Cowboys and Catalans

By the time the train pulled into Edinburgh, it was well past sunset. I left the train station and walked down the Royal Mile with my pack on my back en route to my hostel. As I stopped at an intersection to make sense of my map, a limousine pulled up next to me. The back window rolled down revealing an attractive blonde of about thirty wearing a black party dress and holding a thin champagne flute. 'I love your rucksack, darling," she called out in a posh English accent. 'Very rugged. Grrr!" Halfway through his twenties and desperate for excitement in his life, Charles Sizemore leaves Texas for London. Though studying is his stated purpose, the cafés, pubs, and European women quickly prove to be a welcome distraction. Join Sizemore as he discovers his roots in Wales, enjoys a bottle of Jack Daniels with a Swiss lawyer, and sleeps on a Pamplona park bench - all in a pair of well-worn cowboy boots.