The Traveling of Will Lund

PLACES SEEN:

London
Little Dunmow
Newcastle
Edinburgh
Holyhead
Dublin
Paris
La Rochelle
Bordeaux
Madrid
Valencia
Barcelona
Florence
Venice
Vienna?
Prague
Berlin
Cologne
-Frankfurt-

HOME

I'm at the SF airport again. I've another hour of my layover on my way home. It feels weird, this is the last time I have to wait for a vehicle to take me somewhere(Unless Laila is really late picking me up.)

I realize now that there's a lot I'll have to do in the next few days to get everything back in order.

I'm coming home pretty broke. I'll figure out the details tomorrow, but I think I'll be ok. It's way cheaper living at home than it is making my way through 8 countries.

There are quite a few people I want to see all at once. I don't know when I'll get to see all of them.

Movie night is tomorrow. That should help me regain some of my bearings. Laila has the pick, so it should be pretty violent at least.

This might be a little sad, but this is the longest I've been away from home. I've been off at work for weeks at a time, but I've never done a stretch like this.

I'm not sure it's been the way I thought. I didn't have a lot of preconceptions. After a while, a lot of cities start to look the same. The world is really corporate. There're a lot of the same shops. There are a lot of pictures I've taken that, shown to me now, I might not be able to tell you where it is.

I had great times in every city, but those are the ones that were the most charming to me. Of all the places I've seen, these are the ones I would most like to share with other people. These are the places I wanted to bottle up to take home with me.

Frankfurt is nice. Some of the architecture here is really interesting. Very contemporary. It seems like a town that has it's head on it's shoulders. I think I'll get out and see it tomorrow.

Cologne was really cool. It was just like Christian Ettinger described it in the interview. You get off the train in front of this massive cathedral. And there are breweries on almost every block.

Thankfully, the cathedral was open to the public for Easter Sunday. They even let people take pictures. I forgot I was wearing the hat and was asked by a very polite robed man to remove it.

I must have had a dozen different beers in the last couple days. So good to finally have a bit of that German perspective everyone always talks about. I still need to see Belgium, but I think this is enough for me to say that the Pacific NW has some of the best beer in the world. It's pretty good here, but I'd pay 10 euros for anything from Double Mountain right now.

I had an amazing breakfast this morning. They have this thing here where they have this buttery, creamy potato dish with scattered slices of zucchini, and then they put two eggs over easy on top of it. Oh, my god. I want to learn how to make that as soon as I get home. Also, I want to learn how to make the perfect tomato soup. Those are the two things that are my cooking goals this spring, and you can all consider yourselves my guinea pigs. I'll try to make each of them for a movie night.

It's hard to believe this country was ever the symbol of racism and intolerance. It's so diverse now.

Germans haven't really captured the beauty of a dark beer. There's so much you can do with a very rich ale. They've obsessed with finesse. Sometimes a guy just wants a really tasty beer.

The water here is pretty bad, too. I think my mistake was expecting anything different. Everywhere I go is a major city. Big cities have bad water. Even the water in Portland can get pretty bad sometimes. It's too bad I couldn't take a five gallon jug of the Scottish stuff with me everywhere I've gone. That would have been awesome. I would have even dragged it around with a hand truck through Madrid.

I wish I had two more days left on my railpass. Seeing Amsterdam would really be worth the trip. Even for a day.

It's hard to believe I can actually relax here. All I have to do now is get on a plane on Thursday. I can really kick back and relax here in Frankfurt.

Can someone tell me why all the mannequins over here have nipples on them? I mean, come on, some of them are just obscene!

The train just passed by the Volkswagen headquarters. They call it the 'Autostadt'. I can see why. That's probably the longest building I've seen in my life. And I've been to the Mall of America. I'm on a train going 200km and hour and it still took us over 30 seconds to travel the length of it.

I don't think I'd recommend people seeing Europe the way I have. I knew going into this I wouldn't be spending enough time at any of these places. That's not the thing that bothers me. I'm really tired. I counted up all the places I'm going on this trip; it's almost 20 cities in 28 days.

I really got a good taste of - I think - over half of them. I've met some really cool people. The first half of the trip, I felt like I needed to pack as much into each day as possible while in each city. By the time I got to the Mediterranean, I was dead tired. I've taken a day here and there to sort of recharge my batteries.

