Chants, Drunks, and Fish, or Day 20 in St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Inverness

 We were up and at 'em all early this morning. We had to browse the golf stores (since Alex is a golfer, and after my fabulous round yesterday, I'm nearly there), then get our "cakes," as the cashier called them (read: donuts). We had either fifteen minutes or an hour and fifteen minutes to check out of our hostel and get to the bus stop, so we rushed and caught the bus back to Edinburgh.

Yesterday (and the day before), we were trying to figure out how best to get from St. Andrews to Inverness. It seemed the best way was via Edinburgh (again), so we had about an hour of deja vu (even eating apples again) before our 3.5 hour bus to Inverness.

I fell asleep half way through the trip, and when I woke up, we had gone through our stop in Perth and were fully in the Highlands of Scotland. There were sheep, and hills, and scrub, and maybe even a hill with some snow.

We got off at Inverness and trekked to our guesthouse on the opposite side of town. Dragging suitcases to somewhere unknown is never quite fun, but it is better than carrying them (and Alex has it in his head that we are too cheap and too healthy to take a cab or bus around towns... just means I'm tired every night).

We tried the doorbell before realizing there was a key inside the first doorway hanging up for us. We let ourselves in, ditched our stuff, and headed to the cemetery across the way.

We looked at the mostly Scottish last names, recalling people we knew with those last names. Upon exiting the cemetery from a different entrance, we were soon wet from the drizzle that started and a bit unknowing of our location, besides knowing the cemetery was remaining on our right. We made it back to be introduced to our host before the reception area closed. After some bad British tv ("My Super Sweet Sixteen UK"), we ventured out to forage.

After a few days of quick food and fruit, we treated ourselves to a sit-down meal at an Indian restaurant. Alex fed me a green hot pepper (and then he had to eat one in retribution).

So we were full, with no curfew, and quite a bit until the sunset, so what do we do? Go on a four mile (at least) hike.

Alex wanted to see where the Ness River met the firth, but then one thing led to another and we were by the Caledonian Canals, passing a fisherman, someone chanting, a railroad crossing, and a drunk guy asking for directions. And you are lucky I made it this far through the post, because my eyes feel like closing and not opening again, which isn't good for our 7:30 wake-up call (think monsters and battle cries for tomorrow).