The last day was our free day and I couldn’t have been more excited. As soon as I saw that you could walk to Arthur’s Seat I knew I was going to climb it before we left. We got a small group together and met in the hotel lobby shortly after breakfast and made our way down the Royal Mile to the base of the mountain.
We passed by the Scottish parliament building which was the most modern looking building in all of Scotland that I saw. Apparently it is only a few years old. From this point we had an unreal view of the mountain.
We began our hike and I took off away from our group because they wanted to play music while I wanted to soak in the natural sounds and sights. There was a wall from an old castle off the path that I climbed up to, only to find out there was a path that lead to it just up the road. It was an exhausting climb but I needed the exercise.
When I got to the top of the mountain I realized that there were a lot of Americans up there. I talked to a few of them about where they were from, we shared gratitude for the weather and the view, and then I helped them take picture. This was the most alive I’ve felt on the trip. I love a good hike. The thrill of this adventure has made me extra excited to move to Seattle and to continue hiking. We stayed up there as long as we could but had to head back for a group meeting. Luckily, I had enough time to nap before we met up.
We went back to the French Institute to have a final reflection, thought it was difficult to hear each other over the sounds from the street.
Our final activity was a Ghost tour of Edinburgh. I realized during this tour that I could do this as a part time job and probably make decent money.