This past weekend, Clare, Bridget, and I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland. We had heard nothing but great things about this city and the flights were so cheap so we decided to check it out for ourselves. Plus I knew that this would give me the opportunity to travel to St. Andrews, the Home of Golf. The night before we left, Clare and I found out that our roommate from UC Santa Barbara was also traveling on our same flight to go visit her grandma who lives in Edinburgh. Our flight was supposed to leave at 12:30 on Thursday afternoon, but it ended up getting delayed almost 2 hours. When we finally got into Edinburgh, we parted ways with Shelby and the 3 of us grabbed a cab to our hostel. The hostel ended up being located in an old converted church, had the nicest and biggest bathrooms out of any hostel we have been to yet, and was super cheap. We passed a ridiculous amount of Chinese restaurants on our way into the city, so we asked the guy at the check-in desk for some good recommendations. After fulfilling our Chinese cravings, we decided to walk a half hour across the city center to Wetherspoons, a chain of restaurants in the UK and Ireland that serves really cheap food and drinks. One just opened up in Cork, and we also went to two while we were in Northern Ireland. We spent a couple hours socializing and decided that we wanted to listen to live music, so we found ourselves at a hotel bar right outside of Edinburgh's Old Town. We listened to the guy singing and playing guitar until bar close. The amount of musical talent that I have heard throughout my time in Europe so far is honestly amazing.
We woke up early the next morning and trekked across the city center to Hollyrood Park and to the base of Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is the highest point in the park and is a dormant volcano. It's a relatively easy climb since there is a winded path of stone stairs going up to the top. We spent 2 hours climbing and enjoying the view and decided we wanted to head back into the city. When climbing to the top earlier, we saw a guy and his dog coming down a more secluded path on the mountain. From the top, it looked like it would be a quicker and less crowded way down than taking the stairs. Yeah we were SO wrong. We ended up spending an hour scaling down the side of the mountain and questioning whether or not it would be worth it to climb back up and take the stairs, but we decided to keep going since we already made it so far down. Towards the bottom, the stair path came into sight and two fellow climbers yelled and asked if we needed emergency medical assistance. At this point, we were all stuck in thorn bushes and could only help but laugh. Once finally reaching the bottom, we looked back up, realized how steep the path was, and wondered what was even going through our minds when we thought that was a good idea. We grabbed lunch and headed to explore Old Town, the historical part of the city. On our way, we passed a church with a bagpiper outside. The guy at the front gate told us that there was a wedding taking place and that the bride was 30 minutes late. He told us that we were welcome to wait outside the gate and listen to the bagpiper play when the bride finally arrived. After waiting a few minutes, the bride finally showed up and we were able to hear our first Scottish bagpiper, kilt and all. We kept heading towards the city center and finally reached The Royal Mile, the main street that runs through Old Town. All of the buildings were so old and charming and was so clean compared to all the other cities I have been to. We went into St. Giles' Church and explored around the Edinburgh Castle. We wanted to go into the castle, but it cost 18 pounds, which ends up being almost $30. We decided the price wasn't worth it, so we settled for ice cream outside of the castle instead before heading back to our hostel to get ready for dinner. After dinner, we ended up listening to music again at a bar, but we were all exhausted so we headed back to the hostel early to get some sleep.
We woke up early the next morning and trekked across the city center to Hollyrood Park and to the base of Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is the highest point in the park and is a dormant volcano. It's a relatively easy climb since there is a winded path of stone stairs going up to the top. We spent 2 hours climbing and enjoying the view and decided we wanted to head back into the city. When climbing to the top earlier, we saw a guy and his dog coming down a more secluded path on the mountain. From the top, it looked like it would be a quicker and less crowded way down than taking the stairs. Yeah we were SO wrong. We ended up spending an hour scaling down the side of the mountain and questioning whether or not it would be worth it to climb back up and take the stairs, but we decided to keep going since we already made it so far down. Towards the bottom, the stair path came into sight and two fellow climbers yelled and asked if we needed emergency medical assistance. At this point, we were all stuck in thorn bushes and could only help but laugh. Once finally reaching the bottom, we looked back up, realized how steep the path was, and wondered what was even going through our minds when we thought that was a good idea. We grabbed lunch and headed to explore Old Town, the historical part of the city. On our way, we passed a church with a bagpiper outside. The guy at the front gate told us that there was a wedding taking place and that the bride was 30 minutes late. He told us that we were welcome to wait outside the gate and listen to the bagpiper play when the bride finally arrived. After waiting a few minutes, the bride finally showed up and we were able to hear our first Scottish bagpiper, kilt and all. We kept heading towards the city center and finally reached The Royal Mile, the main street that runs through Old Town. All of the buildings were so old and charming and was so clean compared to all the other cities I have been to. We went into St. Giles' Church and explored around the Edinburgh Castle. We wanted to go into the castle, but it cost 18 pounds, which ends up being almost $30. We decided the price wasn't worth it, so we settled for ice cream outside of the castle instead before heading back to our hostel to get ready for dinner. After dinner, we ended up listening to music again at a bar, but we were all exhausted so we headed back to the hostel early to get some sleep.
I woke up early the next morning to catch an 8:30 AM train to Leuchars, where I would then catch a bus to St. Andrews. St. Andrews is home to The Old Course and 6 other public golf courses and hosts the British Open every year. The Old Course is said to be the home of golf. I have been an avid golf fan for as long as I can remember and knew that visiting The Old Course was something that I needed do to while spending the semester abroad. Clare and Bridget aren't fans of golf, so I made this trip by myself. Once arriving in St. Andrews, I found the 18th hold of The Old Course and watched players tee off. Seeing the course was plenty enough for me, but for some people the experience isn't complete without playing the course. However it is extremely difficult to get a tee time, and usually requires you to stay in The Old Course Hotel or to enter your name into a lottery type of system and hope you get chosen. It also isn't cheap. An 18-hole round will cost you 170 pounds which is about $260. After spending a couple hours watching the golfers and walking the course, I got my picture taken on the famous 18th hole bridge that has been walked on by golf's greatest players like Arnold Palmer, Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Tiger Woods, and many others. I explored around the town for a little bit and grabbed lunch before catching my train back to Edinburgh. When I got back to the city, we still had a few hours before our plane left for Dublin so we walked around Old Town again and discovered The Elephant House, the birthplace of Harry Potter. It is said that J.K. Rowling thought that it was cheaper to buy a cup of coffee and sit in the cafe than to pay her heating bill every day, and this is the place where she first began writing the first Harry Potter book.
Edinburgh is by far the most beautiful city that I have been to yet. The city was so medieval, charming, and clean and the Scottish people were so friendly. I would recommend Edinburgh and Scotland to anyone planning on visiting Europe in a heartbeat.
Edinburgh is by far the most beautiful city that I have been to yet. The city was so medieval, charming, and clean and the Scottish people were so friendly. I would recommend Edinburgh and Scotland to anyone planning on visiting Europe in a heartbeat.