Sorry I couldn't post yesterday, but I was experiencing technical difficulties with my internet connection.  Before it cut out on me I got to Skype with Brad, Tyler and Shadow.  It was nice to see their faces!

Yesterday I made my way from the hostel to the subway to the train station.  I bought a train ticket to Edinburgh and jumped on the train with 5 minutes to spare.  I would have been better to wait half an hour for the next train though, as I ended up standing for the entire hour.  Oh well, I was standing across from some people from Edmonton, so we passed the time discussing the forest fire situation in central BC and Alberta.  Conclusion - the smoke is bad in both places.

Got off the train and found the hostel no problem, it's about a 15 minute walk.  I put my pack in a locker and headed back to the Mile to wander.  Edinburgh has such a different vibe than Glasgow, especially with the Fringe on.  Glasgow seemed more quiet and dignified, whereas Edinburgh has hundreds more tourists in the streets, different performances of street theatre every few feet and lots of people handing out flyers trying to get you to go to the shows.  I booked myself a tour for later in the afternoon at Real Mary King's Close, then walked back to the hostel to check in.  I've got a nice room and it was such a relief to be able to unpack and spread out a bit.  I walked back to the Mile for my tour.  It was an hour long and quite interesting, about the closes that have been blocked up by the surrounding buildings, but they still exist underground. We actually went down between 2 and 3 floors underground.  I walked back to the hostel, then on to the Tesco up the block.  They must have a theft problem, as they had two big east indian bouncers keeping an eye on everyone in the store.  Was going to eat, but the kitchen and dining room were overrun by French teenagers.  Went back up to my room and logged on to check my email, skype, textplus and facebook. Had a little FB conversation with Sarah, then my long skype with home.  Went back downstairs to have dinner around 8:30, but there was another round of French teenagers cooking and eating; I didn't want to wait so huddled in a corner to make dinner and eat.  Some of them were quiet, polite and cleaned up after themselves, and some were not and did not. Like teens everywhere I guess.  The ones who had to clean up after their friends who left were not impressed to say the least! When I came back to my room, I couldn't get on the internet, so I read a bit more then went to bed.

Today I got to Scotlands' People just after 10:00 and researched until 3:30.  Found lots of birth, marriage and death certificates and printed them off.  I walked over to the Tattoo ticket office to pick up my tickets.  Then back to the hostel to have an early dinner and try to avoid the French hoards.  Now I'm up in my room blogging for you.  I'll leave around 8 for the Tattoo,  which I'll write about tomorrow,  as it will be quite late when I get back.

The weather was a real mixed bag yesterday.  It was sunny and very hot on the train, but rained later in the afternoon.  Today is quite breezy,  mostly sunny, only spit rain for a couple of minutes this afternoon.