Sadly, that's what happened in Berlin yesterday. What I did see was great. I'll be back someday, Berlin!

Another observation: Europe is not for vegetarians. Lots of people told me that before I came out here, but I don't think I put enough stock in those warnings. The least I could have done was take a box of Clif bars with me.

The hostel this morning had a 4 euro buffet. Well worth it. They had cereal and hard boiled eggs. Yay protein!

The German countryside is a lot prettier than I would have thought. Beautiful rivers. Lush, green fields. Some of the older buildings that are still standing are actually quite charming. The Germans are much bigger fans of geometric shapes in architecture than the rest of Europe. Most things are in triangles and squares.

German trains are pretty great. Lots of seats with power outlets. I've done a lot of writing since I got here. I even did a lot of plotting for 'Roulette City'. I haven't revisited that story in a while. It's looking bigger every time I think about it. I came up with a half dozen major plot twists this morning. Perhaps Matt will be up for an epic sci-fi/fantasy soon...

Also, I've decided to base Dieter from 'Commentary' on the attendant for the first class section of this train. He talks really fast in short bursts, then finishes sentences slowly and in a much higher pitch. It's hilarious. It's too bad he's only a voice in the play, because he does this funny thing after he finishes speaking. He sort of smiles off and on - as if he's flexing his face.

It's amazing how universal the gay signals are. No matter where I go, I can tell. The only thing that threw me off was how many people in France and Spain dressed like they had just been on an episode of queer eye. Straight guys, just wearing leather pants and having their dyed hair form a point on their head. I wish I had pictures.

I'm in Berlin. The hostel I'm crashing at tonight is in the former East Berlin. I haven't seen a lot of landmarks yet; this place is not very walkable. This part of town reminds me of Portland. Lots of people commuting on bike. I'm really going to regret not spending enough time here. It seems a lot like my kind of town. Maybe I'll come back with some more people some day.

Something I ate must not have agreed with me because I just felt like crap the moment I got here. I checked in at the hostel and took a nap. Much better now. Maybe I was tired because I haven't had coffee in 4 days. That has to be a new record.

I was awoken by some great jazz music coming from a little pub across the street, so I packed up ol' lappy and went over.

The water at every place since Scotland has just been shittier and shittier. Even the bottled stuff tastes like crap, so I've given up and started buying the carbonated water. It's the same price for some reason, but the bubbles sort of hide the taste at least. Scotland had the best tasting water I've ever had. I almost would rather have had water than beer.

They're playing a really funny jazz song right now. The singer has a really high pitched voice. It's made stranger by the fact half of the lyrics are in german and the other half are in english.

I'm a little bit afraid I'll only be in this town long enough to not want to leave. But I really want to see Cologne. The last day of my railpass is the 13th. I have to get to Frankfurt by then or I'm a little screwed.

I realized yesterday that I'll be in Cologne on Easter. I hope I can find something open, otherwise it won't matter what I want to do, because I won't be able to do anything.

Some people noticed the hat. I picked it up in Vienna. I bought it for two reasons: it fit my head and it was made in Italy. It struck me that I didn't buy anything while I was in Italy; the irony of waiting until I was in Austria could not be avoided.

While napping, I dreamt I was working a shift at Journeys. It was such a calming experience. No number of tables can compare with the stress of not knowing where you're going to sleep five days in a row. At least there, I know where my bed is. It's totally right down the street!

At hostels, people keep talking up Budapest. They all seem to think it's one of the best places to go. I'll keep that in mind the next time I decide to take a jaunt around.

I wish everyone a happy Easter back at home. I know my family will be sitting around a table with a bunch of meat and vegetables (in somewhat less even quantities than normal). There's a chance that I may not be able to find a store open tomorrow, so I went into a grocer and picked up some apples and carrots.

The grand tour only has a few days left. I'll talk a bit more about that tomorrow.

I spent the last part of my night fighting with my camera. I was right about the memory card being too full. I just had to go in and delete all the stuff I've already backed up. Then I had to try about three times to move the last 5 days worth of pictures onto my laptop. It was about 2500 pictures.

