So I'm back now but I figured I should put up what I did in Scotland anyway, or at least what I can remember of it. I couldn't go to the big Thanksgiving feast with everyone b/c I'm dumb and I booked my flight really early on Friday. So on Thursday night I got a delicious dinner all by myself and said my thanks for everything that has happened and then stayed overnight in a hostel. I had to get up at like 4:30 am for my flight to Glasgow, which was only an hour long. I didn't stay in Glasgow, but took a bus right out to Stirling, which is this small historical city...mostly known from Braveheart. Its pretty rainy in Scotland, but I walked around Stirling and killed some time in the cemetary (no pun intended), and then went to Stirling Castle which is perched up on this rock. From the top you can look out and see the Highlands and a monument to William Wallace. Stirling was cute and old, but I ran out of things to do so I ended up shopping. This happened a lot in Scotland. Who knew they had such good clothing stores?

The next day I headed out by bus again to Edinburgh. This is an awesome looking city. It has all kinds of things happening in it; it even has a big ferris wheel like the London Eye. And the castle is really amazing...its up on this huge hill looking over the whole city...very ominous. I thought it would be really cool to be walking around that city everyday with the castle standing up there so huge and powerful. My hostel was kinda a hike out so that sucked, but it was pretty nice. The first thing I did was wheeze my way up the enormous stairs to the top of the castle hill where the Royal Mile starts. Very painful. But there are awesome views from up there of the whole city. Again, it was raining so I ran around the castle getting soaked and also went into the Whiskey Museum, and the Tartan Weaving Exhibition (exciting stuff!). To get out of the rain I had the bright idea to go to the Edinburgh Dungeon b/c I had this brochure for it and figured it would be cool like I heard the London Dungeon was. I paid 7 pounds to get in (like 12 bucks)...and it was like a crappy haunted house. Now I used to be in haunted houses every Halloween and I have to say that ours were probably better than this one. Of course, since I was there alone fate found it funny to single me out to be chosen by the various actors for things. You know how when this happens when you're with a bunch of your friends or family its really funny and everyone takes pictures of you being made a fool of? Well its not so amusing when nobody in the audience has a clue who you are. They give you the requisite applause to be sure, but its not like anyone was there to take pictures of me being forced to dissect a very unconvincing dummy. At the end of the little tour I was wondering where the hell the rest of it was, or at the very least where was my refund. Do not pay to go to the Edinburgh Dungeon!

Next day I spent more time in Edinburgh, mostly doing more Xmas shopping on the Royal Mile. Then finally I very hesitantly said goodbye to Edinburgh and then went (by bus again) to Glasgow. Now I didn't have too much time to explore the city b/c by the time I got there and checked into my hostel there wasn't much to do but go shopping again or to a bar and I really (surprisingly) didn't want to do either. So I met some of the girls in my room and chatted with them, and read my newspaper, and went to sleep. Next day I checked out Glasgow Cathedral and St. Mungo's Religious Museum right next to it, on the advice of the hostel girls. They were totally right and I really enjoyed it. The Cathedral was beautiful and the museum was exactly what I think every city should have...it showcased a bunch of religious art and artifacts and just showed how all these belief systems that ppl fight so much over are really more alike than we think. It was great. Glasgow however, was not. I know Shannon was planning for awhile to study abroad here and I'm sure she would have had fun if she had been able to go, but I really think she shouldn't regret it much. Maybe I just didn't have time to see too much, and the things I did go see were great...but they were kinda outside the city center. The actual city has a lot of shopping and also as I was walking around it I noticed its kinda ghetto. Very Eurotrash, with like discount and gold jewellry stores everywhere. May be a snap judgement from my short stay, but I wouldn't recommend it for more than a day. Anyway, it made it easy to catch my plane from Glasgow Airport, so its all good.

All in all a good trip. I think I was kinda (this sounds so weird) SICK of travelling all the time. It was the second to last weekend and I had been all over the place already and I had papers due and finals to worry about. I enjoyed myself but really all I did was see some castles and cathedrals, and spend a lot of money shopping. I think I should have planned in advance to tour the countryside or the highlands or one of the lochs. Next time perhaps. I will say though, that the Scottish accent is the hardest to understand...I had no idea what was going on half the time, even on my guided tours.

PS...I'm not even sure if anybody is still reading this now that I'm back. I don't wanna have to repeat my stories a bunch of times... ;)