Hi everyone,
So since last I wrote I have had another world of experiences. I do have to say that I haven’t been doing too much traveling around Europe or the United Kingdom for that fact, but I could say that I know Edinburgh really well now. In past blogs I spoke about how I take long walks around the city that go on for five or six hours long. Well those walks are still happening and I feel so comfortable about getting around Edinburgh and knowing what road will get me where and which is the fastest route to places. And all of this even just after two months. So with the additional eight months to go, I’ll end up knowing Edinburgh better than I know my own New York City haha! But no matter how many times I walk along the same streets it still has not become boring, not by a long shot. I truly love this city. When this whole experience is over with I’ll love to come back years later and walk the streets again and allow all the memories to flood back into my mind. One for example was something I just did last night with one of my best friends over here who’s from Cambridge. So I had to go to my bank to take out money, but it was 5 pm and so I asked my friend to join me for this half hour walk. He agreed but he could not be bothered to change out of his dress and gown (pajamas) so while we walked through the busiest streets in the city (equivalent to New York City’s Time Square) we caught the eye of many people and had a mix of confusion and laughter from people. So with this we decided to make an event out of it, so we decided to record this experience and take photos of my friend in front of many the memorials and monuments in the city, here are a few of the photos from that night:
Oh and I nearly forgot, Halloween! I have not had such a great Halloween like this one in years. On the 30th our accommodation and a few others bought out a club called The Caves. This club was once an old wine cellar and it looks so cool and archaic. So we all went there in our crazy costumes and had an amazing time. I went dressed up as the Phantom of the Opera and I also almost won a costume contest there. But the guy dressed as Nessie won, and honestly I really liked his outfit so he deserved the win. Here are a few pictures from that night:
Our crew before we leave for the party
Me in the Caves dressed as Phantom of the Opera
My friend boogying in the Caves club before the crowd arrives.
All of my friends from my accommodation partying on stage
Nessie who won the costume contest
3 nominees of the costume contest. You can see me on the stage looking at the guy on my left.
Then Halloween day rolled around and more adventures were to be had. So the first on the list was getting dressed in my costume again and going to see the Beltane Society Samhain fire festival. It is going back to pagan times and performing the ritual they would have done thousands of years ago. So they depict how Winter defeats Summer in a dual and is crown king of the seasons, but also it shows how fertility doesn’t work out between a man all painted in blue and the goddess of nature, and that is why Winter brings no growth. That festival was really cool to see; and of course with the festival came loads of fire as you can see in this picture:
You can see the stage to the right and the fire burning on the left. And this huge crowd watching.
After this we went to a flat party, then to a club called Frankenstein which was so much fun and loads of people in awesome costumes and then my night ended off at the Halloween party at Teviot our Student center that had invited the actor who plays Hodor from the tv series “Game of Thrones” to DJ there. He puts of a show and does his DJ mixes in an event he calls “Rave of Thrones”. Sadly I missed him DJing but I hope he does come again ad I’ll definitely come earlier then. But all in all Halloween in Edinburgh was amazing and loads of fun.
Cheers, Alexio
ALBRIGHT ELCDC 