It is hard to believe how quickly these past few days have flown by and it is even harder to believe that it is time to head home to the United States and Pennsylvania tomorrow. Due to it being our last day here, we have another free day to do what ever we would like. Dr. Thompson said he was interested in hiking the Pentland Hills and whoever wanted to accompany him was welcome. Paige, Beckie and I, along with three other travelers from the Edinboro group accompanied him.
We hopped on a bus and headed out of town and towards our hiking destination. The original plan once we got there was to take a chair lift half way up the mountain, because this area is also a ski resort. However, we came to realize that the chair lifts do not operate on Saturdays, so we got to hike up the entire mountain!
During the hike we were able to take in the beautiful views of the city of Edinburgh and also see some sheep eating on the hillsides. When we reached the summit and looked around the rolling hills around us were stunning. It looked like the scene where Julie Andrews spun around singing The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music in the movie The Sound of Music. We all had brought a little snack with and were able to eat it at the top. When we were up there taking in the views, we all forgot about how strenuous the climb actually was because the views were totally worth it.
When we headed back to the city, Paige and I headed up to the Royal Mile to do some last minute gift shopping before heading back to Pollock Halls. While on the Royal Mile we decided to stop and watch some of the different street performers that were advertising their show for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Fringe is the world's largest arts festival and lasts a total of 25 days. The Fringe is a showcase for the performing arts, particularly theatre and comedy, but music and dance are also well represented.
Once we were done watching some of the street performers and gift shopping we headed back to Pollock Halls where we freshened up before joining the entire Edinboro travel group one last time for dinner before heading back to the States. We had dinner at this nice Italian restaurant, where I ordered pizza and sardines were hidden underneath my cheese. Not too pleased, but luckily the amazing dessert made up for the sardine incident.
Once dinner was over, the usual 6 of us headed to the Royal Mile to participate in a ghost tour. It was interesting to be able to travel underneath of the city and into the vaults. It is hard to imagine that people actually lived in these vaults at one point or another. The tour was fun and well worth the money, because not everyone is brave enough to travel under the city, but unfortunately we did not see any ghosts!
Once we arrived back at Pollock Halls, I finished packing up the rest of my things and showered and just hung out with the rest of the group until it was time to leave for the airport at 3:30am!
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