My mom recently sent me an Instagram reel where the woman running the account did “Scotland’s Expectation,” where one-half of the video was serene videos of all the beautiful natural vistas in Scotland, and the other half of the video was “Reality,” where she showed the massive gusts of wind that blow all over Scotland, whipping her hair around and making it hard to walk. That was the Scotland that I know and the one that my friends and I experienced when we attempted to walk up Arthur’s Seat recently.

Arthur’s Seat is a large hill that overlooks Edinburgh. It’s near the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is King Charles’ official residence in Edinburgh and a beautiful estate with a rich history of Scottish royalty. The hike up Arthur’s Seat takes about an hour each way. It’s a short walk from Old Town, and as we neared Holyrood Park, the 640-acre Royal Park that contains the hill, we saw people from all walks of life heading up the hill. Elderly people, toddlers and tourists from all over the world were in their hiking gear, while some students were tackling the hill in their everyday clothes.

We set off in good spirits. It was a reasonably brisk day in Edinburgh, and thankfully, it wasn’t raining. The wind, however, quickly became fierce. We were shouting at each other to be heard over the roar, and it buffeted us from side to side as we steadily climbed the craggy path up the hill.

The view was spectacular. We could see nearly all of Edinburgh, across to the Firth of Forth, and the sea. The air was clear, cold and crisp in a way that’s impossible to find in Los Angeles. However, the wind was nearly unbearable. My friends were a bit further up from me, and I was fighting against the relentless gales to reach them. I handed my USC baseball cap to my friend, who put it into her bag, as I was scared it would be carried off by the wind.

As it turned out, I was worried about the wrong thing. I was staring out at the sea and admiring the wide-ranging views provided by the hill — as we had climbed fairly high quite quickly — when disaster struck. My friends shouted my name, and as I turned my head to look at them, my glasses were whipped off my face. I stared in shock as they floated on the wind to the edge of the hill, where they promptly fell off and disappeared. It happened so quickly that I could barely process what had even happened.

We didn’t end up completing our journey up Arthur’s Seat after the misfortune with my glasses. The wind was too powerful for us to consider going further, as we were fearful of wind striking us right off the side of the hill. Nevertheless, the beauty of our hike remained as we slowly picked our way down the rocky path back to ground level.

Edinburgh, while beautiful and historic, can often feel slightly claustrophobic because of the sheer amount, size and regularity of the buildings. The twists and turns of Old Town are confusing to tourists — and slightly annoying to residents — but reflect a long, complicated history of habitation, where the poorest citizens literally lived beneath the richer ones in the complex system of underground alleyways and streets. Climbing up Arthur’s Seat was a breath of fresh air, both literally and figuratively. It reminded me that Scotland, Edinburgh in particular, is so vastly different from L.A.

Sometimes, living in Edinburgh feels like a dream that I’m just waiting to wake up from. As we stood at the halfway point on Arthur’s Seat, the gray sky above us didn’t feel scary. If anything, it felt familiar, now having been in Edinburgh for a semester. The scent of rain in the air and the steel-blue, rumbling seas added a sense of mystery to our excursion. The richly green grasses contrasted with our view of the dark buildings of Old and New Town in the distance.

Despite feeling like a dream, it’s real. Studying abroad has made me appreciate and understand a different way of life, even if our two cities don’t seem so different on paper as we both speak the same language.

We ended our eventful day with a meal at a British institution, Toby Carvery — a buffet-style restaurant serving a much-needed Sunday roast. We loaded up our plates with different meats (but a vegetarian main for myself), roasted potatoes lovingly called “roasties,” mac and cheese, roasted carrots, gravy and cranberry sauce, and, of course — the best part of a Sunday roast — Yorkshire puddings. The food was classic British fare, and I especially enjoyed the endless sides, which were all piping hot. It was the perfect end to a rather chaotic day, and even if we were all in food comas at the end of the meal, it felt like a familiar family dinner.

Despite losing my glasses, it was one of my most memorable days in Edinburgh. Scotland is full of beautiful places, both urban and rural, and I’m glad I was able to explore one of them with my friends.

Hannah Contreras is a junior writing about her experiences abroad in Europe. Her column, “Notes from Abroad,” runs every other Friday.