The next morning we got up and had breakfast. On the road, we stopped at a few places to see the view. We finally stopped at Inverness (so, logically, at the mouth of the river Ness) and we had some free time. I went with Jessica and Kory to a secondhand bookstore and found a book about the Five by Enid Blyton (a series I read the first time I went to India...you canīt find them in American libraries or normal bookstores). Also bought some souvenirs cause I love Scotland. Then we drove to Culloden Moor, site of the last battle on British soil, in 1746. Between the English and the Scottish under Bonnie Prince Charlie. The battle was only about 17 minutes long and the Scottish were pretty much wiped out. They say there were representatives from all the clans of Scotland there. It turned out to be the anniversary of the actual battle when we were there, so we walked through the battlegrounds and took pictures. Next we went to Clava Cairns, the site of 3 cairns (rock piles) that are said to have some mystical meaning, like Stonehenge (although Kenny boasted that unlike Stonehenge, these had not been reassembled). They were pretty cool, even if you donīt believe in the supernatural and stuff like that. We also stopped at the bridge that inspired the guy who wrote Peter Pan to write Brigadoon, about a village that appears for 24 hours every 100 years. After that we drove back through Inverness and headed to Loch Ness, stopping to take photos. We saw the Leskin House on the opposite shore, apparently the most haunted house in the world. We also came to Urquhart Castle, the only castle on Loch Ness. A fire burned the interior, so all thatīs really left are the walls. Kenny said it wasnīt worth it to pay 5 pounds to go in and that the attendants there were like fee nazis, so (though he had received a written warning not to do this again), he drove into the parking lot, everyone ran out and took a quick picture of the castle, and then ran back in again and he sped away before the attendants could come or write down his license plate. I chose not to get involved with this because the bus is too small for running off and on and anyway I have enough pictures of castles. Kenny took us to the Official Loch Ness Visitors Centre for "the only cheesy touristy thing weīre doing this trip" and let us spend some time getting lame souvenirs and taking pictures with the big fiberglass Nessie statue. We stopped next to the locks (that connect the Caledonian Canal together, remember) and waited for the other tour group that was stopping in Loch Ness that night to arrive. Some of us went to see a "reenactment" of daily life in the Highlands...basically we watched a very recently-made video in a small room decorated like the inside of a typical Highlander hut. Stuart (our host in the first hostel) was in the video, which had a whole bunch of choreographed battle scenes...kind of funny, actually. After the video, the guide dressed David up in the highlander outfit and passed around items from the video, like a real highland gun, a forearm shield (the targe), a canteen, and a coat made of rough cloth. Dinner at the hostel (Moragīs Lodge), which our tour company (Haggis) owns (i.e. drinking is completely allowed) was so great: chili, mashed potatoes with real sour cream, garlic bread...good times. After that we went out on the Loch in a boat that Kennyīs friend Ricky owns (apparently he is a world-renowned marine biologist and is the smartest guy Kennyīs ever met). Ricky explained sonar to us and showed us data that he said confirmed the existence of the monster. In fact, there are 18 monsters in the lake, which is so large and deep that apparently the worldīs population would fit into it many times (Iīm not sure how that works) He didnīt have pictures of the things to show us, just charts and graphs ("see how it spikes right there? thatīs the monster!") And apparently all this stuff has been confirmed by NASA and some institute in Geneva, Switzerland as well. Of course, he thinks that they are mammals with reptilian characteristics that weight more than 2 tons, have capillaries all over their skin surface for breathing, reproduce asexually, and use electromagnetic fields to control water pressure so they can dive quickly. I donīt know anything about marine biology, but that sounds a little bizarre to me. He said they have photos of seeing a hump break the surface but that they wonīt be released till he secures protection for the monsters. Heīs of the mind that none of his info will get out till heīs sure that people wonīt descend on the lake to capture the things and put them in zoos or kill them to study them. Later four of us got into a debate about that. Back in the hotel, I happened upon some people watching Braveheart, which (I know, I know) I had never seen, so I sat down in the middle and finished the movie. Now I kinda want to see how it starts ;). In the bar, I ordered a single-malt whiskey (Glenmorangie) cause my dad said I had to do that once. Kenny pretty much forbade us from putting anything in a single-malt whiskey other than at most a little room temperature water. Ice equals sacrilege. Anyway, it burned and I donīt think Iīll become a huge whiskey connoisseur. At least I got to do the traditional Scottish toast with Kenny: you say "slainge" (SLAHN-ja) and you have to make eye contact with the person or itīs 7 years bad sex. It was funny looking around the bar and seeing the two American girls quietly playing Yahtzee while the New Zealanders and Australians were dancing on the tables. Since I was standing near the jukebox, they chanted my name to get me to play something, so I chose Under the Boardwalk and Downtown, which I know are not very up-tempo, but they knew the chorus and they were drunk enough to dance to anything. Now, during the bus ride, Kenny had mentioned that in the past, his tour groups have gone skinny dipping in Loch Ness at midnight. Most of the group thought that sounded pretty cool. (the time got moved back an hour after they found out the hostel bar closed at 1 am). I was on the fence for a while. Upstairs, I ran into Karen and Wade, who wanted to recruit me to help steal clothes, but once they figured out that they would probably get thrown into the loch if they did that, they decided not to. Well, everyone has to be crazy some time in his life, right? I got my towel, put on my sandals, and joined the group, which now included just the 5 New Zealanders and Bret. Along the way to the loch, we lost Bret somewhere. The New Zealanders were pretty drunk by now (Rowan could barely walk straight) and were amazed that I was coming along sober. We finally got down to the waterīs edge and G ran straight in and stood there in the water yelling for us to hurry up. David and Rowan went in too. Now or never. I took off my clothes very quickly and ran in (as well as I could with the slippery rocks...should have kept the sandals on) The water was very cold, but not so bad once you got used to it. We were only in there a few minutes before we got back out and put our clothes on (since I was sober, I actually found mine right away). Back in the hostel, the hall shower was not working, so G and Sarah invited me to use theirs. So I did, luckily being quiet enough not to wake an entire room of sleeping girls. Got to bed about 2:30 AM. And thatīs how my first time ever to skinny-dip happened in Loch Ness, Scotland, with 5 students from New Zealand.

