I Spent a Week in Scotland, Here's What I Learned.

Last summer, I spent a week in Edinburgh, Scotland for my MFA residency. This trip was my first time ever being out of the country and while I had an amazing time, there were a few things that I realized I wasn’t very prepared for, and a few experiences that I want to share. Here they are.

1. It was cold!

Summer in Scotland is not like summer in Pennsylvania. It was kind of a shock stepping out of the airport into 50-ish degree weather, having gotten on the plane in about 80 degree weather back home. It also rained A LOT. Being the travel amateur that I was/still kind of am, I didn’t really think to look into the climate differences and so I didn’t pack appropriately. I brought a few jeans and light jackets with me incase it was cold in the airports or something, but I ended up having to go shopping to stock up on some hoodies and thicker shirts while there. Which brings me to my next point...

2. Primark UK > Primark US.

This should’ve been pretty obvious to me since Primark originated in the UK and then began slowly expanding overseas, but I just wasn’t prepared for amazing and big the store in Edinburgh is. Primark has been one of my favorite stores for a couple years now, and I even worked at one of the Pennsylvania stores for a while. If you ask me what I’m wearing on any given day I will tell you Primark, head to toe. So you can imagine the twinkle in my eye when I stepped into the Edinburgh store for the first time. It was four floors of budget style bliss, and there was so much more merchandise to choose from. I spent so much that my friends pretty much had to drag me out. I was in heaven.

3. Scottish Seagulls are obnoxious af!

Me at an American beach: “The seagulls here are so annoying!”

Scottish Seagulls: “Hold my breadcrumb!”

Listen, not only are these winged beasts obnoxious and loud, they are actually terrifying. They sound like shrieking humans. I’m not even exaggerating. One morning, I was woken up really early by what I thought was someone screaming in the courtyard beneath my bedroom window. When I got up to see what all the fuss was about, I looked out to see a huge seagull, sitting on top of a dumpster with its beak wide open, just full-on yelling! I was baffled, slightly terrified, and beyond annoyed!

4. The chocolate tasted like a dream!

I’ve always heard that European chocolate is better than American chocolate but OMG is that an understatement! For breakfast one morning I got a chocolate muffin and as soon as I took the first bite I was hooked! It was so soft and rich and unlike any chocolate muffins I’ve ever had in the states. That might sound dramatic but my disappointment has only grown since coming home and only finding inferior chocolate muffins. I also treated myself to a large chocolate bar. It was part vacation after all, the calories don’t count on vacation. It was the best chocolate bar I’ve ever had and I regret nothing. I haven’t been able to look at a Snickers the same way since.

5. It’s confusing af navigating a foreign country.

I’m sure this is not news. Even just travelling to a different state you can sometimes feel like a foreigner. You don’t know where anything is but you also don’t want to make it super obvious that you’re a tourist, and sometimes even your GPS can get you turned around. That was me almost the entire week. The second day we were there we even got a little lost trying to get to class and ended up just getting a taxi to drive us to our destination. There are so many alleys ( or closes, as they call them), and to my untrained, touristy eye a lot of the shops in the tourist heavy areas looked quite similar. I got turned around a few times before I finally got my bearings and started to recognize the area.

6. Daylight lasts a LONG time.

Like, a really long time! This threw me off the most during my stay. The sun didn’t start to set until around 10:30 pm so we were staying out super late some nights without even realizing. And I, for one, regretted it every morning when I had to wake up at 7 am for class. And guess what? The sun was up again before I was. It was such a difference from the sun setting at 8 pm here, I just couldn’t get used to it.

7. IRN BRU is basically Champagne Cola.

Actually I think IRN BRU might taste just a tad bit better. IRN BRU is this sugary, kind of bubble gummy carbonated soft drink. It’s bright orange and we were told that they mostly drink it as a hangover cure and that not too many people really like it. I’m not sure about its hangover curing abilities, but it is delicious! For some it’s definitely an acquired taste, and some just flat out hate it, but when I first tried it just tasted familiar and although I couldn’t put my finger on why, I loved it!

It wasn’t until I got home and my boyfriend had tasted some that I’d brought back with me that I realized why it tasted so familiar. As soon as he dank it he said, “Oh, that tastes like champagne cola.” My mind exploded. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t caught it, but he was right. It tastes EXACTLY the same, which is awesome because the only way to IRN BRU in America is to have it shipped and it’s actually really expensive. Instead, when I’m craving the drink, I can just head to the grocery store and grab a bottle of champagne cola and I’m satisfied.

