Scotland!
First off I need to say Happy Birthday to Rachel! 
Today is the her birthday and we’re about to throw her a surprise party. Hopefully she doesn’t check her email in the next twenty minutes haha.
Secondly I’ve been really enjoying Scotland. Edinburgh is a fantastic city with plenty to do and lots of fun people. We’re staying in a pretty dumpy hostel with a heck of a lot of character. All the travelers that stay here are really interesting and fun to hang out with. Plenty of Polish are moving to Scotland for work as well. That makes the majority of visitors Polish and Australian. Pretty snazzy.
Our friend Alan has been taking good care of us as well with pub quizzes, amazing food, and all around good company.
I’ve climbed Arthur’s Seat twice now since being here. It’s a great climb to the top of a huge hill (a mini mountain on Wisconsin’s standards) that looks out over the entire city and the sea. You can see for miles from up there! It’s also so windy that it pushes you around if you’re not ready for it.
Heather decided to come visit from Athens so we rented a car and took a drive through the Highlands! It was one of the most amazing parts of the trip as far as scenery goes. I felt like I was driving through endless sets for Lord of The Rings. We seiged Doune Castle (Monty Python) as well as a few other less known ones. I even twisted my ankle Aragorn style while we ran towards a crumbled castle as well.
If you want to see sheep, this is the place to do it! They are little white puffs of sheep all over the landscapes as well as in the middle of the road! Once you get out of the major cities, driving goes down to a SINGLE LANE. Not one in each way, but one. Period. There are small little bubbles at some points to quick pull over into while playing chicken with the oncoming traffic. I was a little nervous at first because we had a rental car, but I quickly got the hang of it and cruized through the countryside without any issues… As for the rental car… despite all the danger of hitting sheep and dodging oncoming traffic, a slow speed backing out of a driveway introduced a hard to see stone bridge wall to the back bumper. hehe. Ooops! The guy at Hertz said he’d just write it up as if it was there before. Awesome!
I also had a chance to go to “T In The Park” (www.tinthepark.com) on Saturday which let me see a ton of awesome bands! Thanks Nat for the wristband! I saw Duels, El Presidente, The Kooks, Seth Lakeman, Xavier Rudd, The Feeling, Kaiser Cheifs, Placebo, Franz Ferdinand, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Sigur Ros all in one whopping 12 hour day. It’s hard to explain how amazing some of these acts were. My feet and back were killing me and I was soaked to the bone by the end as it was gently raining the whole time (perfect Scottish weather). It was so worth it though! Sigur Ros was absolutely stunning in concert!
Well I have to run, time to surprise Rachel. I hope you’re all doing well! Sorry it’s been so long since an update.