Sunday I decided I was tired of watching people climb up and down Arthur's Seat all day from my window never having done the hike myself. Arthur's Seat is, "is the main peak of the group of hills which form most of Holyrood Park, a wild piece of highland landscape in the center of the city of Edinburgh, about a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. The hill rises above the city to a height of 251 m (823 ft), provides excellent panoramic views of the city, is quite easy to climb, and is a popular walk." (Thank you, Wikipedia!) Anyways, Sunday afternoon turned out to provide us with a perfect sunny day to head up the giant hill. Alastair came by around 2pm ready to go and after some bribing with croissants we convinced Zak to come along. The three of us, whilst munching on croissants, headed down a long road called the Royal Mile to the base of Arthur's Seat. We got up and down in about 2-3hrs, and definitely had our winded moments along the way. While the hike wasn't terribly difficult, we were surprised by the steepness of the rocky steps/paths and the narrowness of some of the passages. Getting to the very top definitely felt like an accomplishment, and the view was great. Also, unlike climbing a forest-y mountain, the hill-like nature of Arthur's Seat made for beautiful views the whole way up and green pastures springing up at different elevations.
Overall, a gorgeous hike. The first picture at the top of the post is the view from my window, while the others are from different points leading up to the last picture which I took from the top. The ones where you can see the ocean (the North Sea!) is looking away from where I live, while the ones where you see just the city (and the castle if you look hard enough) feature the city center of Edinburgh. I have a ton more picture if anyone is interested in seeing them, just email me!
I had my first class of week two today, and was a little nervous for my first real graduate school legal discussion but felt prepared after having completed all the required readings. The first two sessions of my international criminal law course are being taught by this older Italian woman and although she is a little hard to understand, she is very nice. We spent the whole 2 hours discussing jurisdiction which isn't the most exciting topic in law, but we hit on some interesting areas. One woman in my class worked in Sarajevo, Bosnia with the war crimes tribunals and spoke from a fascinating perspective on the universality principle (i.e the principle that any State has the capacity to prosecute those that commit certain types of internationally defined crimes such as genocide, slavery, torture, and war crimes regardless of where the crimes took place or the nationality of the victims). I love sharing a classroom with individuals from all over the world with such unique backgrounds - it makes for lively discussions and an overall more enriching learning experience.
Tonight Zak and I went out for dinner to a little Thai restaurant around the corner and I had a lovely Thai green curry vegetable dish. Not the cheapest dinner, but I realized I had not eaten a proper meal out since my grandmother left and was due for a meal that I didn't throw together myself or microwave. Tomorrow morning I have my IP and Technology class that is heavily populated with students from Bangkok and am tempted to ask if anyone has any special traditional family recipes for some of my favorite dishes. The Chinese girls on my hall that I'm friends with taught me the ways of the rice cooker and I've shown them how to cook with rosemary and garlic and make home-made salad dressing!
Miss everyone back home, hope all is well!
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