Edinburgh

This morning started off with our transportation to Edinburgh from London. We had to take taxis as a group from our flats in London to King’s Cross to catch the train. Let me tell you that figuring out how to fit 21 girls with all of their luggage into three taxis early in the morning is not easy or fun haha. But we finally made it to the station and waited around for our train where we then struggled to find storage for all of our bags in the very limited luggage storage space. Well, needless to say it all eventually got sorted out and we took the four and a half hour train ride up to Edinburgh. Even though it was fairly long, the train ride was enjoyable because the scenery is gorgeous!
When we arrived in Edinburgh we took taxis to our flats and got to drop off our stuff in our rooms. I am in another flat of six girls, but this time we all have our own rooms and we have two bathrooms with working showers! I think it is a great upgrade from our crowded flats in London, but some of my roommates disagree for some reason. Oh well, at least I’m happy haha ☺ Not to mention, we have great views out of all of our windows on the fourth floor here; they are much better than the apartment rooftop views we had in London.
After we dropped off our stuff, Dr. Cooke took us down the street to show us where the nearest grocery store is. We then had a little over an hour to do what we wanted before our city bus tour. My roommates and I went to get dinner at a nearby coffee shop. I got a Cajun chicken crepe with a salad. They accidentally forgot to make my dinner though, so the chef brought me a free muffin too to make up for it. They were so friendly and everyone has the greatest Scottish accents! It is so fun to hear the different accents everywhere we go on the trip!
After dinner we came back to walk with the rest of the group to the Edinburgh Waverley Station to get on the tour bus. The tour lasted about an hour and was a great opportunity to orient ourselves within the city and to hear a little bit about the history and main attractions within Edinburgh. It is truly a unique, quaint, and beautiful city! After an hour on the second level of an open-topped double-decker bus, I quickly learned the hard way that Scotland does not have the warmest weather, even in the summer. We were all chilly and wishing we had brought warmer clothes, even though most of us were already wearing jeans, hoodies, and tennis shoes. At least now I have an excuse to buy some warm Edinburgh paraphernalia while I’m here! haha
When we were done with the bus tour we looked around in some of the touristy shops and then (rather blindly) made our way back to the street where our flats our. From there, we went to the University of Edinburgh office (our flats are through that university) to buy vouchers for the internet since we were told it wasn’t going to be provided to us for free. After that we went to the grocery store and came back to the flat to recuperate from our traveling and to test out the internet. Little did we know, apparently we could have gotten on the internet for free without the vouchers we had just purchased. I guess that means we’ll have to try to get our money back tomorrow…Sometimes traveling and all the expenses and unknown factors can really be overwhelming. But we’re all settled in now and happy to have any internet at all ☺ Tomorrow is a day long site visit to a nearby university. I’m not really sure what the visit is going to entail, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough!
Well, we’ve made it to our final week and last country that we are visiting for the trip! It’s all been flying by and it’s sad to think about leaving in a week, but at the same time I’m ready to come home to the familiarity of people, places, food, and transportation. I know I’ll be home soon enough, so it’s time to enjoy my final week here in Edinburgh ☺