Day Trip to Edinburgh

Hello all! This past week I haven't done too much worth writing about. Just more of getting settled in my new surroundings. I have finally gotten my class schedule all sorted out and it looks like I will only have class Monday, Tuesday and Friday! According to some of my flatmates, time in class is limited but there is more work to do on your own to prepare for lectures and seminars. This is a little bit like what I am used to but I never expected to have class only 3 days a week! Hopefully this will just give me more time for traveling. :)

Yesterday was our first day of having some real free time so my friends Katie, Steph and I decided that morning to hop on a train to Edinburgh, Scotland's capitol city. It only took us about an hour and was only 8 pounds for a round trip ticket! On the way there I finally got a chance to see more of Scotland during the day which was nice. To me the rural parts of Scotland don't look much different from Wisconsin! (Just with some mountains in the background.)

We arrived in Edinburgh and were blown away by how beautiful it was. No wonder it is considered one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. The picture below is the first thing we saw after stepping off the train! It's the Scott Monument. You can go up to the top but we didn't get a chance yesterday.

After walking for a little bit we decided to go to the Edinburgh Castle. Sitting high on the cliffs the castle is over 800 years old! Inside we did some exploring and took some great pictures of the city below. My favorite part of the castle was the crown room. They are the oldest crown jewels in Europe and were absolutely beautiful. (No pictures in that room, sorry!)

The first picture above is me in front of the castle, and the next is me with the city behind, taken from inside the castle.

After exploring the castle a little we got some lunch and did some shopping and then finally hopped the train back to Stirling. It was great to be able to hop on the train see such an amazing city and then hop back on and go home, all in just a day. I can't believe how easy it is to get around over here!

Tomorrow I start my first full week of class and excited to get back into the swing of things. I just hope it doesn't take me too long to get back into a routine since it's been about 2 months since I've had class.