lemonade. It was very tasty. We talked a little to the bartender and got to hear another great accent as he recommended that we try haggus, (no thank you!). That pretty much concluded our night since we had to get up early the next morning for hiking.

July 2