Scotland: Days 5 – 7

Entry posted by Akano June 23, 2014

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While days 2-4 were relatively uneventful (mostly collaborating days, doing research) my last three days in Edinburgh were pretty cool.

Day 5: I climbed Arthur's Seat for a second time; it was sunny, so the view was even better than on Sunday when my advisor and I climbed it together. I also got proof That I made it to the summit. 8D

Day 6: I went to Edinburgh Castle and walked around the former residence of the Scottish royal family. There were a few museums that were mainly dedicated to the history of Scottish military. I also saw the Scottish crown jewels, but was not allowed to take photos (and didn't realize I wasn't allowed until a lady yelled at me for taking out my phone).

Day 7: I journeyed to Pencaitland, which is about 12 miles outside of Edinburgh, for a tour of the Glenkinchie distillery. However, I was late for my booked tour, as the bus didn't take me the whole way to the distillery, and it was a 2 mile walk to the distillery from the bus stop. I literally was walking, in the middle of Scottish farmland, following signs that I hoped were telling me the truth and leading me in the right direction. I eventually got there, however, unharmed but late. The lady at the front desk was very accommodating, though, and fit me into the next tour. It was quite lovely, and we got to see all the steps of brewing whiskey followed by a tasting session. After tasting, I picked up a bottle for my dad and a smaller bottle for me (if they sold 50 cl bottles, they would have been the same size, but, alas, they only had them in 20 and 70 cl sizes). I tried to get on the distillery's shuttle back to Edinburgh, but unfortunately I had asked to join it after it had left; they told me not to worry, though, as there was a local barman who would come and pick me up with two other women who also took the bus and take us to his pub, which was a few seconds' walk from the bus stop. The three of us had a drink at his pub (his only request in exchange for picking us up, which was completely fair in my opinion) and we got to talking. The one lady was around my age and still in college, while the older woman was her aunt and was retired. We got to talking about math and science, since the aunt had studied nutrition science for her job and enjoyed talking about science. We also discussed beer, the tour, and previous and future travels we were planning to take. All in all, it was a lovely afternoon, and we sat together on the bus back to Edinburgh and talked some more. Once we were back in the city, we said our goodbyes and were very glad to have met each other.

Then, this morning, I boarded my flight back to the states, and now I am quite tired, as it is (as I'm typing this) around 1:30 a.m. back in Edinburgh, and my body wants to be very well asleep. I am happy to say, though, that it was a fruitful trip, both for research and fun, as now my code that I've been working on for nearly a year finally works and has reproduced the results of the paper we modeled it off of! Now, we get to push it into new parameter space to aid us in our spectroscopic analysis.