I’m currently in a car driving from Tobemory to Fionnphort, to catch a ferry over to Mull – much to the locals disreccomendation, apparently it’s quite the tourist attraction.
In Oban, I met a german couple, Stefan and Sabine. I’ve been traveling around Mull with them which has been great. Stefan turns out to be a Subversion and OpenBSD developer, small world!
We are going to stay here another night, we’re at the Rockcliff B&B in Tobemory with the great hosts Donna and Pattrick, an English couple.
Here’s a picture of the coastal scenery!
Edinburgh has been great fun, it’s a really interesting city and has a lot going on. It’s the second largest city in the United Kingdom after London, but all of the neighborhoods make it feel like a small city when you’re walking around. The history here is fantastic, and I’ve really enjoyed learning about what I can while I’m here – it’s all new to me and there’s lots to take in!
My stay at the Abbey Hotel was good, it’s up a hill a bit but it’s centrally located between the old and new towns of Edinburgh.
I met some great people while I was here, Jim, a fellow from Musselburgh was very kind and invited me to come along with him and two of his other friends last night to The Stand Comedy Club – that was great fun, stand up comedians from Scotland and Ireland – a real local treat! Thanks to Jim and Steven for showing me around, and I’m afraid I don’t remember the other fellows name – but thanks!
My train from Barcelona took me to Montpellier, France – from 8:45 to 13:30 or so. Once I was at Montpellier, I had to figure out how to get to Arles – it’s a stop on the train to Marseille, so that seemed easy enough.
Montpellier is a fairly small town, but it was incredibly busy – it’s a university town, and at the time it was chocked full of students and their parents it seemed. I asked at the information booth what I needed to do to get to Arles – I was told I needed a reservation, so I went to the ticket counter to get one. There I was told that a reservation was not needed! Just hop on the train that says “Arles” at 15:30 – Okay I said (this time the person spoke english, so it was more clear) – and I wandered around a bit.
There were no trains that said Arles near that time, so, I went back to the information booth and asked again – I was assured again that I do need a reservation! Back to the ticket counter. I got some help from another person, who said I did indeed need a reservation, and that I had missed the 15:30 train, but that I could get on a 17:04 train – because of the miscommunication she gave me a first class reservation for free, and I got to check out Montpellier in my newfound time, excellent!
I enjoyed Montpellier quite a bit – a bit too much though, I found myself thinking I knew where I was 20 minutes to my departure time – and ended up going in a few good circles, and then finding that I didn’t have small enough change to purchase a tram ticket! With the help of some nice locals, I found out how to get to the train station on foot (up a bunch of stairs, with my backpack on – oof!) and I got to the platform with 3 minutes to spare, no problem! 
One of two tram lines that run in Montpellier
Of course, I took some photos while I was there, and my GPS unit is still working like a charm! Check out the photos on a map here, and you can see what I saw!
Here’s a link to a map of all my photos from Montpellier
