Edinburgh, Scotland

5:15-11:00 p .m.

We are staying at the Royal Terrace hotel for 2 nights. It is in an old former mansion way up on the top of the hill. It is not close to the major attractions, so after the tour tomorrow of Edinburgh, when we are left to make our own way back from the castle, I plan on taking a cab. The streets are very winding and confusing, reminds me of San Francisco. The rooms are not air conditioned and only one window opens about 6 inches (faces the cobblestone street), but they were able to provide a fan for me. The room is tiny and cramped for 2 people. (I even had a claustrophobic attack after being in the room for 5 minutes, and had to go into the back garden to relax! I haven’t had one of those in over 20 years!) We are having to slide past each other a lot. After this city, I am going to sign up for my own room. It will cost me about $800 more, but I am tired of sharing space with a stranger. Besides my roommate has a habit of stating the obvious, or treating me like a kid, or hanging her wash everywhere every night! For our first night we regrouped to go have the much talked about Highland Dinner and Cabaret . Due to my roommate taking a lot of time in the bathroom, I didn’t have a chance to freshen up and change. So I was the only one in the group that hadn’t changed for dinner, and I even had an outfit that I wanted to wear. Oh well, I can still wear if in Ireland. We actually ate in the former stables of a mansion, that is now a hotel. The meal was very good. I ate a potato/cheese type soup, some type of beef with large chunks of carrot and another yellow-orange vegetable, and tried the lemon custard. The show began which has been ongoing for the past 37 years. Being that most of their business are people on tours, I would not recommend attending unless you like mediocre dancers (a couple of them even looked bored while performing), overreacting accordion player, and a female singer that was lack luster (who during intermission and at the end of the show, walked around trying to sell her Cds). All of the other people who went from my group (a few lucky ones stayed behind) enjoyed it. It seemed to cater towards an older crowd . Too showy for my taste. The only good part was when the band played along with a fiddler and a piper. Then it felt like I was hearing and watching an authentic Scottish performance. We have another dinner and show in Dublin, I may cancel my reservation for that. I want to see the real stuff, not the drawn out and tired looking performance that I saw tonight. Another dinner and show at a cheaper venue is scheduled for tomorrow, but I am not signed up for it. I want to explore the pubs tomorrow night. I am heading off to bed. Just had a slight argument with my roommate who was going to sleep on whether or not I needed the lights on to type; she felt that I did, and I said that I did not. The switch was near her and when I told her to go ahead and turn it off, she refused. I reiterated that I didn’t need them, she said you do too and turned over. So I went over and turned it off myself. She then started talking about typing without a light is bad, so I cut her off in mid sentence and said forcibly that I would be just fine! Boy is she getting on my nerves!