the last days in Scotland: Glasgow and Edinburgh

After Joe left last Thursday, I spent most of the weekend catching up on sleep and editing photos from all my travels.  I also spent some time with my flatmates, since all of us were finally back in Glasgow at the same time.

On Tuesday, I went with Jacquie and Andrea to Edinburgh.  Edinburgh is quite the lovely city!  We began our visit by wandering down to the cafe where J. K. Rowling wrote parts of the first two Harry Potter books:  The Elephant House!

Exciting!  And their cappuccinos weren't bad either.  No wonder J. K. Rowling frequented the place.

After lunch, we wandered down the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle.  It looked nice, but castles with car parks in front of them disappoint me.  It takes away from the castle-ness of the castle.

After taking in the outside of the castle, we wandered back down the Royal Mile and found the Edinburgh Writer's Museum.  One thing I really love about Scotland's museums is that they tend to be free.  It's wonderful.

The Writer's Museum is housed in a really cool old mansion from 1622.  It featured permanent exhibitions on Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott, as well as a temporary exhibition on philosopher David Hume.

The exhibitions were quite lovely!  Visiting Writer's Museums always makes me want to buy a ton of books and spend all my time reading.

After the Writer's Museum, we wandered down the Royal Mile and past the Scottish Parliament.  It is in the strangest building, where Old Town meets New Town.

It looked, as Andrea said, more like a modern art building than a government building.  Strange indeed.

Anyway, we decided to climb one of the hills near Holyrood Park--part of the Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat.

We didn't really follow the regular path up the hill.  Instead we followed what was probably water's path down the hill.  It was quite the fun adventure though!  I felt kind of like I was part of The Lord of the Rings--on an adventure to destroy the ring!

We had quite a fun time on top the hill, enjoying the lovely views of Edinburgh, the sea, and other hills.

As the afternoon came to a close, we made our way back through Edinburgh along the Royal Mile.  Edinburgh really is a wonderfully lovely city.  I think if I were to move to Scotland, I could see myself living in Edinburgh more-so than Glasgow.  It's just more of a literary city.

As my final days in Glasgow passed by, I spent most of my time with my flatmates and packing for my trip home.  On Friday, my last day in Glasgow, I went for a final Glasgow walk along the River Clyde to the armadillo shaped building--the Scottish Conference Center.  My flatmates and I also had a final flatmate dinner and pub night.

I leave early on June 4 (Glasgow time) and return to Fosston late on June 4.  I will miss Glasgow and my new friends quite a lot.  It's been quite an adventure this semester.  Study abroad has been an experience that I wouldn't trade for anything.