Student blogs

Last day!

We got up really early to watch the sunrise at Carlton hill. The road was horribly muddy. I walked all the way up with Vans skating shoes, of course accompanied by stormy wind and rain. It took us about 30 minutes to get to Arthur’s seat which is the highest point of the whole Edinburgh. Here are some pics from that adventurous trip!!!

So I’m gonna take a pulse here and I will be back in approximately 2 weeks with a freshly-made summary of what I did for the exam revisions. See y’all soon 🙂 And as always, leave your questions and comments below.

Read #CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY SPECIALS# TRIP TO EDINBURGH!!! (DAY 4) in full

Sorry I was MIA for so long, quite busy doing exam revision for two exams on Feb.

Some great photos from Edinburgh Hogmanay Street Party just for you guys 🙂

So Day 3! We got up pretty late (around 11-12 am I think). After a quick lunch, we head to the Palace of Holyroodhouse which is where Queen Mary of Scotland used to live. (Quite a marvelous Queen) A royal gallery collection beside the castle shows the finest collection of Scottish artists’ works about people in Scotland and their history.

Shortly after that. We went to the Scottish National Museum. We wanted to go to top floor for night view of Scotland. But…we failed…The top floor was closed for maintainence 🙁 Sigh… But we went back home for the Christmas edition of Sherlock 😛 So We’d say it’s a nice and lovely day!

Read #Christmas holiday specials# Trip to Edinburgh!!! (Day 2 and 3) in full

After the long night of Hogmanay light torch procession. We got back to our airbnb house. The house itself was fantastic with its prime location at city centre. It was a three-storey house and it used to be wine brewery decades ago.

On the second day, we talked along the Royal mile for the famous Edinburgh castle. But before reaching the castle, we made a short stop on the way to pay a visit to the St. Gile’s Cathedral. The cathedral dates back to 1883 and few well-knowns were buried there including John Knox and James Graham. We looked around, took some pictures, light up some candles, bought some postcards and then left.

 

 

 

It was only a less than 20min walk from our house to the Edinburgh castle. So we have entered the castle and started a climbing tour that doesn’t seem to end. There is one room in the castle that was the most ancient thing of the whole Edinburgh, probably the whole Scotland. It was a mini-chapel set up by some king A LONG TIME AGO in honor of his mother. Later it was converted to arsenal and until recently (1950) it was being refurbished for its original purpose. It was really windy and rainy. Making our way up to the castle difficult because of all the slippery stairs and muddy paths. The castle also holds the Scottish national war memorial where holds tributes to the Scottish highlanders who died during the South African War and Two World Wars for Britain. Then we waited in a LONG queue to enter this little room of the castle. We all wanted to see the Stone of Destiny and Scottish crowns. After that we went down to the entrance and see the routine artillery firing at 1PM sharply for ships to set their clock correctly. It was a great experience, we even met some people from London by accident. Apparently we were all drawn to this beautiful place over the holiday.

 

Then we felt hungry 🙁 Off we go to find some authentic food from the highlands. First we went down the hill to the Grassmarket for Oink. We were looking forward to some hog roast rolls with chilly sauce. But unfortunately for us, there was only the pig head left. Then we were on the hunt for another Scottish food, the Haggis. We went to the Last Drop, a bar&restaurant with strong Scottish smell. A Haggis with beer seems to be the perfect combination of the meal for the day. And indeed it tastes lovely.

That would be all from this post. More to come up from the Edinburgh Hogmanay in the next post where we went to the Street party and other great stuff for the new year countdown. Stay tuned for the next post.

Until next time, Bye! 😀

 

Read #Christmas holiday specials# Trip to Edinburgh!!! (Day 2) in full

So It’s nearly the end of the Christmas holiday. After staying at my room and revising for the whole day (not lying), I’ve decided to do some blogging before sleep…(or it’s because I can’t FALL ASLEEP!!!) I’m gonna write about my trip to Edinburgh over new year. This is my first trip I’ve ever took since I got to UK …and Edinburgh, undoubtedly, has become the furthest north place I’ve ever been. So many ‘firsts’ make this one of the most memorable trips I’ve ever had.

Experience on the British Railway…

I got up really early (6am) to catch the train leaving from King’s cross (7:30am).  The train ride took around 4 hours with severe delay en route!!! I have to take this opportunity to say that comparing to China, British railway system sucks. Seriously, some stormy wind would easily force the train to restrict the speed down to 50 mph… I know this is a safety precaution but a better-designed train should be able to endure extreme weathers. And the trains were shaking like madness… Please visit China one day and try the Chinese railway system. You’ll love it and it’s much cheaper! Oops…Kinda missed the topic of this blog…

So I have arrived. Hooray! Next stop is to find my airbnb house. It’s right in the middle of the Old town Edinburgh and only a 2 min walk to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. After getting everything settled down, we are ready to our first event of the new year trip…the LIGHT TORCH PROCESSION! (or witch hunt as my mate Tony likes to say)

The Marvelous Light Torch Procession

So we left the house for the procession. We first get onto the Royal mile, a long road that witnessed nearly the entire history of Edinburgh. It passes through the old town with the most famous tourist sites on its two ends, Edinburgh Castle and The Palace of Holyroodhouse. We have collected the torches and getting ready to wait in the queue. ERHHHHH I wish you could hear the beautiful Scottish music in the background! Anyways, the waiting in the queue part took longer than expected…40 minutes or so in the strong winds (Temperature easily drops to below 5C) Later we follow the crowd walking through Royal mile, Pricnce’s street and to the destination, Carlton hill where we saw the first fire work show before the new year.

So that’s all for Day 1. Stay tuned for more exciting stuff from Day 2 where we visited the Castle and ….to the Hogmanay street party for the new year countdown!!! Again, guys please leave comments for questions and special requests. Thanks!

As always… until next time, bye! 😛

 

 

Read #Christmas holiday specials# Trip to Edinburgh!!! (Day 1) in full