Whoa Nellie!

So I made it to Inverness the other day. But there are minimal places for internet around here so this is my first real post. It's a pretty town, though it is rather small. I did the river walk the first day which takes you down to the Ness Islands and across. It's appearing to be the end of fall through this area, and it's definitely starting to cool off quickly. I don't know that I'd call it cold yet, especially after a day like today.
Yesterday it was pouring rain, so I decided to put off my Loch Ness adventure in hope of better weather today-a gambit which paid off nicely. Instead I wandered around the town, starting in the library, getting Indian food for lunch, and then finding a used bookstore. I'm very disappointed in the libraries here. They undoubtedly leave much to be desired by way of size and selection, even in the bigger cities. I also can't tell if Indian food is just not that hot, or if my spicy tolerance is just that high these days. I ordered something supposedly hot, even told my waiter I was okay with hot, and I didn't even notice a tingle when I ate it. Very good, just not what I was expecting.
The bookstore though...Amazing! Biggest used bookstore in Scotland. I spent quite a bit of time there, perusing and finally came out with two books. Quite an accomplishment for me. I will now finally be reading shogun though. I'm saving it for the train right now though. I've just gone through too many books electronically, and can't afford to keep buying books that way. I will try to sell the ones I bought when I finish reading them and then proceed to locate another set. See if I can get a good cycle enabled. Plus this way I will hopefully find some more awesome bookshops.
This morning I headed to Urquhart Castle on the loch. And there I made some friends. A group of 5 kids from Duke studying in Glasgow were there at the same time, also agreed they weren't paying 7 pounds to get closer to the ruins, and we all walked the mile and a half back to Drumnadrochit together. Once there we lost half the boys to a group of cows (during which we learned the t9 for boys and cows is the same), wandered the side streets and a little wooded area for awhile, before settling in at a cafe to wait for our bus back to Inverness. It was a lot of fun to have people to hang out with for the afternoon. And they said I could stay with them in Glasgow if I head back that direction at all, which I may well with how awesome it was. All in all it was a productive day. Especially since I saw both Nellie and Nessie (pictures to come). In the end, we decided having to walk through the Scottish highlands is really no difficulty, and that had been the right way to go about the trip.