Sunday, July 10, 2011

A Wee Internship in Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh Old Town

A stroke of luck (and perhaps a bit of hard work) brought me to Edinburgh, Scotland for the summer of 2007. Edinburgh is far enough north that there's barely a nighttime during the summer, a phenomenon which is taken advantage of by thousands of visitors to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (seriously, though, this is where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was first staged). The weekdays, I attended Fringe Festival shows and got to know many of the pubs about town. On the weekends, when I wasn't at my internship, I would travel around a bit.

Date
Activities
6/22/07Arrive in Edinburgh. Live in the 'pubic triangle' section of town.
St. Giles Cathedral. Edinburgh Castle. The Royal Mile. New Town. The Whiskey Experience museum. Grassmarket. Arthur's Seat. Holyrood Palace. etc.
6/30/07International Students' trip to Castle Campbell, Dollar Glen, and the Drummond Gardens.
7/13/07International Students' trip to St. Andrews and the fishing village of Pittenweem.
St. Andrews Castle & Cathedral. St. Rules Tower. Fish n' Chips.
7/14/07A city bus to nearby Craig Millar Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots once stayed.
7/20/07Isle of May bird refuge island, the fishing village of Anstruther, and St. Andrews.
Puffins. Attacking, protective Arctic Terns. Miniature golfing on the "women's course" at St. Andrews.
7/27/07Skye High Three Day Trip with Haggis Adventures: the Isle of Skye.
Glencoe.Beautifying stream. Dynamite mines. The fishing village of Portree. Fairy Falls. The Old Man of Storr. Loch Ness. Eilean Donan Castle. Fort Augustus. Ancient Burial Cairns. Culloden Moor. Dunkend Cathedral. Beatrix Potter's hometown.
8/1/07The Edinburgh Festivals begin.
8/2/07International Students' trip to Blair Atholl Castle.
Blair Atholl Castle. Hercules Gardens. The Falls of Bruar. Edradour Distillery.
9/1/07Glasgow.
Tolbooth Steeple. Glasgow Cathedral. Art deco tea rooms.

Pittenweem, Scotland Town View Eilean Donan Castle


Scotland is a lovely, if expensive, country. I spent three months living there, without any need to ever leave. There is so much to see! ...and so much to drink. I developed a strong preference for single malt scotches from the isles (love that pete moss smokey flavor).

Rainbow in Scotland View from Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh
View from St. Rules Tower in St. Andrews Thistle
Drummond Italian Gardens Edinburgh Military Tattoo
Isle of May Puffins St. Andrews Golf Course
The River Forth View from Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh

There's more photos of my time living in Scotland up on my Flickr account.

Hamish the Hairy Coo/Cow Craig Millar Castle near Edinburgh
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8 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 10, 2011 at 1:33 PM

    Ha! I've had that smokey scotch, I was the only one in the room who could drink it! Mm

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  2. tinajoJuly 10, 2011 at 1:40 PM

    I want to go to Scotland - that is on my list since many years! :-)

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  3. christine doneeJuly 11, 2011 at 1:15 AM

    those last two photos are incredible. I die!

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  4. Kaylia PayneJuly 11, 2011 at 1:58 AM

    I'm heading to Scotland in January so this guide is fantastic! Wonderful photos, it looks so beautiful there :)

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  5. amy b.s.July 11, 2011 at 10:38 AM

    wow. what an amazing time you must have had!

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  6. JamieJuly 12, 2011 at 9:27 AM

    I've been hoping to get to Scotland for a while - now I'm really hoping!

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  7. A Lost FeatherJuly 12, 2011 at 4:29 PM

    oh my gosh what an amazing experience! wait, wait, wait. are those penguins that i see? i feel like that is a crazy question because penguins don't live there.. or do they? if there are penguins in scotland i need to go. now.

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  8. hJuly 13, 2011 at 6:37 AM

    A Lost Feather- they're not penguins, they're puffins. They look like tiny penguins, but they can fly. The Isle of May has a whole bunch of them, if you go at the right time!

    ReplyDelete

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