Whitney's working another overnight shift so I'm staying up and keeping her company but a lot of people are up with her right now (just returned from a pub) so I get to come check my e-mail and update.

I took a free walking tour of Edinburgh this morning. In Spanish. It began at 11, which is when I woke up. This was apparently just a bit too late for the English tour, but I figured I could get along with the Spanish one. Not quite. I always knew where we were and could get the idea of what the guide was telling us about various statues and buildings, but I didn't find her as amusing as the Spaniards did. And Spanish Spanish is irritatingly different from what I became used to in Peru. However, there was an English couple who had no clue what was being said but just wanted to be told what to photograph. At the chamber of commerce, we all had to back up so a car could pass by. In the backseat was an older couple wearing mayoral or parliamentary medallions. They pulled up at the central door and when the lady got out of the car, she came over to us and apologized for having forced us to move for the car. The English couple and I said, "Oh, that's just fine," but I don't think the Spaniards understood what she had said because they all responded with "Hello!"

I went to three small museums today, in which I played with round dice, rode a rocking horse, and saw Robert Louis Stevenson's copy of Montaigne's Complete Works in French. Whitney took me to a great coffee shop where we sipped lattes and played Battleship. Her friend Chris took me on a bit of a hike up a mountain and didn't laugh too much when I wouldn't step near the edge of the path.

The day's highlight may have been my 1 p.m. meal. It wasn't lunch, because I'd missed breakfast. Baked potatoes are a big thing here. They cover them with random things - chicken salad, cheese, prawn and pasta... It all sounded kind of gross, which may be why I had to try the lunch special: meatballs. The man behind the counter put a massive pat of butter on the potatoes and then covered them with spicy meatballs. It is actually an amazing combination. I'll definitely make it when I get home.

In other news, it's a rugby weekend. The Heineken Cup is on (I don't know what this is) and this weekend is a French holiday so the hostel is full of French men who are all keen to get drunk but to remain perfectly polite and respectful in the process.

Whitney wants to take me to the Brass Monkey tomorrow. This, I've been told, is a "delectable" pub that has a mattress-filled room.