the Caribbean, I mean, Scotland

I last left you as we had finished our day's adventure in Sligachan. The next morning we went to catch the early bus, as usual on the side of the highway, into Fort William where we would then catch a bus to Kilchoan to catch a ferry over to the Isle of Mull! Taking the bus was quite an unfortunate way to travel when you are trying to pack in as much as you can in one week, but we were happy as it was providing a good "budget" option for us both. I can tell you, exchange and travelling is not a friend to my bank account. Sadly, this bus managed to ruin all the happy feelings we had about travelling cheaply. As we jumped on and said Fort William we were told 26 quid, hold on, you mean like 2.60 right? Nope 26 pounds. Yikes. We had no choice and paid the man, but were not impressed as we made our way down to Fort William. To make it worse, when the bus driver dropped a pound we had given him below his seat, he made us pay another! Another bad bus ride for the books, will they ever stop? Probably not (until I'm back in Guelph w/ a student pass woo!). We disembarked in Fort William, and on the way out, I got that pound back. Hmph.

We had a few hours to burn in Fort William, but as usual (only on this trip), the weather was stunning! We got some food and relaxed on a green in the city center. Luckily, there was a library right next door with free internet access so I could hand in my assignment that was due that day! We jumped on our next bus and headed toward Kilchoan. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I think I am conditioned to falling asleep in moving vehicles. No matter how uncomfortable, bone jarring, hot the ride, I consistently fall asleep. This ride was not exception, but the few times I did wake up it was pretty great. This bus was literally doing everything, dropping people off at their door, the driver helping old ladies in with groceries, picking up and dropping off boxes from town to town! The driver must be well liked in this corner of Britain. After rounding some beautiful peaks, which were, as usual, covered with sheep, we arrived in Kilchoan, which I don't think is actually a town, because basically all there was to see was a ferry terminal, but a beautiful one at that! With the sun shining the sea looked tropical and we had a beautiful rocky shore to look out from and see the coast of Mull. It made me want to swim. So I did. And it was cold. Very cold.

I jumped back into some dry clothes and we hopped on another ferry headed to Tobermory! Mull was a special visit as Carly's Scottish ancestor's hailed from the Isle of Iona, on the southwest tip of Mull. Tobermory is one of the most quaint harbour towns you will ever see. Each house front is painted a different bright colour, on one end of the bay, the Tobermory distillery, which is still producing whiskey, and on the other, steep hills and an old Victorian house. Very cool town. Sadly, we got there as everything was closing, so we checked into our hostel, attempted a behind the scenes tour of the distillery of our own, and looked at store fronts. A restaurant on the end of the street was voted the "Best Seafood in Britain" or something along those lines so we checked out the menu. For a couple of broke student's it was a little out of our price range, but we wanted to try some authentic local seafood, so we shared a plate of 6 oysters, yea...count'em SIX, were extravagant. This was both our first time having oysters and I loved them! Will definitely have to indulge in more of those when I have the chance. Other than us the restaurant was pretty much filled with old wealthy couples, so we didn't hang around. To get our REAL dinner we went to the chippie at the harbour front where we got some good old fish and chips! They were also delicious, and were even more tasty when enjoyed at sunset in Tobermory.

Bright and early next morning we were off to the Isle of Iona! Another scenic bus ride, and we arrived at the ferry terminal, it was a gorgeous day, and for all I knew, we were looking at the Caribbean. The sand was white, the water turquoise blue, and not a cloud in the sky. The ferry ride was only ten minutes so in no time we were off and exploring. First stop was food, and what a stop it was! The Co-op on Iona had freshly baked goods, AND natural peanut butter. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. Good peanut butter is worth its weight in gold over here. We then set off to find the hostel on the other end of the Isle, and because you can walk across the whole thing in a day, we hoofed it. We were welcomed with some bad news...no rooms available for the night. Yeesh, no hostel, no money for hotels, and no camping equipment, we were in a bit of a pickle!

Anyways, I think that's enough for one post, dinner time! Tonight we are seeing Ainslie and Devin off, two fellow Canadians that live above me and have become close friends, so should be fun! Crazy how time flies!

Hopefully another post will be going up in the next few days, don't touch that dial!

George