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The events described occurred on May 26, 2009.

After returning from the Highlands, the weather improved dramatically, and we thoroughly enjoyed our day in Edinburgh. Tom and I explored Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, and the Princes Street Gardens during our walk about the city.

The events described occurred on May 25, 2009.

Unfortunately, the third day of our tour was another dreary day in Scotland. We were off to an early start from Portree, stopping at Eilean Donan Castle, Loch Ness, and a couple small towns on our way back to Edinburgh.

The events described happened on May 24, 2009. Clearly, I’m a bit of a moron to have put off writing this for so long, but c’est la vie, I guess…

Tom and I woke up bright and early in Portree, on the Isle of Skye, ready to board our coach and tour the island. Unfortunately, the weather was uncooperative, with a cold drizzle blowing horizontally. Fortunately the weather cleared while we were at Neist Point, so we saw some beautiful views of the western peninsula near the end of the day.

The events described happened on May 23, 2009.

On my second day in Scotland, Tom and I started our three day tour of the Scottish Highlands and Isle of Skye. We left Edinburgh early Saturday morning and headed up through the Highlands to Portree, the main town on Skye.

After catching my flight from Frankfurt to Edinburgh, and claiming my checked bag (which I initially thought had been lost, but then was found…), I met Tom at the Edinburgh airport and we headed into the city to check into the Grosvenor Hilton, after which we caught a train to head towards St. Andrews—the home of golf.

The Final Fling is the biggest party of the year. It is put on by the university student association and everybody gets into the action.

I first heard about the party from one of my flatmates. I had no idea what it was about so she explained that its just a massive party and I should go to it. It is a theme party, which means “fancy-dress.” We would call that a costume party. There have been many of these advertised all year, but I had yet to get to one and I was looking forward to it. I can’t remember many but one of the past themes of the night was Superheroes. My flatmate also let me know that I’d have to get in line for tickets at least an hour early on the day they went on sale. I couldn’t believe all the hype she was giving the party. It made me want to go….

Wow, I've got catching up to do. I'll try to keep 'em shorter...

A few weeks ago I had the immense pleasure of going to a céilidh. These are traditional Celtic dances that are performed all over Scotland and Ireland. The international society put it on for us and we had to buy tickets in advance.

Since my route takes me over Europe anyway, and Tom is currently living in Scotland, I’ve been thinking about vacationing in the UK on my way home from India. I’ve done just a bit of research (and need to do a lot more), and at least I can fly there on Lufthansa without too much trouble.

So last Saturday Martin and I headed to Edinburgh at 9:30 a.m. The train ride over was very comfortable and easy. There were probably six or seven stops on the way, including three in Edinburgh. We got off at last one. The train station is actually a little below what is street level in the city, and to get out of it you just had to walk up a street that runs through the station. It was a busy place full of people who looked like they knew what they were doing. We didn’t. I was reading my guide book the whole day looking like an idiot. It was great.

Today was an interesting day here in Stirling. Every Wednesday, they feel the need to test out their fire alarms at 10:13 in the morning. Today, like last week, I almost jumped out of bed when the thing went off. There is an alarm in every single room and they scream like sows that want to bite your head off. I was very angry at the thing and almost ripped it off the ceiling.