My Incredible Weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland with IES Abroad

While I’ve certainly been taking advantage of living in London and having so much of the world at my fingertips to travel to, I surprisingly hadn’t taken a trip with IES Abroad until this past weekend, when I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland with IES Abroad London. I was initially a bit nervous about traveling through my program with a relatively big group, which I had never done before, as well as having to follow a more structured schedule over the course of the weekend. However, over the course of the trip I realized that I was extremely grateful for the opportunities that were provided to me and my peers on the trip, as well as the ability to explore Edinburgh on my own. Something that I really enjoyed about traveling with IES Abroad was the lack of stress that I felt in terms of aspects of transportation and housing, as well as the recommendations that were given when we had our own time to explore the city. 

I really appreciated that all of the necessary transportation and housing, specifically our trains both to Edinburgh and back to London, as well as the hostel that we stayed in were all booked by staff so that we didn’t have to worry about booking some of the most stressful components of traveling abroad. Knowing that all I would have to do was travel to King’s Cross with my roommate and get on a train with the rest of the group definitely put my mind at ease and made the journey much simpler and more enjoyable. I had visited Edinburgh a couple years ago with my family just a few weeks before I started my freshman year of college, so being able to go back just years later felt really special to me, and it was definitely a very profound moment to be there with some of my best friends just months away from graduating college. 

While I was able to visit a lot of incredible sights in Edinburgh with my family, I felt like coming back for a second time allowed me to find new parts of the city. By far, my favorite part of my trip was hiking Arthur’s Seat on the last morning in Scotland. It was definitely one of the harder hikes that I’ve done and I was definitely grateful that I grew up hiking a lot with my family, but the view at the very top was worth every step and every breath. I was able to see all the way out to the water, past all of the beautiful buildings and churches, all of the homes and streets, and it was absolutely breathtaking. As cheesy as it sounds, it definitely felt one of those moments where you gain so much perspective and feel fully in shock that you’re able to experience moments like that in your lifetime. That morning at the top of Arthur’s Seat, with both some of my best friends, as well as people I’ve known for just a couple of months, was an incredibly surreal moment for me and one that I’ll definitely remember for the rest of my life. While it was only for a few days, I’ll always remember my weekend in Edinburgh and am so grateful to IES Abroad for organizing such an engaging, memorable experience.