This past weekend I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland. I had zero expectations for this trip other than the fact that I was going to another old city in the UK. I knew a handful of Scottish stereotypes and a couple of interesting things to check out such as the Edinburgh castle. Therefore, when I got off of my train at midnight and saw the beautiful city I was pleasantly surprised. The buildings are all made of stone. There are almost no modern glass monstrosities as there were in London. The landscape is breathtaking. The city works in perfect harmony with its surrounding natural areas, the most obvious being Arthur’s Seat.

Arthur’s Seat takes about an hour to hike up, but the view is worth the calf-pained journey, and explains why the Scottish are giant muscular people. You can see the entire city of Edinburgh, the North Sea and surrounding islands. The wind will whip your hair around and try to push you off of this natural wonder. It is impossible to escape the wind in this city. Whether you are on the top of a huge hill, or walking on the main street, there will be wind.

Edinburgh’s castle is a great place to see during the day, but standing in front of it at night is equally wonderful, if not better. This goes for the entire city. In the daytime the streets are as busy as they can be, but at night the main roads become almost empty. The entire city feels historic and haunted (but in a good way). The life at night revolves around the clubs and pubs on side streets. However, after two full days of walking, hiking and eating it was nice to sit down in the hostel and relax.

The people and food make Scotland great. Where else would a drunk guy come up to you, and every other man, and challenge you to an arm wrestling match in the middle of a bar? Scotland. Where do you find a deep fried Mars Bar? Edinburgh. Where do you eat Haggis (look it up, it kind of tastes like stuffing)? Scotland. This country is a laid back version of England, full of amazing history, and natural beauty.

I was not nervous about traveling, a feeling that is not part of my normal range of emotions. I am usually stressed out about being in a new place, and my excitement can never beat out that feeling of “what if everything goes wrong.” Being abroad, however, has begun to push those feelings out of my head. I have become increasingly excited about travel and new experiences, as well as going to places with no expectations or many plans. Those things can get in the way of having a good time. Since arriving in England I have felt more and more relaxed. Anxiety has become less of a presence in my daily life, and I am able to enjoy things more. For example, I got sick earlier this week, and while I did jump to conclusions about my illness early on, I did not let my imagination go too wild. The point being, travel changes us, and whether the experience is good or bad, we will gain knowledge for the future, and begin to turn into real people, instead of stressed out, existential crisis ridden, overly dependent college students.