Prague has a very simple underground system. I didn't use it much, since it was a lot more fun to just run into stuff along the way.

I'll show some pictures later. I haven't the energy to sort through them all tonight.

I ditched Vienna for Prague. It was either Vienna or Berlin, and I chose the later.

I'll be in Prague for two nights. From there I go to Berlin for one, then Cologne for one night, and finally Frankfurt.

Everything is a lot cleaner in Austria. I didn't run into a single pile of dog poop. Yay!

I walked across Vienna looking for the other train station and ended up missing the first one out. Rather than look around Vienna for the next three hours, for some reason I sat in a pub and ended up getting more than a little tipsy. That should help me sleep on this little on this ride over to the Czech Republic.

My laptop has been dead for two days. This is the first moment where I've been able to plug it in. I'm on a train now to Vienna. I took an overnight train from Venice to Vienna, but earlier this morning, there was an accident not too far up the tracks. We had to reverse and go back to the last station. Then we waited for an hour until buses slowly trickled in to take us to another station where we could finally get to Vienna.

Venice was fun. It was every bit as picturesque as you'd think. I spent about four hours just sitting on the side of the canals, just watching the boats and gondolas go by. Then, when night fell, I got to see some beautiful reflections of the city lights on the canals. I can see why so many people have painted it.

Florence was one of the best places I've been so far. Very walkable. A couple days ago, I walked to all four corners of the city and back. There's a fantastic hillside called the Piazza de Michelangelo. They have a copy of the David and a fantastic view.

Florence has one microbrewery. They make three beers and all of them are not good. The guy who brews is pretty nice, though. Every beer tasted like I was drinking liquid malt. It had that chewy sweetness that you get when you munch on a hand full of grain. Not hop characteristic at all. I asked him what hops he uses and he brought me a cup of skunky pellets. It's all unfiltered.

I'll figure out if I'll stay the night in Vienna when I get there. If I spend the night there, I'll have to forgo Berlin. I may just catch a late train to Prague and stay there for a couple days. I don't want to have to take another night train. The beds are about a foot too short for me. I felt like I was laying in the fetal position all night. Still, much more comfortable than the hostel I stayed at in Valencia.

I'll see if there's a cheap bed and breakfast I can stay at in Cologne. It sounds a lot better than staying at all hostels for the last week I'm here.

I look forward to having some good beer later. But first I need to figure out how to get my back-up credit card working. They have an 800 number that I don't know how to use from here. I'll be needing it to get through Germany. My budget has taken a huge punch to the groin lately. They make you pay a reservation fee in Spain, France, and Italy to even have a seat on a train. One trip in France cost me 27e, another in Italy cost me 23e. That and the price of the hostel and I have about 10e left of my daily budget for food. Bottles of water cost 3e! It's bread and veggies from fruit stands for me from here on out.

I'm in a first class train car in Milan train station, sitting in the only seat I could find that has an outlet nearby. I'm hoping no one actually has this seat reserved. It would suck to not have my laptop for yet another train ride.

I'm debating stopping in Vienna. It might be easier and cheaper to just go straight to Prague. I hear everything is much more affordable there. Vienna sounded like fun, and another country to add to the list, but It is a ways off the beaten path. There are no fast trains there from Venice, so the trip would take over 7 hours.

I met some really cool people in Nice. There was a kid from New York, named Kyle that was staying at the same hostel as me on the first night. We walked around Nice trying to find another place to stay since the one from the night before was booked that day in advance. He already had a booking at another place outside of town, so we parted ways after I found a place. We may just see each other again someday - one of his friends was just drafted to the Trailblazers. I regret not askin him who. Not much interest in sports, but it would have been nice to know in the long run.

While doing laundry at the next hostel, I met a two women also waiting for the one dryer that wasn't broke. Maryanne was from Australia and Yvonne was from Toronto. We talked for a couple hours while we waited for the stupid machine and then went for some food. It was great actually going to a place with someone who spoke french. Yvonne could ask if things were vegetarian for me! She says she's a pescatarian, though I don't think she's that either; she had duck at the restaurant.)

Yay, cheap wine! I've had some much Bordeaux and Cote-u-Rhone this last week, it's amazing. It's funny I didn't have any when I was actually in Bordeaux.

