At the beginning of my third week in Oxford, I decided to join my friends on a weekend trip to Edinburgh at the end of the week. Although I was coming with my friends, actually about half of the UA at Oxford group was in Edinburgh this weekend! We started the weekend by going to the British Museum in London on Friday morning. It was really interesting and cool and had things like the Rosetta Stone and actual artifacts from the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. After spending the morning at the museum, we hopped on a train and went into Edinburgh. The train ride took us through a lot of the countryside between London and Edinburgh and it was so pretty to see! After about 4 1/2 hours on the train, we finally arrived. We went to dinner and my friends Lauren and John ate haggis, which is a Scottish traditional food that is like meatloaf (according to them) but is made of sheep organs. Needless to say, I did not participate in the haggis eating. Saturday morning I went down the Royal Mile to the Palace where Mary Queen of Scots lived. They actually had Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding outfits on display at the Palace! No photos were allowed inside the Palace but it was really cool to see. As we were walking back to the hotel, we stumbled upon the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books! It is called The Elephant House and is right by the Kirkyard where she got the names for Professor McGonagall and Tom Riddle. Unfortunately, the Kirkyard was closed so I could not go inside, but to just stumble upon such big parts of the Harry Potter world without even looking for them was an experience I can’t even describe how it made me feel. I adore Harry Potter and so being where she actually wrote the books and got inspiration for them was an experience I couldn’t really believe I was having. Overall, I am extremely glad I decided to go to Scotland just because everyone else was because it was such an incredible weekend with my friends!
