On the train, as I hastily wrote my accounts of the previous few days, recommendations from Amanda Hosking came pouring in. She had visited Scotland in April and posted pictures that made me drool with jealousy and cringe excitedly with anticipation. I arrived in Inverness, wove through the streets to my hostel, dropped my bags and headed to the Tourist Information Center before they closed. Planning my travel without a car, I discovered that there were day trips to many of the places I wanted to see that started in Inverness. The friendly girl in the TI helped me narrow down the options of the variety of tours available and by 4:30 I was booked for a 3 hour tour to Loch Ness on Wednesday and a 10 hour tour to the Isle of Skye on Thursday. I crossed the street to browse Primark’s selection of jeans (mine had worn out so I left them to be donated in Barcelona) and I found these!
I didn’t buy those, but I did find one pair of dark jeans in my size for 7 pounds! Who needs Old Navy?
And there was Hootananny (one of Amanda’s recommendations)! After being in the big cities it was delightful to be in a smaller town with everything within a couple blocks. Typically I would look up where I was going from the hostel, take plenty of notes and pictures and then make my way from there. I couldn’t believe that where I wanted to go was literally 3 blocks from my hostel. I went back and took what could be called a shower under a trickle of water and headed back out to town.
That’s what they were called! If you recall, I had Haggis Neeps and Tatties in Edinburgh but couldn’t remember the funny names. Tonight I ordered the fish and chips. 
I read my book and overheard that the people next to me were also American and were waiting for the local music to start at 9:30. We got to chatting and by the end of the night we were friends and exchanged email addresses. Here I am with Sue and Charlie.
Here is the band sitting round the table playing the music that my dad plays in his Celtic band. I’ll post a video on Facebook.
