Arthur's Seat, Black Pudding, & Haggis

It’s day three of our Scotland trip and we’re all settled in to life at the Dalkeith Palace. I think I’ve got the hang of it now. There are doorways and staircases and shortcuts everywhere. I’ll be sure to get some pictures soon.

Yesterday, some of us went to brunch at the Blacksmith's Forge in Dalkeith. We ordered traditional Scottish breakfasts which usually include baked beans, eggs, sausage, hash browns and black pudding. If you're wondering what black pudding is, so was I. It's a sausage made with blood and filler. It's hard to think about it when you're eating it. We then made our first trip into Edinburgh to do some exploring, and then we climbed Arthur’s Seat. It’s over 800 feet high and quite rocky, but to make things worse it was really windy. Trying to climb a steep rocky hill with 40-50 mph winds pushing you over is NOT easy.

The Streets of Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a layered city

On our way up Arthur's Seat

The top of Arthur's Seat

The hike up took about an hour. Luckily the climb down was faster. We headed over to Sheep's Heid Inn for dinner. It's the oldest pub in the UK. Some of the girls had haggis after we tried some on the day we arrived. Again, a strange food to us. It looks a lot like ground beef, but is actually sheep heart, liver, and lungs mixed with some onions, oatmeal, and various spices. All cooked in a stomach lining. Sounds delicious? It's actually pretty good. We had to walk back to town to catch the bus so we took our time and enjoyed the view through Hollyrood park.

Sheep's Heid (Head) Inn

The lovely area of grass we ran through in Hollyrood Park below Arthur's Seat

Today was a very low key day. We spent the morning in class talking about photojournalism and then some of us went back to Edinburgh for lunch. The wind hasn't died down at all and it's not supposed to for a few days. It's terrible to walk in but we'll manage! Tomorrow morning we leave for our trip to Glasgow and will be back on Thursday. That's all until I return!