Best Western Burnett Arms Hotel Banchory

... a crapload of work. And I'm also trying to find one of those "job" things so I can get some extra £ for travelling purposes. So no real time for immediate fun, grrr. But I'm hoping at some point I'll be able to do a bit of mountaineering, and also planning on heading down to Glasgow and Edinburgh sometime. There's a couple other Travelpodians scattered around somewhere too, but I think it's ...

Well I have finally begun my journey!!! It seemed like it would never actually happen, but as I boarded that plane reality began to sink in....As we all know, i have no idea when Ill be home, where ill go next, what Ill see or who Ill be spending time with....which makes it so much more exciting for me. Now i have only been here for half a day and have yet to settle, but once that ...

... in a 30 ltr something backpack. The photo here is what I've settled on so far plus the camera (minus the router of course). One really important item i realized i've forgotten till today is toilet paper.Thats in the red and white plastic bag so easy for me to find in case of emergency. The string if you're wondering is in case I need to wash my own clothes so at least I have something to hang the clothes from. Also a mini french dictionary for Syria ...

... I'll be back in Tucson by 8:35 p.m. I've drawn some conclusions from my trip to Scotland. First, it's not as foreign as I expected. Once you get over the accent and the fact that they drive on the other side of the road here, it's easy to forget that you're abroad. The day-to-day life seems very similar to that in any town of a similar size in the U.S.

Even so, there are a few things I've liked about Aberdeen ...

... serious doubts about our journey's future, we stopped in at Sandy's Fish and Chips for a pretty average lunch in one of the cleanest diners I've ever seen.

The rain did not let up, so we caught a taxi back to the train station and headed back into Aberdeen. I will try this journey again, though, since the castle is supposed to be amazing, and it's right on the North Sea.

Back ...

... exciting, but, as they say, when in Rome . . .

Things picked up as the evening wore on, and I ended my night at Cheerz, Aberdeen's gay bar and club. I took in a drag queen contest over a pint of Foster's, and even joined a conga line around the block. I called it a night after they played The Proclaimers' "500 Miles," as what evening is not complete at that point?

A warning up front: this is not an adventure blog. If you're looking for crazy black-market money exchanges or spelunking, stop reading now and visit Sarah's and Vanessa's reports from Venezuela and Colombia. I think I can offer (slightly) more pictures than they can, however.

Yesterday I visited the St. Nicholas Kirkyard here in Aberdeen. It's a beautiful place, saturated in green, and dense with headstones and table stones. The classic, mystical ...

I left Tucson at around noon on Aug. 17, when the sun was high, and the temperature was starting to climb into the hundreds. Just short of 24 hours later, I arrived in Aberdeen to a temperature in the sixties and an overcast sky that spit occasional droplets of something called rain. Those of you who have suffered thru my laments about missing winter this year on account of my trip to Africa will guess that I'm really loving this weather ...

... stopped in Kirkcaldy for a coffee and some very yummy pancakses and apple pie. Then headed on to St. Andrews (Famous for the Golf Open and Tiger Woods) via the St Monans trail …..passed a lot of castles, churches and ruins. Had some lovely views over the Firth of Forth/ Firth of Tay.

Drove through Dundee and kept north on the A90 and then the B974.

Stopped for ...

... at all (you can read about the history of the castle in our pod from our last visit entitled Linn of Dee). The magnificent seascape and craggy rocks can be viewed from almost every angle from every room in the castle and the setting is just wild. There's a chapel and also an eerie, gloomy dungeon / cellar where in 1685 a group of 167 Covenanters were held without food or sanitation for 2 months for the 'crime' of refusing to acknowledge the King's supremacy in spiritual matters. 20 ...