It's funny how easy it is to be surrounded by a different language every couple days. I was in a train in Italy earlier, in a room with two girls from Quebec, two girls from Mexico, and an old italian woman who didn't seem to understand that none of us spoke italian. I didn't understand much of anything, because the two from Quebec spoke spanish, so they talked to whole 3 hours in spanish.

Maybe I won't be so left out when I get to Germany. I might not be able to carry a conversation, but understanding it shouldn't be so hard.

Good. It left the station. Only about 15 minutes later than it should have. I hope I have the right train.

The announcement said it's going to Naples. Good thing Firenze is between Milano and Napoli.

I'd have pictures on here, but my camera is being stupid. It may be a problem with the new memory card. My computer doesn't know how to deal with 8gb being thrown at it. I'll switch to the smaller memory sticks from here on out.

Had a great time in Barcelona. Taking a few hours to just sit on the beach did me a whole load of good. The Picasso museum was enlightening.

I'll be in Nice again tomorrow. Not sure when I'll leave the day after. I may try to catch an overnight train to Florence tomorrow night and just sleep on the train. That should be nice, and save a little money. It would be great to wake up in another city in another country.

Nice has a rock beach. I've never seen anything like it before. I'll put pictures of it on as soon as I can get them. The city here really lights up at night. Unlike other towns, this one in particular is purposefully colorful. The buildings are all pastel during the day, but at night, once the lights hit them, they glow neon in a way that's reminiscent of Vegas. It's everywhere, but not an assault on your senses the way Vegas is.

I had some great wine tonight. Last week, I was in Bordeaux, but didn't have any of their wine until tonight. Very dry. One I had tasted very much of grape seeds more than grapes and another had a prune quality that I found enjoyable. But then, I like prunes.

I'll wake up tomorrow and figure out what I'm going to do. I feel like I've already seen France on this trip, so I'm excited to get to Italy. However, I've wanted to see Nice since I saw the movie 'Ronin' years ago. Damn, that was a good movie. Every time I watch it I spend the whole time looking at the scenery. I'll take my time here.

There haven't been a lot of updates because my laptop battery sucks and there hasn't been electricity on a train since I first left France. I'm picking hostels that specifically offer wifi. It's hard to find sometimes.

Today was much easier. Valencia was beautiful this morning. Lots of pictures taken. The city has a few marvelous squares. I had to sit down for an hour with a cup of coffee in one of them to properly take it in.

Then I took a decent sized train ride to Barcelona. Also great, but in a different way. Valencia is like a coastal version of Madrid; Barcelona is something else entirely.

Taking the train into and out of Valencia was amazing. There are miles and miles of orange trees. I can't even describe how much. I spent an hour staring out the window until I figured that's where all of the world's oranges must come from. Then I looked out the window on the other side and it was the same thing. I was riding through a rainforest of oranges. Very different from the empty wine country we were riding through before (The vines were all trimmed back after the harvest).

I'm staying at a wonderful hostel here. I had a great conversation with a couple Australian girls earlier who are going about Europe as well. They wanted to go bar hopping with me, but I don't think I'm up for it for several reasons. A few moments ago, I had a really awkward conversation with four teenagers from China who are sharing a table with me. There haven't been a lot of Americans so far.

I realize now that I'm a big fan of pictures where an empty sky makes a shape with the tops of buildings. Let me know if that's getting tired to you...

P. S. I finally got my pigeon pictures! There is a scene in the last issue of YOTD that I haven't finished because I've needed a bunch of pictures of pigeons. I've had trouble because I needed pictures of them with nothing behind it, because no matter how much I edit, the background always interferes with the flapping wings. Now I can finally finish the 4th issue! Thank you Valencia!

Madrid was fun. Like most of this trip, I didn't spend as much time there as I would have liked.

The design of the city was kind of schizophrenic. They had classical statues right next to modern interpretive are. Six hundred year old building right next to brand new ones. Sometimes they just cut buildings in half so they can use the space differently, leaving these strange partial brick walls hanging off the sides of buildings.

I'm getting the hang of the language barrier thing. If you start the conversation with Lo siento (I'm sorry), they're much nicer to you. It's been a breeze since I figured that one out. I still have to play charades several times a day. It was easiest when I went into a pharmacy to ask for a razor; that motion is pretty universal.

