In freshman year, some friends and I decided to walk to the beach from our dorms. We could see the water in the distance so, naturally, it must be walking distance, right? Apparently, wrong. We walked for about an hour and then asked for directions. The Scottish man we asked looked at us like we were insane, then said it would take us at least 5 hours to get there the way we were going and we might as well give up now. For some reason, we took him at his word, thought ourselves fools, and went home. In reality, we were just walking the long way. It turns out, it is quite easy to walk to the beach, and it's only about 3 miles away. I discovered the right path last week, when I did an 11 mile run to and around Portabello Beach.
You can get there by passing right under Arthur's Seat.
Then running through an area called Duddingston.
It was a truly beautiful day - very sunny, not at all windy, perfect running conditions. After the beach, I headed back towards Arthur's Seat and decided to run up since the run had been pretty flat up this point. It was a good decision because check out these views!
This week, on another run, I discovered a new favorite running place - Braid's Hill. I was trying to run to Blackford Hill but got a bit turned around somehow and instead came upon Braid's Hill, which is one of Edinburgh's 7 Hills. My favorite kind of trail is downhill single track with roots or rocks to jump over, so you can get some speed and thrill while running. I found many of these on Braid's Hill, and low overhanging tree branches to swing off of on the way down, too, so it was a very fun run. I even ended up coming out near Blackford Hill, so ran that to finish off the run.
After my two great running days the weather took a downward turn (which is expected since it's fall now). Yesterday, I was walking on Princes' Street with my friend and noticed to castle looking especially moody and gothic.
You can also see the fall colors coming through!