WFC: A wee bit of exploring the town
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Blogger: Hanna Kruckman, Master's student
On a free day to explore, Marielle, Kelsey, Chiara and I ate breakfast at a little local café and then explored Princes Street gardens until our “What Lies Beneath” tour. While in the gardens, we saw many beautiful flowers, fountains, and had an incredible view of Edinburgh Castle. After a few short hours, it was time for our “What Lies Beneath,” which was a guided historical tour of Mary King’s Close (A close is equivalent to a very narrow alley).
The unique thing about Mary King’s Close is that it actually lies beneath Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, however, it is not underground. The close provides the foundation for the buildings that currently stand today and has served this purpose since the 17th century. According to lonelyplanet.com, The Real Mary King’s Close tour
is the number one thing to do in Edinburgh as well as all of Scotland. The tour was a very informative, and somewhat haunting, retelling of what life was like for lower class citizens back when Mary King’s Close was a bustling part of the city.
After the tour we went on an adventure to try and see the coast of Scotland. Our adventure turned into a 2-hour roundtrip bus ride to Musselborough and we never even got off of the bus. The glamorous coast we envisioned turned out to be a less than impressive city harbor. Even though it was not quite what we expected, the bus ride turned out to be a fun adventure.
During the evening, we spent our time at the World Fisheries Congress welcome reception. The welcome reception was the first event of the conference and signaled the start of an exciting week full of fish. This was also the first time all of the Michigan State students were able to reconnect with our advisor Dr. Taylor since arriving in Scotland. At the reception, I was able to meet a lot of influential people in the realm of fisheries science and am anxiously waiting to see what else this international conference will bring throughout the week!
