And so ends an era...

Today is my final day in Edinburgh, and while I'm really far behind on blogging about my adventures, I thought I'd quickly post a few highlights (of the things I haven't covered yet in my blog) before I head back to the states.



This is a picture of Edinburgh's Winter Wonderland taken from the German Market. Joe, Meg, Kevin, and I went to the lighting ceremony on Thanksgiving.

... then we ate Haggis...



I spotted Nessie in Loch Ness. And I met a guy that was convinced that plesiosaurs roamed the Loch.



My friend, Brit, came from Berlin to visit - and we spent a day in Glasgow with my friend, Jeff. That church behind us... it was retasked as a PUB. I love retasking!!



I've been enjoying a beautiful city, made even more picturesque by a plethora of Christmas decorations.



I've met some amazing friends. Without them, this trip would have not been nearly as much fun as it was.

I've also had a great experience at work - the guys in my lab (AIAI) at the University of Edinburgh are brilliant and I've learned so much in the short time I've been here.



I also got to climb at the largest rock climbing arena in the world!

...all-in-all, not a bad trip. ;-)

That's actually quite an understatement. I'm going to miss Edinburgh A LOT. This is a great place, the people are nice, and there are PLENTY of things to do.

Thanks to everyone who kept in touch while I was here - it was great to have friends/family to talk to. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone over Christmas break, so give me a call!



I'll continue to post new blogs for a bit - at least until I finish writing about all the fun stuff I summarized here. So... check back...

York

Well... I'm leaving Edinburgh in a week and I'm still writing blog entries about mid-November. Right now, I'm trying to enjoy every last second I get to spend here. At the same time, I'm frantically trying to finish my University project and get in my Christmas shopping.

On Nov 20, my friend Kristin and I left Edinburgh on a bus to York. The bus stopped in New Castle so we got off and grabbed a bit of lunch and took a few pictures.



When we finally got to York, it was already dark, but we found our way to our B&B and scouted out some fun stuff to do the next morning. The first thing we did the next morning, after a delicious breakfast (where a nice lady made fun of my pronunciation of "tomato"), was a boat tour of York. I loved this house.



Then we took a walk on the city wall. It's amazing! It has been there since 64 A.D.



From the wall, you get some great views of the city and the famous York Minster.



Then we went to the National Train Museum - it's exactly what you would expect.



Then we took another section of the wall to explore some more of the city.







Everything was decorated for Christmas - keep in mind, this is pre-Thanksgiving, so we were pretty psyched about Christmas decorations.



We also took a tour of the York Brewery - they had some delicious samples at the end!



Later that night, Tom met up with us!



The next day we went to the Castle Museum. They had an entire full-size model of an old city in the building - pretty cool. We only saw about half the museum, but it was nice.



Outside they had an ice-skating rink. I think I've seen one in every city I visited after the beginning of November!



Then Tom and I went to the York Minster - Kristin had already seen it on a previous trip to York which she had completely forgotten about until she got there and said "I think I've been here before."



There was a market in the center of the city - it got really busy at times.



The next morning, we woke up to a thin coat of snow on the city.



York was one of my favorite places this trip. These pictures don't really do it justice. There was a ton of stuff to do and lots of great places to go/eat/drink.