If all goes right...

In the business, we call this a teaser....

So I'll be offline a few days up north, with the Loch Ness Monster, Scottish castles and I hear there are 1 or 2 distilleries. I don't believe the distillery part so I volunteered to check it out. I *should* have plenty of pics and stories since 12 of us are going up there and sharing a hostel like we're 18 year old Young Lifers.

Then after a few days of school work, I'll be off in Latvia for four days the following weekend. Why Latvia, you ask? Well, it nails a couple of the Boyer Rules of Travel.
1) If someone asks you to go someplace you've never even thought of going before, always say yes.
2) If you can go someplace for less than $150, and the rest of your life the same trip will cost $1000, say yes.
3) If you are thinking about going someplace ridiculous, take advantage of the opportunity if someone knows the language (in this case Russian).

The week after that is a lovely 5 day tour of Ireland, starting in Galway and slowly moving east to Dublin.

And if all goes according to plan, London after that.

So again, if all goes right, there should be some interesting stories and pics up here (and I've been quite frightened to learn people actually READ this thing. Yikes!!! The pressure!)

Now, a lot of things could go wrong. And since you know me, some of these are more realistic than others:
1) I could miss the bus in Loch Ness and be stranded in Northern Scotland.
2) I could be confused for a fugitive Chechnyan rebel in Latvia and get kidnapped.
3) My wallet / passport gets lost and I have no money or ID.
4) My Chinese travelling companions get confiscated in Latvia and I have to empty out my savings account to save them from a life of Eastern Europian prositution.
5) Since the Latvians don't actually like the Russians (a nice piece of information to have been told BEFORE booking tickets, and which by the way makes Boyer Travel rule #3 COMPLETELY MOOT), having the Russian guy on board could cause some kind of huge bar brawl, in which I have to gather all of my fighting skill, survey the situation, and run as quickly as I can, fleeing the city like a conflict out of a donut shop to hide in a tree for 3 days.
(Actually, as I think about this, Latvia seems a lot more dangerous than Scotland...)

Anyway, if you don't see a new post up here for a week or so, please get worried and start calling embassies. Since I have an 8 hour head start on you, you should see something up here your Sunday or latest Monday. If not, contact Haggis Tours in Scotland and come save me..........

Also for you UW guys, look for the next issue of the mBalmer soon...