Remember to give thanks.

I had to do some planning this morning. I had considered going to Glasgow since it's only one hour away and not expensive, and scout out a couple of B&Bs. But after looking, I found a couple near to each other that seemed like good deals on hotels.com, so I picked the one that seemed more appealing and reserved it. The nice thing about using an American Express card is that it's easy to dispute charges, so if I have any problems with this place, I can just complain. I'll have to pay a 3% currency conversion fee, but considering if I withdrew cash from an ATM I would get hit with about $5 in fees, paying for the hotel room with a credit card is the better option. At Northumberland where I've spent most of my time, I've been paying by cash since we've established a friendly relationship, and I feel safe enough to carry a chunk of money on me, at least long enough to get back to the hotel.

I found out that the Cameron musem closes October 5 for the winter, which is Friday of next week. I had been planning to see it this coming weekend, but that would be difficult, considering the train from Glasgow to Fort William is 4 hours, the museum is only open about 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm, and the train to Fort William only runs 3 times a day: around 8 am, noon, and 4 pm.

Another thing that came up is partially due to weather. Scotland and England have been hit with a lot of flooding this week, lots of rain and strong winds. My Edinburgh friend and I had made plans to get together again, but she had to cancel due to a neighbor's pipes bursting and damaging her place. Actually that may or may not be related to the weather, but regardless, those plans fell through. But as it turns out, she'll be in Glasgow around the same time I will, so I decided to make things easier on myself and stay in Glasgow until Monday, take in that city and get some local wisdom about traveling up to Fort William, and then make that trip separately on Monday, see the museum on Tuesday, and whatever else is around there.

I'm still undecided about whether to go to Ireland this trip or wait til another time. It's getting colder, and with Ireland already a fairly wet country, it may not be worth it other than to say I went to another country, which I don't think really justify the expenses. I've been enjoying my time in Edinburgh, so coming back is an option. The people at this hotel like me and would love for me to come back. Lack of Internet access in the room and showers shaped like coffins aside (which apparently is standard for Europe), I'd be happy to. I'd rather work out a cheaper weekly rate if I did, though.

This afternoon was interesting. I went to New Town to try a restaurant called The Mussel Inn on Rose Street. It's a nice trendy bistro, a bit upscale, specializing in seafood. I had the seafood chowder with side salad. The salad had a TON of red onions, and also red and yellow peppers. The food was good. I also had a slice of pear cheesecake. It was all more than I wanted to pay, it's one of those places where you're paying for the atmosphere, in my opinion. But it was a nice little place. There were a lot of pubs down that street too, I took a lot of photos. Rose Street runs parallel to Princes Street, so I walked down and back towards the National Gallery of Scotland, taking photos of statues along the way.

The National Gallery is free, except special exhibitions. They have a Van Gogh exhibit right now, but I decided to check out the free part instead. There are mostly paintings, but some sculptures. It's been a long time since I've been in a museum. I enjoyed looking at the paintings, trying to appreciate the use of colors, perspective, brush strokes etc. They have a lot of paintings from the 1500s to the 1800s, and some pretty ancient busts and marble sculptures. There were about as many nude people as there were clothed people. It seems like most clothed paintings were portraits, which the nude ones were intended to represent either a Greek or Roman myth story, or express some specific idea. Some things seem like they were painted to get a reaction, or at least expect a reaction. I think we assume today that people a few hundred years ago were always fine with nude paintings. Also, there was one painting in particular that got my attention, of a shepherdess being spied on. The notes pointed out the thistle in the boy's hat gave it a Scottish feel, while the buildings in the distance were distinctly Italian. Also, the way the shepherdess was posing made it seem that it was a typical portrait in an interesting setting; almost like putting your head through a Mona Lisa poster and someone snapping your photo. So I guess in paintings, you can't assume that everything you see is accurately portrayed.

After I left the gallery, I went outside and sat for a few minutes, listening to that bagpipe and guitar group that seems to always been there. After I was there maybe 10 minutes, I left and walked to the bus stop about 1/4 mile away. As I was sitting waiting for the bus, a woman asked me if it was going to East Mayfield. It turns out that she, Cindy, is from Iowa and visiting with her sister, who is also in town for some business conference. It was neat that I was able to tell her about the buses and where to get off, even how to signal the driver. I used my iPhone's Maps app to see exactly when to get off, as well as walk her to her B&B. She mentioned how it's great that God helps us out, and I nodded and said that we should remember to give thanks.

That's something I was thinking about last night. There are a lot of things this trip that could have gone wrong, and even a few things that did go wrong, but I was able to recover from. I need to remember to thank God more often: for this opportunity to even be over here, for the great job I have that pays the bills, the deals I've found on places to stay, and all the people I've met. This has been a very fun trip, though overwhelming at times. As for today, I feel like what I experienced today was similar to what Peter mentioned in 2 Peter 1:21: "For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." I don't interpret that verse to mean that prophets went into trances and had no control. Even Jonah was carried along, in a sense. When it comes to God's will, people can choose to follow it or disobey, but if you have the mindset to do what's right as opportunity presents itself, you can be "carried along" (the Greek word gives the idea of floating along on a river). Things today just seemed to work out perfectly for me to be in the right place at the right time to help Cindy. I could have stayed longer or left earlier from the gallery. I didn't have to hang out in the square. The lady next to me didn't have to light up the cigarette and make me want to leave. People walking in front of me could have walked slower and made me take longer to get to the bus stop. I had my choice of bus stops, why did I walk to the second one? I honestly think God used me to help that woman out, influencing the decisions I made along the way, and I'm glad for it.

Well, hopefully I'll have a good Internet connection tomorrow. I plan to be in Glasgow and checked in to my new hotel in time for lunch!