Yes, I shaved. I was tired of everyone treating me like a vagabond. I go into places and no one wants to serve me.

By the way, American service is awesome. If you don't think so, come to Europe. Sometimes people won't even look at you. Also, places have the strangest hours. If you want something from a grocery store at 7pm- guess what? You're fucked. Most places that aren't bars close at 5 or 6. Good luck finding a bar that will serve food sometimes. Yes, there are places to eat, but some of the prices are ridiculous. 20E for an entree is not reasonable. I never pay $26 for a meal at home. Well... not unless there's a bunch of beer involved. I'm just complaining now. It's been easier than I'm making it out to be. If that's my biggest gripe, then I'm getting out of this easy.

I decided to spend two nights in Nice. I want to really experience the town, and not try to cram it all into 10 waking hours like I've done with some of these places. I'm also spending two nights in Barcelona. I'll have to cram Italy into a small time frame. I haven't planned it yet, but there's an opportunity to spend two nights in either Florence or Venice. I'll spend at least one night in each place anyway, but I have a little room before moving on to Prague. I'll spend a fair amount of time in Germany. The language should be easier to grasp. I think I'll spend a day in Berlin and Then go to Cologne for a couple days before ending the trip in Frankfurt.

I arrived about six hours later than I would have liked to. Now I have to cram in as much as possible before going to the coast tomorrow. There are three museums that I would love to see, but I may have to settle for one. Damn.

I was the only person in the whole of the Irun, Spain train station that spoke english. It was like playing a game of pictionary. I just made sure everyone knew I was going to Madrid.

It's funny that I was on a train in SW France headed to Spain when suddenly I'm in Spain and it's a different world. Imagine taking a bus to Vancouver, and when you get off suddenly no one is speaking the same language.

There's a huge difference in population density. Suddenly all of the buildings got taller.

One bonus: there's a discernable effort to have more signage in other languages. It might be easier to find my way around here than in France.

I've notice lots of people with their jeans tucked into their boots. Maybe it's a style thing, or maybe I'm seeing things.

Trains stop a lot longer at the stations. After the railway bombings in Madrid years ago, they've really beefed up security. It was the first time I've had to put my bag in an x-ray machine to get on a train.

I hopped the first train out of Paris going my direction. This is all the way on the Atlantic coast. Nice town. Small, but sophisticated. I found WIFI here. That's more than I can say for the whole of Paris.

I have a connection to Bordeaux in about two hours. I'll take this internet time to make some plans for the next couple days. I think I'm going to treat myself to a B+B tonight. I got out of Paris for less than 120 euros. That's something.

I'm at the train station, and they've had a massive electrical problem. They don't know what trains are going to what gate. It's a huge clusterfuck. The french news stations are all here. There are about 500 people staring at a board, waiting for it to wake up and tell them it's ok to leave. I just missed a train to Bordeaux. It was leaving the station as I walked up to it. I might not have missed it, if not for the fact that I don't understand the announcements playing through the stations.

I had to listen to all of the french announcements through hundreds of miles of the UK, the least they could do is just say the number of the train and the gate in english. Good god, people. Why do they have to be so french about everything?

I'm tired. I walked from one end of the city to the other and back again today. I made the mistake of climbing the stairs to the center of the Eiffel Tower. That was a big mistake. It's huge. Then I went to the Louvre. Do you know how many stairs are in that place? Lots. Lots and lots. A buttload, some might say. My feet are killing me.

I'm heading for a train station first thing in the morning. My Eurail pass is officially valid tomorrow.

I've got to get out of here. Paris is built around either living here or having a lot of money when you show up. I hope every other place after this comes up under budget. Otherwise I have to pull out the credit to make it through to Germany.

I'm lying in my bed at the Hotel Montial. If you never hear from me again, that is probably the reason why. I think this is the place where Lime disease originates.

I arrive in Paris just after 8. The bus driver from the Ryanair airport (about an hour north of the city) dropped us off somewhere in town that I had no idea where I was. I'm grateful I was smart enough to ask for a map from the information desk at the airport. Not that it was much good for the first hour. The one semblance of direction I could find was the Eiffel Tower. It has this giant rotating light on it that is particularly helpful on a cloudy night like tonight. That was great.

