Stars with eccentric orbits?

[alpha_wolf]

An interesting question has arised from one of the discussions around here: are there any stars that have a highly eccentric elliptical (or even parabolic/hyperbolic) orbit around the center of their gallaxy, somewhat like comets have in our solar system? And for that matter, are there any stars whose orbits are not aligned with the gallactic plane?

[Nereid]

Yes, plenty. Some examples (click on the links in each website below to get more info):
black hole candidate (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010921.html)

star orbiting the SMBH (http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/pr-17-02.html#note2) at the centre of the Milky Way (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021018.html)