I have to admit, I did not exactly have high expectations for Scotland. I don't know much about the country so I didn't quite know what to expect when going there. The whole trip was planned around a Thanksgiving event that was being hosted by my school's Education Abroad Program for most of the UC students studying abroad in the UK. So around 3:00 a.m., my other UC friends in Galway and I got on a bus which took us to the airport for our 6 o'clock flight. We arrived in Edinburgh about an hour later and went looking for something to do.
After a night without sleep, we weren't exactly in the most energetic of moods but we set off anyways and started exploring the city. After dropping our bags off at our fortunately very clean hostel, we started walking around to see what we could find. Much to my surprise, Edinburgh is an incredibly beautiful city. The architecture and atmosphere of the city was really nice. The city was also a lot bigger than I expected. It sort of seemed to be divided into smaller neighborhoods and in some ways it reminded me of San Francisco. There didn't seem to be a lot of main tourist attractions in Edinburgh but it was entertaining enough just to walk around and see the cute shops and beautiful views of the city. The weekend we were there also happened to be the same weekend that a big rugby match was going on in the Edinburgh stadium so much to our amusement, we got to see all of the Scottish men walking around in kilts on their way to the game.
The Thanksgiving party hosted by EAP was also a lot of fun. There were students from all different UC schools who were studying abroad at universities all over the UK. They provided lots of Thanksgiving food...none of which was as good as home but it was still a nice gesture. They also put on a celeigh (Kay-Lee), which I know of as a popular type of Irish dance but apparently it originated in Scotland. It was definitely different than how I am used to celebrating Thanksgiving but it turned out to be a lot of fun!
By the end of the weeekend, I was pleasantly surprised by Scotland and definitely glad that I had decided to go. Unfortunately, I cannot upload any of the pictures that I took while I was there but I will try to post them again later! I hope everyone else had a good Thanksgiving!