It was Earth Hour! All the worlds great monuments went dark for an hour to raise awareness about energy conservation. That sounds like a noble cause. But not when I have no idea where I am. Lame.

I eventually found what looked like a main road and started walking down it. After a couple minutes, I could see the Arc de Triumphe in the distance.

From there, I could see the Tower even in the dark, silhouetted in the city lights behind it.

I spent the next two hours looking for a place to stay. Most of the hostels were fully booked. The ones that had vacancy I could hardly understand on the phone. All I wanted was a damn address. This receptionist had such poor english, the only thing I could understand about the address was the first part: the number 1. I decided to get in a taxi and have him give the directions to the driver. After I get in the cab, I call the place up... I'm out of minutes on my prepaid t-moblie phone. I apologize to the driver of the cab I just waved down off a busy street so I can try to buy more minutes outside a row of closed shops.

I get a hold of customer service. They can't take my American debit card. In fact, they can't take any non-EU cards over the phone. Bastards. They could have told me in London when I bought the stupid thing. Now it gets to be a watch until I can find a t-mobile store in the morning.

I walk around Paris looking for a hotel. Most of them, for just a single room, are 190 euros per night. That's $250 dollars American! No way. No frackin' way. That's about 15% of my remaining budget for cryin' out loud.

There were a couple options at reception. 38 euros for a single bed with a toilet. 42 euros for a single bed with a shower.

I leave the water running on hot for a little while so I don't have to worry about the sink smelling like pee. After a minute, I hear some bubbling in the shower. Some of the water from the sink drain has started coming up out of the shower drain.

I shouldn't be surprised; when the man at reception gave me the key, he also gave me the remote to the TV. That's not something that's ever happened to me before, but then, I've never stayed at a hotel in Paris. The sad part is: I've already paid for two nights.

I made it to Dublin. It was 6:30 in the morning, and more than a little scary when I first got here. All the shops and businesses close their fronts with giant iron garage door things at night. It was a ghost town. I really felt like I was walking around in an Irish version of 28 Days Later. I found a little cafe that was open and hid out until the coast was clear outside. Now that I've had a bunch of time to walk around, I really enjoy this place.

The Book of Kells was very intriguing. Simply from a design standpoint, it's really staggering.

The National Gallery of Ireland was great. The best part is that it's free. Lots of nice paintings. They have a Caravagio and a Van Gogh. I'd seen the Caravagio in some of my design classes. It was even better up close. I even waited around for a tour to walk by to hear what they'd say about it.

Now I'm at the Jameson Distillery waiting for a tour. It was expensive, but I'd regret it if I didn't do it. BONUS, it includes a drink at the bar. That's value for your money!

I think I'll be done for the day after this. I am really tired. I got about three hours sleep on the ferry, and my hostel here wasn't able to check me in until after 2. I might head back to the hostel for a nap. I've run into a bunch of Americans here. A couple groups from Texas. A group from St Louis. My neighbors are a family from Gresham! How weird is that? They say they'll come by Journeys sometime.

I think tomorrow I'll just wander around a park for a bit before it's time to catch my plane. No Guinness tour for me! Those carnivorous bastards!

I'm trapped in a tiny little town. Online listed a ferry leaving from Holyhead to Dublin at just after 5pm. I thought I'd have plenty of time after a train arrived at Holyhead at 3:15. Turns out, the ferry at 5 is for cars only! I have to wait for the passenger ferry leaving at 2:40am. Yup, that's the morning. So I'm sitting in a little pub called The King's Arms, waiting for either the bar to close or the ferry to show up.

I'll have to find another place to hang my hat for about 5 hours after that. I can't imagine they don't have a pub in this town open 'til at least midnite.

It's really cold and windy here. It hasn't stopped raining since I got off the train.

I was worried about the cost of room and board for two nights in Dublin. Guess I'll only have to worry about one night.

Who knew Welsh was such a common language. All the road and street signs are in two languages. Welsh wouldn't seem like such a strange language to me if it actually had vowels. It's a lot like looking at Russian road signs; words here have 9 consonants in a row.

