Edinburgh is Scotland’s capital city, renowned for its heritage, culture and festivals. It takes around an hour or so to get there by plane from London. It was an easy escape from my normal Oxford life and a nice start to January 2019. Although it felt quite similar to Oxford with its rich culture and old buildings, you still feel like you’ve travelled somewhere mainly due to the change in accent (which at times I struggled to understand!). Travelling around the city was easy with its accessible tram lines throughout with cheap prices and easy to use.

Edinburgh Zoo

Since being open from 1913, the park has consisted of 82 acres of sloping parkland and close to over 1,000 rare and endangered animals. They have coordinated conservation programmes across the world, to help ensure the survival of many threatened animal species. The main reason I went was due to the zoo actually having a Giant Panda there which is the only one in the UK and is also one of my favourite animals. When we first went to the panda enclosure, they weren’t out and were worried we had come all this way for them to not be there, but luckily when we came back a while later they were there.

The animals in the zoo range from pandas, penguins to even koalas. The zoo not only has animals it has beautiful gardens, daily animal talks and private events. Although you may think this is like any other zoo, it is not the biggest however, it has a range of animals I haven’t seen compared to other zoos I have been to.

Christmas Market

As we went in the New Year time, the Christmas market was still down Princes Street for the final day I was there. From local stalls selling handcrafted gifts to tasty homemade treats, it made the Christmas spirit carry on for just a little longer than normal. Also a little further walk away, there was an ice rink that was set up for the Christmas time too!