Offsite Adventure - Edinburgh

#Edinburgh 

The University of Stirling has been an awesome experience. It is unique having a multi-faceted classes that are not monotonous lectures, notes, text, and study. Our professors involve curriculum and hands on learning which often consist of field trips and excursions. Additionally, our classes are arranged so we have an opportunity to piggyback and participate on other excursions of other classes as well as a weekly excursion scheduled for Stirling students that introduces them to the beautiful country of Scotland.

Excursion - Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland. It is a big, little city - small enough to learn your way around quickly but large enough that there are various things to do depending on your interest. I arrived in Edinburgh one week before I actually went to the University of Stirling. Lodging in local hostels and hotels, I experienced a lot of Edinburgh's unique history and people. So when I saw that it was offered as an offsite excursion from our location in Stirling, I jumped at the opportunity to get back to familiar grounds and explore some more.

I mentioned in the beginning of my blog that Edinburgh is filled with the arts - museums, plays, historic sites are all almost free to the public. Almost everything worth seeing is in walking distance. One can find themselves lost in buildings, historic sites, museums, plays, festivals celebrating culture, and history - both watching and learning and making history.

 I personally visited everything I could get my hands on that was free to the public. I am fully aware that museums, plays, etc. can be quite costly in the United States. I remember my father taking my family every once in a while and being fascinated by the different era's of art - now at my fingertips I had several different era's laid all out in a day's walk and wanted to partake in everything I could. One of my most favorite places to visit was the Scottish National Gallery. This place was enormous filled with continuing centuries of of paintings through out several eras.

It was fascinating to see how the colors, sizes, and even the stroke of the brushes against the canvas changed depending on the era of the painting. Several floors provided insight from the 1600's to the early 1900's and I spent many hours (sometimes full days) reading and learning about the influences these creators had on the world. The month of July was encapsulated with Venetian, American impressionism, and a display of 25 years of contemporary art in Scotland. Scotland is also known for its' belief in expression as many students attending primary and secondary school had their drawings right next to a famous exhibition. It was very inspiring.

Art is everywhere. Expressions are in the buildings, the music, even the coffee shop where I often hung out early in the morning. The place was called Granton's Square and though it was not "fancy" on a scale of size or meals or a hang out, I loved being there early in the morning and taking the elevator to the top floor to enjoy a coffee. I had an opportunity to take my friends on an excursion to to show them why I loved this simple place so much. Click the link below and you'll see why the elevator was my favorite part of incorporating breakfast and art all in one.

Edinburgh caters to tourists and locals alike. You can get lost for miles shopping for clothes, tartans, souvenirs, and indulging in fried ice cream, fried Mars bars (yes the candy bar), and making pit stops in five story book stores that leave you in awe of time when you leave. There is culture on every block from native food to the bagpipe players (called pipers) and the people who are star-struck enough with the culture to take pictures with them at every corner.

Each trip to each offsite excursion lasts about 10 hours (2 for travel time). The cities we visited continue to amaze, educate me, and inspire me to travel