Castle This, Hiking That

People, people, people...sometimes I am just too cool to even understand myself!  What brings on this new bought of narcissism you may ask?  Well, I have recently booked flights for my spring break in April.  As many of you will know, people doing my program had the opportunity to spend the second trimester of study at a business school in Nice, France.  When I was signing up for the program, I was afraid moving to Nice would be too much for me (plus, I don't speak French), so I opted out.  Luckily for me, however, some of the great friends I made during first trimester DID end up going to Nice.  So, visiting them at some point over this trimester was always on the agenda.  Now, however, it is official.  My dear friend Tessa will be meeting me in Nice and one of the friends I'm staying with in France will be joining me to start off what has become a whirlwind adventure through Europe! On the agenda?  Almost a week in the sunny south of France, followed by another 5 days in Rome (with hopefully a train trip to Tuscany if we can swing it).  From there, we fly to Vienna and will be taking trains to Salzburg, then Munich.  Before you ask, let me answer the question I'm sure is on everyone's mind: Yes, I will be taking the Sound of Music tour!  In other words, this spring is going to rock some pretty serious socks and you can rest assured that I'll be telling you all about it in eloquent, over-sharing detail.

                                                

As for recent jaunts in Scotland, I've been up to my old tricks.  Last week, I grabbed Alyssa (my flatmate) and Marianthi (program friend) to go for a hike in the Pentlands.  The Pentlands are a national park right on the outskirts of Edinburgh that have woodlands, moors, hills, reservoirs, etc.  And we experienced all most all of those on our walk!  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't as glorious as we would've hoped, but, we try not to complain when surrounded by the beautiful and wild Scottish landscape, lest it hear and try to kill us!  Along the way, we also ran into the cutest dog in the whole world, which we most definitely tried to nab and the owner was terrified of us and the allure we obviously held for the puppy.

Just yesterday almost my whole flat came for an awesome outing to Craigmillar Castle!  Now, what I liked about this place is that there wasn't a lot of fuss about it.  Unlike the Edinburgh Castle in the middle of the city, there aren't guided tours or a ton of people.  Instead, it's more remote and less regulated.  So we paid 5 pounds to get in and our group just walked around this labyrinth of an old castle.  The place had been magnificently preserved and we were able to walk up old spiral staircases, hang around in massive fireplaces, survey the land from our turrets, and call our servants to have the horses saddled and waiting in the exterior courtyard! (Okay, maybe not that last one, but it was easy to get carried away there.)

 

Also, teaser trailer for next week: I've booked a day trip to Oban for February 7th.  Oban is on the western coast of Scotland and I'll be traveling through the highlands again to get there, so prepare for some truly stunning photos, weather permitting!