Dyana Cummings is a junior from Concord,
North Carolina. She is an honors student majoring in
Psychology with a minor in Sociology.
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| Day trip to Scotland |
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Posted by Dyana:
October 1, 2007 |
Our first time out of England, yes to
Scotland it was! Instead of just a day trip, we all took a
group trip for the weekend and headed up to Edinburgh,
Scotland. The city itself has two faces, that of the old city
and that of the new. Edinburgh is known by tourists not only as
the capital of Edinburgh, but for its extravagant summertime
festivals. While in Edinburgh we took a bus tour of the city
and a beautiful ride up the Queens Drive, where we got an
amazing view of the city, its famous golf course, and its
inactive volcanic mountain named Arthur’s Seat. The other big
attraction that we went to see was Edinburgh Castle. Edinburgh
is also well known for its haunted tours. The best piece of
advice that we received before arriving in Edinburgh was to take
a haunted tour, and that is the exact advice I will also
continue to pass on. If we were only able to do one thing while
in Edinburgh, the haunted tour would have been it! Another
highlight of our stay in Scotland was the traditional Scottish
breakfast that we received complimentary of the hotel we were
staying in. After two nights and one full day in Scotland we
headed back down to England. On the way we stopped again in
York. York is a city that is still encompassed by its ancient
Roman Wall. This is also the home town of Guy Fawkes. We were
there while the city’s annual food festival was in progress,
which was tasteful and adventurous. York also is known for its
Abbey Ruins and its famous York Minster. We also visited the
city’s daily market and its shopping center known as “the
Shambles.” The Shambles is simply the narrowest street in all of
Northern England, lined with a variety of stores, cafés, and
fudge shops. It was here in York that I also decided to try my
first traditional English pub meal, which was called sausage and
pudding. Luckily for me, they had a vegetarian option, so I was
still able to indulge and enjoy in this new experience. The pub
we visited was titled the most haunted pub in all of York and
had once before been featured in the famous show “Ghost
Hunters.” They actually still rent the rooms upstairs out for
overnight stays, but we definitely did not have the money or
guts to try it out! The weekend itself was long and adventurous,
and left us with plenty of stories to share with our friends and
family once we return home.