The next day was sadly our last one. I fell out of bed trying to get down the ladder, but I fell on my soft backpack. Still, that woke up the New Zealanders...all 5 of them (yes, once again G was in bed with Sam and now Sarah with David). At breakfast, Wade and Karen said they had a surprise. On the bus, Wade got the microphone and announced a two-question lightning round of I Never. "I never broke into the Haggis bus last night and had sex." Kate and Chad stood up. "I never hooked up on this tour." Kory and Andrew stood up (they didnīt have sex, though we all saw the condom lying on the floor one couch over from the one they were on last night). He also announced that he and Karen (with Bretīs help) had taken video and pictures of "5 Kiwis and an American skinny dipping" and would send them all to us if we wrote our emails down on a piece of paper going around. There were only 5 Kiwis on the tour, but everyone asked who the American was, so I stood up. The whole bus clapped. We drove towards Edinburgh for the rest of the day, and I was tired, so I slept and missed some more good stories. We passed the distillery for Dalwhinnie whisky, the mildest of the single-malts. (The strongest is from Lagauvulin, where George Orwell, author of 1984 and Animal Farm, is from). We also passed the river Tay, with the best wild salmon fishing (costs 1000 pounds per day to fish there, according to Kenny), and Birnam Wood, the trees that had to move before Macbeth would be defeated (or something like that, Iīve never read it.) We also drove through the area where Beatrix Potter used to write and near the hometown (Dunfermline?) of Ian Fleming (author of James Bond) and Dunbar, the hometown of John Muir, the naturalist who founded Muir Woods and Yosemite National Park. We also passed the Cairngorm mountains and Kennyīs favorite loch ever, Loch Morlich. He pointed out Dremochter Pass, the highest road in the Isles. The last place we stopped was The Hermitage, where the 5th Duke of something Athil had a botany preserve. We visited his hut where, while his wife looked after his 13 legitimate children, he fathered 27 more. It was just a changing room and a bedroom, which used to have a mirrored ceiling that reflected the river running nearby. It was really pretty. The place also had the tallest tree in Britain. After that, it was Scottish Pride time, with Kenny telling us why Scotland was the best place ever in the limited time we had left: more inventors per capita than any other country; would be the 5th richest from their oil revenue if they didnīt have to send it to England first; Scots invented the TV, the telephone, the internal combustion engine, Morse code, the plough, tarmac, Dunlop tires, the refrigerator. (Wade thought it was funny because the Irish tour he went on ended the same way.) Finally, we reentered Edinburgh. Three cheers for Kenny and we all went on our way. I had a few hours to kill, so I walked around the city (running into Angela and Renee twice) and ate dinner at a Thai restaurant, where my waiter, Roberto, was from Spain, so we talked for a while. (5th person to tell me I speak well!) He said there are thousands of Spanish people just in Edinburgh. Passed a fire juggling and drum show in the street. How lucky that I was in Edinburgh during its Science Festival and its Jazz Festival, but the lecture I tried to go to was sold out and I couldnīt find the bar where the concert I wanted to see was being performed, so oh well. At last, I caught the 10:00 PM bus back to London, and that was the end of my Scotland trip. I had a great time, wish I had met more locals, but maybe when I live there permanently I will be able to ;)

Spent the day with the family back in London eating, watching TV, and playing ping-pong. We went to Hampton Court but the hedge maze wasnīt free, so we sat in the garden. Played a mini Easter-egg hunt with the three young kids back home and introduced them to the card game Set, which they really liked. The next morning I got up late and watched TV (I watched the snooker championships for about 45 minutes and still didnīt get it). At about 6:00 PM we left so I could get to the airport (they were planning on going to Crete themselves later that evening, for a whole week). It was starting to rain and was very windy. Strangely enough, all three times I have been in the UK, the weather was great until I was leaving, lucky me. Got into Madrid at about 10:30, the guards didnīt even check the validity of the visa. I figured Iīd change my Scottish/English money back into euros, but a whole group of (I think) Californians had gotten in line ahead of me, the one guy handling the change was slow, and all of them had travelerīs checks (which, let me tell you, no shopkeeper will accept), so it was taking even longer. When I finally got to the window, my money came out to €86,90. He had €86,50...then he broke out the 1-cent pieces. Oh yes, and he didnīt even have enough...we were 2 cents short, so he gets up to look for more and I said, no, no, thatīs fine. So now I have 38 completely useless 1-cent pieces (about the size of a US dime) and British change that he wouldnīt accept. Still, a great trip all in all.