The people in the pictures from last night are: Sophie, Al, me, Lou, and David on the table. Very fun people! I hope chance puts us together again.

As soon as I took the time to relax, I really started to enjoy myself. I started out this morning walking to Holyrood park, which isn't far from the place I'm staying at. I asked a nice lady who was walking her dog which way I could go to find the castle, and she told me about a path along the cliffs above the park to the start of the Royal Mile, a historic stretch of road starting at the Holyrood Palace (where the Queen stays when she's in Scotland), leading up the hill to Edinburgh Castle. The cliffs were amazing. There were quite a few stops along the Royal Mile: there were a couple museums I couldn't resist, there was a snooty pub I dropped into for a pint and a plate of chips, and a place called 'The Scotch Experience'. All this before I even got to the castle.

This was easily one of the most beautiful days of my life. I started rather late, but still had time to take in some of the best of what Scotland has to offer.

The Scotch place was a real treat. There are walls of single malt scotch all over. The tasting room downstairs has a ten page menu, separated by region. I started with a Balvenie 17 year. Then I got to talking to the bartender and from what I told her I've like before she recommended a Glenmorangie Quinta Reuben. It was very nice and smelled just subtly of pineapple. All of them were very cheap. The last one I talked about was just over five bucks for a shot.

I've had to change my plans a little bit. The ferry across to Belfast is expensive and horribly inconvenient. Since I still have a couple days on my Britrail Pass, I'll head down to Liverpool and then west to Holyhead. That's where I'll get a ferry over to Dublin. I'll stay a couple days there and maybe hop a train to a small town outside of the city.

The ferry from the south of Ireland isn't free with the Eurail pass I had to get. I found out it's cheaper to take a Ryanair flight from Dublin directly to Paris. It was only 50 pounds one way and only takes two and a half hours. That should shave more than a day off my travel from the islands to the continent.

Now I have to work on where I should stay in Dublin. This bed and breakfast thing can really start to grow on me.

I'm at a pub called 'The Crags', just off-campus of The University of Edinburgh.

I didn't expect to miss the Google Maps applet on my phone so damn much. I feel like I need a compass, a machete, and safari truck to navigate some of these places. It took me a half hour longer than it should have to find the B+B I'm staying at.

This place is COLD. The wind sometimes hits you like a punch in the face. I look forward to the Mediterranean.

I'm finally at a real Scottish pub! Why does the beer have to be so darn boring?

I've been so pampered in Portland. We don't realize how lucky we are to have so much great beer just a stones' throw from our doors. I finally go to one of the beer drinking capitols of the western world and there's not much new to speak of. They serve Stella Artois with no foam on it?! What is with that?

I wouldn't have such a hard time getting around if it wasn't for the poor layout on all these maps. They only have the large streets on them; so when you're walking around you think you only have a couple blocks before your turn, but you're horribly mistaken. Circles are the hardest to navigate. There were so many of them in London, with so many roads headed out of them, there's no telling what direction you're going after a while. I've stopped people on the street to ask them which way is north. And I don't have a terrible sense of direction.

I started getting a touch freaked out over the last couple days. I've been trying to pack far too much into the trip and not treat it like the overview it's supposed to be. It's really stressful. There's so much to see that I've forgotten I'm at my best and most clear-headed when I give myself a few hours to just relax. That's what I'm going to do in Edinburgh tonight and tomorrow. I won't feel like I have to do everything. I'll take two hour lunches. I'll leave my laptop at the B+B and take only my camera with me. That'll be nice to not have to worry about.

Edinburgh is even more gothic than Newcastle. Everything looks like it was carved out of rock. It's like the skyline is a giant sand castle. The city is filled with young people. I'd heard that it's the youth capitol of Scotland. It appears to be true.

I stayed at a hostel just outside Piccadilly Circus. As soon as I went in, I met two other guys that shared the room. One, from Australia was asleep at 1 in the afternoon. The other, Richard, was awake and wondering if I was up for some lunch. We hit a pub and talked for a bit. He's an interesting character. He's from Zimbabwe. His family used to have a farm there until the revolution, when they had to flee. His current job is a Pick-Up-Coach. Like the TV show 'Pick Up Artist', his job is to teach people how to pick up women. I could see how it's easy for him; he's got this exotic British-African accent that I only wish I could emulate.

