We arrived at Edinburgh airport, got our bags, and took a bus to the city center (basically downtown Edinburgh). We then took a cab to the Flockhart’s house, where a barbeque was taking place. Becky and I were travel weary, and tired after staying up for over 24 consecutive hours at this point, but we decided to try our best to stay up and hang out at the barbeque, rather than fall asleep somewhere.

It only took about 10 minutes for me to crack my first beer! Being that I was on vacation in Europe, a mecca for exotic and distinct libations, I figured that I would have an opportunity to enjoy a great brew. Perhaps something local, or at the very least European.

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I set off for Scotland starting at noon central standard time on Saturday, August 5th. My travel partner was Becky, whom I mentioned in a previous posting. In order to get to Edinburgh, I needed to take a total of 3 planes, and the entire trip was supposed to take around 16 hours. Of course, that 16 hour mark was purely in theory, as this number is almost unattainable to achieve.

In my case, I pretty much knew that the trip would take significantly longer than expected, because when I checked my baggage, I was told that my flight from Minneapolis to Detroit was delayed!

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I’m heading out of town for Scotland today, and I should be arriving in Edinburgh on Sunday.  I’m not sure when I’ll have an Internet connection, so I can’t tell you when I’ll post next.  However, I can tell you that I plan on posting frequently while I’m there, so keep on reading!

Also, I shaved my facial hair after 7 days, and it was very uneventful.  It looked pretty much the same as it did when I posted about it the other day.

Talk to you soon!

Within the next few days, my friend Molly Walsh will be leaving to go to medical school on an island called Dominica. She will be gone from the US for a long time, and I’m not sure when I’ll see her next. There was a going away party for her in Chicago last weekend, but I was unable to attend. So, I’m going to send Molly off in the only way I really know how: I am going to write about her.

For those of you who don’t know Molly, she’s a good friend of mine from college who came to the Twin Cities from Chicago and ended up moving back to Chicago after college. She’s a really smart and fun girl, and I’ve spent many a good time hanging out and partying with her both during and after the college experience. In addition to being smart and fun, Molly is also a little crazy. Not crazy in a “burning down her ex-boyfriend’s apartment complex” type of way, but rather “this girl is so much fun that it’s crazy”.

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I guess it’s something that’s out of my control, but I just thought I’d let you all know that I pretty much can’t grow facial hair. Well, I guess that’s not fully true. I can grow hair on my face, but it’s not very visible. I’m writing this post right now because I am at the peak of my most unshaven point in my adult life. Yes, I haven’t shaven for 5 days.

This is the longest that I have gone without shaving since I’ve been an adult, although I’m sure that you probably wouldn’t notice, even after looking at the picture on the right hand side of your screen. This picture was taken today, right before I started writing this post, and it is the inspiration for my rant. The last time that I shaved was on Saturday. Today is Wednesday, and this is all the facial hair growth that I could muster. That’s 5 days of unadulterated growth, and I still look like a man envious of a 13 year old Mexican boy!

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I just put on a shirt today that I haven’t worn in a long time. In fact, I’ve probably only worn it twice in my life. It is an Old Chicago Spring Mini-Tour t-shirt from 2005. Here’s a shot of me wearing the shirt that I took on my webcam. For some reason my webcam takes really crappy still pictures, but good videos. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Anyway, so I put the shirt on and noticed the smell of cilantro shortly thereafter. I thought maybe it was just something that I smelled in passing, but the smell lingered for the next 5-10 minutes. Finally, I decided to smell my shirt to see if it was the culprit, and sure enough; my shirt smells like cilantro.

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In case you didn’t know, I’m going to Edinburgh, Scotland this Saturday, August 5th. Well, I’m leaving on Saturday and with travel time/time zone differences, I’ll be arriving Sunday. I’ll be back on August 17th, giving me around 10-11 days of time to enjoy myself.

I’m traveling to Scotland to meet up with my friend Krime Dogg (real name Ed Kramer), who is visiting Scotland to attend a wedding. He told me that I should come along with him, and that he’d have a place for us to stay. That was all I needed to hear. I figured that I’ll probably never have a chance like this (to travel to Scotland and stay for free with people who are native to the country), and that it would be great to have the opportunity to see Scotland from the eyes of people who live there, rather than as a tourist. Granted, I’ll still very much be a tourist, but at least I will have somewhat of an insider presence as well.

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