8. South Bridge is definitely haunted!

The South Bridge Ghost Tour was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was spooky af, but also really educational. Our tour guide was less of a character and more of a teacher, pointing out both creepy and historical facts about the area. That being said, she did get a few good jump scares out of us. Before the tour, I did a little bit of research myself to see what other people have said about it and to my surprise there were quite a few people who claimed to have been touched or grabbed and in one case even followed home! So I naturally I went into this with a bit of hesitation.

The history of South Bridge is pretty dark, with several people having lived and died in the tunnels of it. It’s said to be haunted by a poltergeist and the ghost of a little orphaned boy who was sent to his death. My friends and I all felt that we’d had some kind of weird experience during the tour. At one point, we had crossed into this really dark room in the tunnel and I had this really cold, tingly feeling start to creep up my right leg. I remember lifting my foot up in shock when it happened, but I didn’t really think much of it until the tour guide started listing off experiences that other tourists had reported. I don’t know if it was just my imagination or what, but it definitely left me really spooked. We were so scared that we got drinks after to calm our nerves, then stayed up talking for a few hours after that, too creeped out to go to sleep.

9. Scottish Pubs > American Pubs.

Hands down, no question. They’re cheaper, and you get more for your money. They serve the beer in this really cool, tall glasses and the food is out of this world delicious! It also wasn’t super loud and annoying. We could carry out conversations without having to shout over other people's’ noise.

Side note: We went to a supposedly haunted pub called Whistle Binkies and while we didn’t see any ghosts, I had a delicious mix of whisky and lemonade and it was super refreshing. The lemonade there is actually carbonated so when I first tasted it I was a bit confused and thought the bartender had put Sprite in it instead of lemonade.

10. I like haggis.

For this trip, I made it a goal to try new foods that we either don’t have in the states, or that I wouldn’t typically eat, and aside from the several Dominos orders we made (even the pepperoni is better in Scotland), I think I succeed. On day one, the whole class had a welcome lunch at a restaurant that I forget the name of, but I ordered chicken liver pate as an appetizer. While the flavor was ok, the texture and the presentation were both a no-go for me, but score one for trying new things! On day two we went to brunch during our class break and I decided to order a full Scottish breakfast, which consisted of toast, bacon, a fried egg, a fried tomato, a hash brown-type thing (I’m pretty sure it was some sort of fried potato and it was delicious), baked beans, and haggis.

I was told that haggis is the UK equivalent to scrapple, which I hate, so I was hesitant to try it at first but once I tried it, I was pleasantly surprised. While the texture wasn’t my favorite (it was a little crumbly on the inside), it was actually really flavorful and savory. I’m also not a fan of baked beans because they’re too syrupy and sugary and despite my slight chocolate addiction, I don’t really have a huge sweet tooth. I prefer my food to be more savory and salty, so I wasn’t thrilled about the baked beans arriving on my plate. However, I also wasn’t about being wasteful so I wanted to at least take a few bites, and I’m glad I did because they were so so good! They weren’t sweet at all, but more tomatoey, and they tasted wonderful with the eggs and toast. It was arguably the best breakfast I’ve ever had.

11. It’s a writer’s dream!

I feel like this is a pretty obvious one for most people, especially writers, but I had no idea just how perfect Edinburgh really was until I stepped off that plane. It’s literally dripping with inspiration and literary history. J.K. Rowling has a house there, for one, and you can visit The Elephant House, the pub that she wrote part of Harry Potter in. There’s a pub called the Conan Doyle, named for the famed creator of Sherlock Holmes, which I recently learned has since been temporarily renamed after J.K. Rowling. There’s even the Writer’s Museum, which I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to visit, but there is so much to see. The whole city is a literal literary treasure.

12. I didn’t want to leave.

This may be the biggest shock that I wasn’t ready for. Going into this trip, I honestly wasn’t that excited. I knew I was going to have a good time once I got there, but I was so hung up on everything that needed to be done at home and the money I was missing out on by taking off of work that I wasn’t as excited I probably should have been. But after spending a week exploring the beautiful city of Edinburgh and learning so much about the history, I can honestly say a week was not enough. I was happy to get back home, but I was so so sad to leave and I’ve plotting my return ever since. My dream is to be able to just drop everything and move to Edinburgh for a year or two and just write. How wonderful and inspiring would it be to create in the one of the literary capitals of the world?! I also want to visit the rest of the UK. I’ve always been told to steer clear of writing bad travel literature but the inspiration that awaits in these beautiful countries is definitely something I want to experience more of.