Chinese New Year and a Day Trip to Edinburgh

Friday night, my flatmate Kathy made us all dinner in honor of Chinese New Year. There is nothing better than home cooked Chinese food. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the lovely meal she prepared. After dinner we went out on the town St Andrews style, which means in the rain. We ended the night at the coolest bar (to be honest there aren't many) in St Andrews, the Vic, which was full and bustling with fellow students. Shockingly enough, I ventured onto the dance floor. We left before the night got to wild and turned the corner into one of the few late night eateries in town and got chips and cheese. The person who came up with melting shredded cheese on French fries deserves a Nobel Prize and perhaps a small island nation. If I could, I probably would live exclusively on that combination. Luckily, however, the shop is only open between the hours of sundown and 3am.

Light fixtures at the Vic

On Sunday, along with my friend Aubree (a fellow USFer here at St Andrews), I ventured into Edinburgh. We were going to take the train, but with maintenance on the tracks, we took a bus from the train station at Leuchars to Edinburgh. The journey was beautiful as the sun was out for the first time in a number of days. We arrived at Edinburgh Waverley just after noon and had lunch at a cute little coffee shop off of Princes Street. We enjoyed the warm weather and spent the afternoon at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.  

The facade of the Scot Modern One

I highly recommend going to both the Scottish National Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art, they  are brilliant ways to spend a few hours and, most importantly for a college student, FREE. 

An installation piece outside the Scot Modern Two

The galleries feature works by a number of contemporary Scottish artist as well as quite a large collection of paintings by Picasso and Miró. 

Aubree outside of the Scot Modern One

After the galleries closed, we took the free shuttle back to Princes Street and wandered around for a little looking for the few places that were open on a Sunday evening before grabbing a quick dinner and boarding our bus to Leuchars and then on to St Andrews. It was a wonderful little day trip!

In Edinburgh with the train station behind me