Scotland!

Hello all!

This past weekend was my last little getaway out of London before my long haul back to the states in less than 3 weeks! I have now been to 8 countries in Europe in a short 3 months and I would keep traveling through the rest of them if I had more time.

Scotland was just a train ride away Saturday morning and our first stop was Glasgow for a quick bite to eat. With my flatmate Alyssa, we both got the typical fish and chips because somehow we still hadn't had the traditional meal since being in London and it was well worth our time! We even sat around at the pub with locals watching Scotland play Australia in a rugby game.

With only a few hours in Glasgow we walked around their Christmas markets before hopping on a quick bus ride to Edinburgh. This city was beautiful even in the dark as we arrived at night. We went straight to the Christmas market here and loved exploring the little shops and food of course!

We started our morning early Sunday and set out for a hike up to Arthur's Seat at the top of Hollyrood Park. We were literally climbing up the side of a hill and getting to the top, although it was windy, was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. Climbing down brought us right to Hollyrood Palace, where her majesty the Queen spends her summers to get away from London. Now I can say I have been in both of the Queen's palaces!

We continued on to the Castle of Edinburgh which is a beautiful castle on top of a hill with another great view of the city. The weather was beautifully sunny and not too cold considering it's the end of November and back at home there has already been snow! We walked around the city before our train took off and even got to see the little cafe, the Elephant House, where J.K Rowling began writing Harry Potter!

With this being my last trip, I really enjoyed every moment of exploring and caught myself a handful of times thinking, "wow, I'm in Scotland". It is so crazy that this once in a lifetime experience is almost over but I cannot wait to come home and tell all of my stories and be so grateful for this opportunity.

The next few weeks left in London will be full of work, papers, and presentations to wrap up my classes but I hope to do something fun, or new everyday and to just really take in London as the home it has become in the last 3 months.

So on that note, I'm glad to be done living out of a backpack on weekends but I will also miss the life of a traveler.

Aub

#StudyAbroad #Travel