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The Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh are somewhere I love to wander and explore - especially because they are within walking distance for me. Since the light show began three years ago, I've made it a tradition to go with my mum to each one and this year was no exception. The theme for 2016 was Explore the World and that is exactly what we did. I think that as the word has spread about the light show, it has become more popular. The past two years we haven't had to queue to get in, we just showed up with our ticket and got straight in.
The way they work it is you buy a ticket for a specific time and then go for then. Afterwards you're free to wander at your own pace but it stops there being a complete bottleneck all over the gardens. This year we ended up in massive queue outside the gardens that ran halfway down the street.
Once you were in the first lights that you saw was the word Explore. Then you kept walking to get to the Chinese projection show. It was great but again, with the popularity of the light show this year we had to wait another ten minutes to see it. I thought it was a brilliant and different concept to the previous years, portraying China through images on water.
Moving on you got to walk through India, Antarctica, Nepal and a lot of other countries. The best was a light show on water that played with different colours and fountains playing along to the music. Judging from the music I would say that we were somewhere in Africa (I may be 100% wrong on that one, but that's what I thought). It was definitely my mums favourite part of the gardens this year.
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Another great part was the lanterns that led you up a pathway; it was nice to actually be able to see where you were going for once - the lights are pretty but not exactly bright. After getting up the hill and travelling around the prayer flags of Nepal, you got to move through the cafe. This is another tradition of mine and my mums as we always stop for a little seat and warm up (seeing as its November in Scotland). The hot chocolate that you can get in the Botanic Gardens is so nice and you get about half a cup of whipped cream on top of it too.
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The house on top of the hill with a beautiful view of the castle always has a projection on it. This year was a video exploring different areas of the world, going through the wild and scenic beauty that different places have to offer. Of course the video finished with a day time view of Scotland and the botanic gardens themselves, finally showing you the world and telling you to Explore. This was the ending of the pathways and you came full circle to the John Hope Gateway again, ready to re-enter the world.
The one thing I love most about the light show, is getting the chance to wander around a fantasy land. The sparkling lights in the trees and all the wonder that you get to see makes it feel like anything could happen. There could be fairies in the trees and something in your imagination is just sparked. I once wrote an entire play based on ideas that I got from the light show and it was one of the best plays I think I've ever written. I just had so many ideas and any time that I got stuck I just thought back to everything that I saw, as I wandered around and something new came to me.
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