Weekend trip to Scotland!!!

The IES Abroad London trip to Scotland was one of the highlights of my time abroad in the United Kingdom. A group of us in the program took a train up to Scotland which allowed us to take in the beautiful countryside on the way. We then settled in our hostel before beginning the weekend’s adventures. We started off with a guided tour of the city of Edinburgh which has such beautiful and rich architecture - the cobblestone roads and gothic buildings enveloped us in an ancient and romantic aesthetic. This was followed by a tour of the Edinburgh castle which was also hauntingly beautiful. Later, I was able to continue exploring the city by doing a tour of the underground vaults beneath it as well as some historically significant but definitely scary places above ground filled with some of Edinburgh’s more violent and tragic past. It was an amazing opportunity to learn more about the history of Scotland. On top of that, I tried haggis for the first time, as a true tourist should, and had some great street food. The next day, we began our exploration of Scotland’s outdoors by visiting a deer farm where we learnt about and fed the deer. After that, we headed on a hike through the Birks of Aberfeldy that allowed us to really immerse ourselves in Scotland’s natural beauty. In true tourist fashion, I hiked to Arthur’s Seat the day we left to take in an amazing view of Edinburgh before I left. Scotland was such a beautiful and calming place to visit that was always on my list and I am so glad I had the chance to explore it the way I did on this trip. I would highly recommend a trip there to anyone.