London is still an awesome town. Every time I come here, I’m amazed at how easy it is to be entertained simply by walking around. I got in last night and met up with my friend Zak from my grade school years here in the UK. Without hesitation, we went out for a pint and it was great to have a seat and catch up. I hadn’t seen Zak in years, so it was about time we hung out.

Today, I woke up rather leisurely and headed out on the town. I took the Tube down to Russel Square, wandered around my sister’s old haunts and made my way over to Tottenham Court Rd to browse the windows of all the electronics shops. After that, I went over to Covent Garden (cause what’s a walk around London without a visit there). There’s always tons going on around the shops there, and I spent an hour or so just hanging out and shooting photos.

All in all, it was a rather cathartic day. To think the most relaxing day I’ve had so far was in London! It really has been nice being down here, though. If you’ve never done the London thing, well, you have to do it at least once. It’s a helluva neat place. But bring a few wallets, because it ain’t cheap here.

• This Scotsman was doing a rather lousy job of guarding the national secret.

Today was amazing, horrifying, exhausting in ways I’d never thought possible, and completely sopping wet. Since we’d been a bit theatered out with all the Fringe shows, Tawny, Chris (her boyfriend) and I thought we’d all head up north of Perth to a wee town called Pitlochry. We bought train tickets and headed up this morning at around 9am. The idea behind this trip was to go for a nice hill walk. Well, it was hardly walking weather by the time we pulled into the station. It was warm enough, but it was absolutely pouring down rain. I knew to bring a range of clothing with me on my trip, but I didn’t pack the Northface. Probably should have, now that I think about it.

But, no bit of rain was going to stop an Englishman and two Oregonians. So, we grabbed a quick meat pie and coffee at a shop, put in a 50p deposit at the hostel for a walking map and set off. The goal of the hike was a little peak called Ben Vrackie. I wasn’t in charge of planning or map holding, so I really had no clue what we were setting out for. I can assure you I didn’t notice the elevation contour lines on the map when I grabbed a quick glance at it.

Well, it turns out Ben Vrackie is quite a bit of a challenge. At least for me. All in all, we climbed up 640m (2100′) over the course of 8km (5mi). The path was great with nicely laid stones to step your way up. The severe drawback was that it was no slight incline. Much of the route was about as vertical as a steep staircase, but it just went on and on and on. And, thanks to Mr. Rain, it kept us nice and damp the whole way. The clouds were, as you might imagine in a dreary Scottish scene, thick around us. Visibility was close to nil and it kept us oblivious to how far up we had left to climb.

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To put it so bluntly. But, it really is quite the amazing place. Granted, I’m here when the Fringe Festival (see photo above) is in full swing, and the weather is cooperating. About this festival. It’s an annual deal that features about 2,000 different shows – many of which are comedies. That’s a lot of shows. And there are no entry requirements, so there’s all sorts of stuff out there. You pretty much venue hop all day seeing all sorts of sometimes brilliant, always random things. Like the gals above. They were street Opera performers. Quite good too. It’s hard to explain the absurdity and brilliance of the whole thing (especially at 2 in the morning). So, I’ll leave it with a simple, “I’m having an amazing time,” and I’ll fill you in on the particulars later. Until then, peace.

I’m writing this partly for the fun of “posting from the field” (which, in this case, is the ever lovable Cincinnati airport), and also partly because I’m bored out of my noodle. I left Miami at around noon and got here, probably, around 2pm. But, the London flight doesn’t leave until 8pm. I’m a pretty easily amused individual, but 6 hours at this airport is a bit of a stretch.

Oh, there was one spot of entertainment – if you want to call it that. I walked into the mens room and there was an airport worker standing in front of the mirror with his pants around his ankles showing off his tighty-whities. I presume he was “realigning”, but that hardly excuses his method. There is a reason why they invented stalls with doors, after all. It was a bit of an unwelcome sight, and I’ll leave it at that.

Right, ya’lls, I’m going to lounge around and twiddle my thumbs a bit more.

Well, my friends, this is it. I’m off to Edinburgh, London and Bergen today. It’s been fun putting this trip together and I’m excited to finally see what it all adds up to. Plus, I’m dying to get out of the Miami weather for a few days. This kid wasn’t built for this kind of heat. Scotland and Norway sound perfect. I’ll check in later.

TTFN!

Jenny leaves today on her round the world voyage that’ll take her to Thailand, India, Germany, and who knows where else. She won’t be back in the States until August…so this’ll be a huge epic voyage. To keep us all up to speed, though, she’s put up a site where she’ll post her travel stories. You can find it at Travel Jenny.

Bye Jenny! Can’t wait to hear all about the things you see!

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The gods of cheap travel have smiled on me and shown me a fare to London for less than a couple drinks at a Miami nightclub. I’ve been accumulating my air miles on Delta for several years now (the last time I redeemed any of those was for my flight to Hong Kong in ‘98…so, essentially, last century). Finally I found a way to use them.

So, I have the shell of the trip all planned out. I fly out of Miami on August 7th, hit up Cincinnati just for kicks and make it to Gatwick on the 8th. From there, I’ll probably shoot straight up to Edinburgh to visit my dear friend Tawny for a few days. I hear there’s also a festival going on then too. Yippee.

Then, back to London to go hang with my dear friend Zak, with whom I went to school when I lived in Malmesbury all those years ago. He’s in the photog business, so I’m excited to catch up with him and hear about all he’s been up to.

From there, off to the land of the Norsks (not sure if that’s an appropriate term of not). My dear friend Ragnhild lives in Bergen, on the western coast of Norway. She was my number one hang-out buddy when she did her high school exchange at Lincoln in Portland many years back. We’ve been fortunate to see each other off an on since then, but it’s been about a year. Plus, I’ve never been to Norway before. It’s going to be tremendously exciting seeing a new country.

So, all of that for 120 bones (plus the hundreds it will cost just even thinking about buying a sandwhich in London).

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So, I took Jenny to the airport this morning. Sigh. So sad to say goodbye to one of my best friends. It was so great having her help me get from P-town to here, and we had an awesome time along the way. Jenny, I wish you the best on the rest of your trip, your subsequent gallivant across the world and everything you do until I see you next.

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Hey all. I’ve edited all the photos and updated the gallery. You should go check it out and see what’s there. Peace!

We made it, and have by now completely perfected our collective sigh of relief. The two of us are completely beat after nearly 3800 miles (I’ll have an official tally at some point soon). We drove from just south of Jacksonville to Miami by 2pm, I checked out a potential living situation (short description: looks perfect) and we unloaded the truck at a storage facility. By 8 we were back, and now we’re going to wash up…’cause all that movin can be some dirty work. I’m tired of the grease stains on my jeans (though I do know that might be chic in some cultures). I’m ready to get all the road miles washed away and get ready to do what you do in Miami: a night out in Coconut Grove. So, I’ll check in when the subsequent hangover subsides. From Miami, this is Elliott and Jenny.