After I headed back to the hostel (Richard had some work to do), I met the no longer sleeping Australian, Marc. We walked down to Leicester Square together, looking for a pub I saw listed as having free wifi because the connection at the hostel was rubbish. The place was called Yates. We sat outside for a bit after it looked like something was getting set up. The set up was for a movie premier. 'Rock the Boat', or something like that. I'd never seen it advertised in the states. We were on our second round, fighting with the pubs horrible wifi connection, when they started setting up a red carpet about 20 feet in front of us. From then, we had three more rounds and a front row seat for the red carpet entrance of a bunch of British movie stars. Sir Paul was the only one I got out of my seat for. I knew I wouldn't regret it. Bill Nighy and Phillip Seymour-Hoffman were in the movie, but not at the premier; a shame, because I would have got out of my seat for them. We stuck around to watch the fascinating ballet that is the deconstruction of a movie premier set. There are something like 50 people that have the job of taking everything down before the movie gets out. I took a bunch of pictures of it. None of them are good for anything other than reference, since my camera is horrible for taking pictures at night.

I'm in the heart of Newcastle right now, sitting in a lovely little pub called "The Old George". The ceiling is an inch over my head.

Inexplicably, Elton John's song from Lion King is playing on the speaker behind my head.

Northumbria is weird. This is a huge city, but I'm in the center of it, and I can find a single wireless network; not just that I can get onto, but I can't see any at all.

It's amazing how quickly the Victorian architecture disappears. This town is still quite beautiful, but it's almost nothing like London. The buildings and statues remind me more of the pictures I've seen of St. Petersburg.

I've got another hour before I catch a train to Edinburgh. I'll ask the waitress what I should see here before I leave.

My battery sucks, but the trains have lots of outlets. I wanted to get a new one before I left. Now I'm glad I did. Money's going to be a little tight. I hear from everyone that it all gets a lot cheaper as soon as I get out of the UK.

Went to a couple old villages in my Uncle Frank's Saab convertible. The Village of Thaxted was beautiful. We went into the old church there, which looked more like a cathedral, and I must have taken a hundred pictures of it.

Afterword, I hopped a train back to London. Saw the inside and outside of St Paul's Cathedral. Huge. Then I walked across the Millennium bridge to the Tate Modern Museum. They must have had eight Picasso's. I stood a foot away from Monet's 'Water Lilies'. It's very different when you see it in it's actual size. It must be 10' across.

Then I went down the pier a bit and found the Young's Pub, from the makers of Young's Double Chocolate Stout. It was crowded, and I ended up sharing a table with a couple locals. One, Nick, is an American expat from Chicago and the other, Gaby, is originally from Venezuela. I might meet up with them again tomorrow for a couple more rounds at a place in Chinatown they want to show me.

Say the British Museum and the National Museum. Good god, they were both huge. I was two feet from the mummy of Cleopatra! I stood in front of 12 Monet paintings without so much as a sheet of glass between us. I was right in front of Caravagio and Da Vinci originals. My cup runneth over.

Lots of planes and trains over the last 24 hours. I took the London Underground into the city center and transferred to a train that took me north quite a bit to a station at Bishops Stortford. My Aunt picked me up there and we stopped off at her stables to take care of her horse (Belle something) before heading to her place in Little Dunmow (just outside Greater Dunmow). There, we picked up my Uncle Frank and went to a pub and grabbed some Indian food. The village where they live is really something; most of the buildings here are over 400 years old.

Coin money is weird. I have something like 12 pounds in my pocket right now in loose change.

Sat next to a guy on my first flight that had the same connection. Now we're hanging out at a shitty little Mexican bar waiting for the next plane.

The international wing of the SF airport is almost like a shopping mall. They pump some kind of perfume into the air. It's unsettling.

All of the advertising has text with letters inside other letters. When did this trend start?

At the airport. There's a Laurelwood Brewpub here. I'll try to squeeze in a couple FREE RANGE RED's before my flight. That should help me sleep.

Not nervous yet, but I can feel the anxiety building. You know that little spot in the center of your chest that starts to feel heavy? It's getting heavier by the moment.

TOO MANY CITIES!