Scotland

Ever since arriving in Saint Andrews it's been an almost non-stop party with Claire and Laura. Our first evening in town on Sunday, the 14th, it's been a whirlwind of people, alcohol and sightseeing, not that I'm complaining at all.

Laura and I arrived in Saint Andrews, Scotland following a lengthy (read 7 1/2 hour and nearly 400 mile long) drive. We were excited to see Claire (who I've been friends with for about 9 years) and some of her Scottish friends. However, when we saw Claire she explained that almost everybody in the town of Saint Andrews is from America. This fact was very apparent in the prevalence of coffee shops and American accents heard around every cobble-stoned corner. This fact was again made plain to us by the fact that everybody who Claire introduced us to came back with a very American-tinged "nice to meet you".

The town itself is very old-worldy and gorgeous. The sandstone (I believe) buildings that predominate the whole of the tiny "city" (probably no larger or only slightly larger than Port Townsend) and it's setting on the North Sea is endearing. Actually, at times it felt as though I was back in Port Townsend.

On the first night Claire introduced us to her friend Dave who had grown a formidable mustache that despite his status as a student in a art master-degree program made him look like the quintessential American police officer. Claire also introduced us to her good friend Chelsea and some others from the university population.

Once assembled we headed into town to a small pub where two old men with guitars repeatedly played the Bob Dylan song "How Does It Feel?", each old man took turns playing the song. It was a very odd spectacle and we weren't sure what we were witnessing.... Anyway, we had a great time over drinks.

As the evening wore down Claire headed into the bathroom. One of the bartenders came over to our table and said "bottoms up!" indicating that closing time was minutes away. Sensing our impending eviction I instructed Mustache Dave to finish up Claire's beer. Hesitantly he did so stating that it would invariably get him in trouble. When Claire returned we resumed joking around and again one of the bartenders approached us, this time an attractive young woman. Dave began chatting with her and after about 45 seconds Claire became aware of the fact that Dave had finished her beer. Upon the revelation she shot her hand out and slapped him hard in the face. The female bartender with not a second hesitation stopped mid-sentence and walked away from the table, obviously thinking Claire and Dave a couple and the flirtations unappreciated by Claire. It's fairly hard to describe just how perfect the moment was but suffice to say the comedy of that moment was fresh for the next 48 hours.

As with my other travels I've made a point of trying all of the folk dishes here in the UK. For the most part these have been at least somewhat recognizable to an American's palate but there was one formidable dish that I was somewhat hesitant to try: haggis! But I did it today. Dinner time was haggis time. The results? Delicious! It helped that I was quite hungry but it would've been edible regardless. It had a gooey and extremely greasy consistency and a nice sausagey flavor with a strong pepper aftertaste. The neeps and tatties (mashed parsnips and potatoes) were really good as well. See pictures (yes, they're there already!).

PS - As an aside, the weather in Scotland has been very strange. Every morning is cold, rainy and windy but by the time the evening rolls around (6 or 7) the sun has come out and there are relatively (for the UK) few clouds in the sky. Oh, and it never fully gets dark, either. The sun sets completely but at 12:30 last night it was still twilight on our walk back to Claire's from the pub. I'm excited for next week when we'll be in Stockholm - a few degrees further north and a few days closer to the summer solstice!

Laura, Claire and I drove down to Edinburgh from St. Andrews today. Lovely drive and fairly close - only took us a little over an hour. Claire had to be down here early for a job interview so we took off early and are currently awaiting her arrival at the Hostel. I hope she hasn't gotten lost but I'm about to find a phone to give her a ring.

Edinburgh is every bit as beautiful as people say - the whole center is very stately (and our Hostel is directly between the Old Town and "New Town" [which was actually built in the mid 1700's]) though, as with recent updates, you'll have to wait for photographs. I still haven't found time to examine our photos from the past week to upload. I will do so soon. I promise. But the process is fairly involved so until I have a little down time I don't want to force everybody around me to wait for 30 or 40 minutes. Tonight it should be easy though because Laura and Claire can hang out while I take care of business.

Stories of Warwick, the Cotswolds and St. Andrews to come!

Drove all the way from Oxford, England to St. Andrews, Scotland yesterday. Fairly long haul at about 7 and 1/2 hours. Only took one wrong turn and it proved to be scenic and still going in the correct direction. It was pouring rain like I've rarely seen near Edinburgh. St. Andrews was very pretty from the top of the hill against the bay but we didn't stop to take pictures because we were already running behind and it was getting late. Plus Laura was on the verge of having a pee emergency and it wouldn't have been very nice for me to tell her to hold it while I captured a couple pictures.

More pictures than you can deal with are going to be coming in a couple days. I'm not going to have much time to put any updates on until tomorrow or the next day due to internet difficulties but I hope to type out some posts and get some photos ready so that when we get in to Edinburgh it'll be fast and easy to let everybody know what's been going on.