If your classes don't finish until 4PM - don't worry!

Trying to fit a social life around classes can be difficult, especially if you’re not from Edinburgh and don’t know what the city has to offer, or where to start. Luckily however, as we’re in the capital of Scotland things open a little bit early and close a little bit later thanks to how much of a student hub Edinburgh is. So, if your classes don’t finish until 4pm and you think it’s too late to enjoy an outing to Edinburgh in the daylight, think again!

Earlier this week I wanted to see how viable it was to go out after class and still be home before dark and it was completely possible. My last class finished at 4pm so my friend and I walked to the bus stop at the main reception and caught the number 25 to prince’s street, we only had two real main goals for this trip: Find Armchair books (a popular local second hand book shop), and get a coffee before heading home.

Getting off the bus we followed google maps and it took us past plenty of other shops and second hand book shops, which we occasionally stopped to do a little window shopping in, and in under 10 minutes we were at the bookshop, admittedly we probably could have gotten off the bus at an earlier stop however we had never been before and didn’t want to risk getting lost.

The book shop was worth the trip, as soon as you walked in there were bookshelves stacked to the ceiling and books surrounding you on both sides, it was amazing to look at, and the book selection was incredible! They had books of every genre old and new, from Sarah J Maas to Homer, they had everything.

After nearly two hours of perusing the books, we picked a few to buy each, paid and were on our way. Something to note as well is Armchair Books offers a 20% student discount which is fantastic. After leaving we were on the hunt for a coffee shop and coincidentally Starbucks happened to be at the bottom of a road near the shop, so we made our way to Starbucks, ordered our drinks and chatted for an hour or so before it began getting dark.

Unfortunately, as the winter draws closer it won’t be as light for long but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun after class, if you take a friend or two and stick to main roads and busy streets you can have a perfectly safe and fun afternoon out in Edinburgh.