The internet's not free???

"What?" You might exclaim, upon reading the title of this post. "You have to pay for internet?" Yes, my dear, disillusioned readers. I discovered this upon leaving our happy little London sanctuary. Every hostel we've been in since-with the exception of this, dear readers, but I'll come back to here- has required substantial tolls in order to enter the information highway.

Like that pun, didja?

So here I am, about a week after our last post, sitting in this little spot of wireless bliss. What have we been up to? you may next ask. Quite a bit, I would have to reply. Lets see. We've been to 5 cities, a couple of castles, and way too many buses. We started out last Sunday at Stirling, a little city about an hour outside of Edinburgh that is famous for a prolific amount of William Wallace statuary and pieces of historical importance. Unfortunately, as we'd spent about 8 hours that day on a bus, we did not get to enjoy much of what this city had to offer. We did have some pizza-hut worthy pizza and managed to find what amounted to a new york style family restaurant. It was a pretty place, though. I have some nice pictures. (PS: Ask me sometime about the Smelly Naked European guy)

Then it was off to Edinburgh! Our hostel in Edinburgh was AWESOME. Do you know why I felt the need to use gratuitous caps in that sentence? Because we slept in a church. That's right, four nights in a bloody church. I could see the arched, darkly wooden ceiling from my bed. Our room's walls were attached to pillars. For Christ's sake, there was a stained glass window next to my bed! So yeah, pretty cool.

Had some fun adventures in Edinburgh. Saw the castle, for one, which was really spectacular. The royal mile was also wonderful, full of touristy goodness. I bought a blanket, because it seemed to be the thing to do. We also saw a couple of good museums, including the museum of childhood, which was filled with creepy staring dolls. Allie scared the crap out of me in there. I swear to god, those fuckers moved! In addition to Chuckie-worthy levels of creep, we also stumbled upon the queen's palace in Edinburgh, in which she spends one week every summer. That was cool. As was the interesting high walks we found when wandering off the beaten path. Over all, Edinburgh was pretty damn awesome. If you're ever there definitely go to the National museum of Scotland, it was filled with prehistoric and ancient Scottish stuff like enigmatic Pict-symbols and armor and bones from warrior times. I, typically, liked all the gold and jewelry the chieftains wore to display their power. I love gold. If I lived a couple hundred years ago (and was a man) I would definitely have been one of those pillaging bastards you read about who sets houses on fire and destroys entire cultures in pursuit of gold. Good thing I live in the modern age. Being a woman? Also good.

((Though really, how does one tell if one is a girl or a woman yet? (boys, you may replace that with "boy" and "man"). In Judaism it's thirteen, the age of the bar/bat mitzvah. Load of crap. According to our laws, it's 18, though some might argue that its only at 21, because that's when you receive the right to drink. Some would say its the first time you have sex, again, a load of crap. Too many stupid 12 year olds running around pregnant for that to happen. So far, none of these universal standards I've heard really hold any water with me. I'm going to go ahead and say it's probably subjective, that some become men at 15 and others never do. (girls, see above parentheticals).))

Speaking of Edinburgh: Allie and I are chillin' in our room, gellin' like the felon's we are. The scene is late evening, not yet time for sleep but edging closer. It is also important to add that at this point we are by ourselves in the room. Then! The door opens. In comes this middle aged guy with a bald spot and flat feet. So what does he do? Of course he tries to get into the top bunk in the bed next to ours. However, as he is old and there are no ladders on his bed, this proves to be rather difficult. He then proceeds to hold on to my bed (top bunk), shaking both our bunks and creating a lot of noise, in his attempt to get up to his. This takes about 10 minutes of obnoxious shaking. Added to that, how incredibly awkward! I'm trying to be all cool, because hey, this is part of the adventure. And it makes a fun story. But still, being two fragile young innocent girls (*snicker*) in a room with just a middle aged man (a weirdo, at that!) makes one a little nervous. Luckily the walls were only head high, so there really was no danger. Awkward as hell, though, especially the next morning, when the fucker woke us up with more shaking as he could not get out of his bed. Finally I had to get up and help him. It was not that difficult. Come on, man! Pull yourself together! So that was Belford. Did I mention it was also very cheap? and about a mile or two away from anything. I liked it a lot.

So after that? Glasgow. Glasgow is boring. Don't go there.

Then Inverness! Only spent the night, didn't see much of the city, but we DID go to Loch Ness and Urquhart castle. Can I just say wow? It was like a paranormal pilgrimage. Didn't see Nessie, sadly, but the lake was fantastic and now I can say that yes, I HAVE been to Loch Ness. The castle was cool, too, though a little hard to navigate with my gigantor backpacking backpack. Especially the narrow castle stairs. Really, though, the loch was breathtaking. It's so big that you can hardly imagine it's a lake. The mountains ring it, and halfway through the day the sun came out, making a bluer sky than I've ever seen. Also, the food in the cafe was really good, if a little pricey.

Then on to our last destination so far, where I am sitting right now: the Isle of Skye. Kyleakin, to be exact. I could imagine no place on earth more perfect. The bus ride up here was filled with the stark beauty of the highlands, and each bend of the road took my breath away. The hills- hard to believe that they are not mountains. They're covered in scrub and brush and rock, and after awhile the sheep fade away and you're just left with the mountains. And the lochs, of course, winding their way in the valleys between. There was snow crowning many of them, even this late in the year. Then we got here and I was so glad that Allie had stubbornly insisted we come up here.

This place is-wow. Just incredible. We're surrounded by "hills" and the ocean is right at our feet. I can see it from the hostel. We're staying in a little trailer behind the hostel, and it is just perfect. I can hear the wind and the water at night, and it is so incredibly peaceful! The hostel is absolutely perfect, too. It's incredibly homey and beautifully and cleverly decorated, with paper lanterns and fun little posters and pictures decorating the walls. Did I mention the free hot chocolate, tea, and coffee? And there's a cat. The owner is this tiny sprite looking woman who seems to have boundless energy and is so incredibly friendly. I'm very happy here. This morning I took a long walk out along the water and behind the houses. I found the path to the castle ruins, which stand like a sentinel against the landscape. It was quiet and peaceful, the only noises coming from the fisherman's radio across the water and the crying of the seagulls. Oh, and the lap of the water against the rocky shore. That was nice. Overall this place is tiny but absolutely perfect. We'll do some hiking today. We bought picnic materials! And did I mention there is a pub next door, with live music? Yes there is. And when I say next door, I mean literally. This place is tiny, with only a few B&B's and two or three restaurant cafes. Perfectly peaceful.

I'll let you all know how things go along, now that we have unlimited internet access. A very long post, dear ones, but as most of you readers exist only in my head, I think that's okay.

Peace out.
-H