A trip to Edinburgh

This past weekend I had the chance to travel with Katherine up to Scotland to visit Edinburgh, one of the cities in the UK where I may live next year. Before heading up to Edinburgh, however, we first had a formal dinner at Queens College in Cambridge to attend.

Formal hall dinners are events that take place regularly at Cambridge and Oxford colleges. They typically involve dress from anywhere between black tie, full gown, or for the more casual... full suit. The meals are several courses in length and involved pre-dinner and post-dinner drinks, as well as a few interesting traditions throughout. Each college has a different formal hall and different rules. My college (King's) has relatively casual formals, where gowns are not required and students typically wear full suits (or men do, I have no idea what girls do for dressing up). For other colleges, gowns are required at all formal hall dinners.

Our formal at Queens was a swap with King's College, and Katherine was my guest. The meal began with pre-dinner drinks at the College Bar followed by a walk into the main dining hall where a ceremonial gong triggered everyone to simultaneously stand and await the fellows entering the dining hall. After the fellows are seated, the students then take their seats and the first of four courses was served. During the first course, a choir sung several Christmas songs from a balcony overhead. Before desert the gong sounded again and everyone stood as the fellows left the dining hall. After a great dinner we left for post-dinner drinks in the college bar. The formal hall style of dining is certainly something that is always awe-inspiring and leaves me in disbelief that multiple formal halls occur every night throughout the Colleges at Cambridge.

Katherine and I in formal hall at Queen's College

Leaving early Friday by train, Katherine and I arrived at Edinburgh in the afternoon (2pm) which quickly became dark (3:30pm) because Edinburgh is very far North, and similar to Alaska, gets dark very, very early. No matter, we really enjoyed going out to the Christmas market and seeing the Christmas decorations around Edinburgh.

Edinburgh at night

Me in Edinburgh Christmas market

Edinburgh looked like the most beautiful city in the world at night with the Castle and other historic, ancient buildings all with unique holiday lighting. After touring around the city Friday we watched a musical performance in a cafe/pub, as Edinburgh is known for its breadth of musical events.

Edinburgh Castle at night

Katherine and me in Edinburgh at night

On the second day at Edinburgh Katherine and I met up with another Marshall from my year studying at Edinburgh, Josie, and had a great time touring the University of Edinburgh where I may study next year for public health. We were able to tour the Christmas market again and the entire central area of Edinburgh.

Edinburgh from atop a small hill

Katherine and me standing in the castle with Edinburgh in background.

Katherine flew back to Spain Sunday and I returned by the long train ride to Cambridge, where I caught up on some lab work that I missed to prepare for a few busy weeks in the lab so I can get ready for a two week vacation towards the new year. More to come soon!

Katherine and me with the castle in the background