The city of Edinburgh

We sufficiently recovered enough from jet lag to take the train into Edinburgh. It is a 7 minute train ride on a very fast train, but the station is a 20 minute walk. I am really enjoying the walking so far, but it definitely forces you to think about time and where you are going. Edinburgh is very hard to explain. The entire city appears to be far older than any structure we have anywhere in the area. It makes the Chicago water tower look young. However, as a history buff I find it incredibly beautiful. During the month of August the entire world comes for the Edinburgh festival and the fringe festival. So as we walked down High street there were plenty of street performers. These guys were by far the best. They were unbelieveable gymnasts, but they were also very funny. They had an impromptu crowd of almost a thousand. We then made our way up to the famous Edinburgh Castle. They have a massive stand set up in front of the castle during August for the very famous Military Tattoo. The picture off to the side is a picture of the Castle with Beth and Monique. Unfortunately, the Tattoo has been sold out since February. Luckily we scored three returned tickets for tomorrow night so stay tuned for some incredible pictures. We won't even discuss the price of the tickets. The young women, who was a law student who sold them said, don't convert pounds to dollars, but it is so hard not to. After an awesome lunch in a cute little place called Maxie's we went over to Edinburgh University where I inquired about taking a course in Scottish history. I hope I am able to enroll. Classes start Sept. 22. This is Beth and me in front of the Main Courtyard of the University. After we were able to get the Tattoo tickets, we had perfect timing and jumped back on the train to Musselburgh. School starts on Thursday, so I am enjoying my few last days of summer as are all my teaching friends. The other new picture is Margot, a friend from the Germany group who has replied to my blog twice already, thanks Margot.

Cheers