We arrived at the train station very early headed for the south west highlands coast and were told we'd need to get a bus. Weird. The train goes straight there in 3 hours. Then we are informed it may take an extra hour and a half on the bus, because of a landslide on the train track and road.
That landslide turned out to be big enough to have derailed the train the night before we were to set off, which caused a fireball to shoot through the carriage and left the train half on the tracks and half overhanging the road.
Anyway, it only took 3.5hrs, not the 5 we were threatened with. We arrived after having had a little snooze on the bus- ready to take on Oban! Lily and I found an awesome hostel in Oban that gave free breakfast and was run by the hairiest (Swiss/German) woman I have ever met. Woah!
Things to do in OBAN:
* Take a walk along the harbour and admire the crazy architecture, while eating Mackie's ice cream.
* Stroll north from town and climb the cliff to get to Dunollie Castle. The only castle I've seen where you can climb the stairs to the second level. Most castles have retained the exterior but any interior features (such as ceilings) have been ruined.
*Walk to the top of town to the imposing monument that looks like it was mistakenly built when the Roman architects got 'Oban' confused with 'the Coliseum'
Next day we caught the ferry from Oban to the Isle of Mull.
It is very lush on the west coast of Scotland- Mull was no exception.
The bus took us to Tobermory, the most populated town on Mull. A cute seaside village. We were the only people under the age of 64 though. Lily informed me it's like that Doctor Who episode where the town is set in the 50s and there are only old grey haired people around and it turns out the oldies are sucking the life out of the youth. (Big up to Lomax. Aiiiii)We found a hostel, dropped our bags and went for a walk along the peninsula. Great views back across the water to Tobermory. We were undisturbed, too, since the swarm of old people must have found the walk a little too much for their hips. Unfortunately it turned from sunburn-hot to sky-breaking downpour, then just standard rain for a good few hours. Lily and I hid under an abandoned stone shed for 40 min, then moved to a rotunda thing for another good stint. Unfortunately all the midgies (Scottish equivalent of Mosquitoes, but much smaller) took shelter under the rotunda too. I'm still itching my bites a week on :(
Tobermory:
After our big, wet walk Lily and I thought we deserved a big couple of glasses of red at the pub. Which turned into a delicious crab meat pasta and bottle of white,
then more glasses of white, then move next door to another pub where we where bought multiple drinks and made many friends. Don't know who these people where- clearly they were friendly though. They jumped in a boat and rowed home after the pub shut. I desperately wanted to go with them, but probably for the best we didn't follow them on to the next party because I don't know about the structural integrity of that boat, or it's capacity to carry more than 2 people...Then we discovered there had been a curfew and the hostel was shut. We were locked out. Long and ridiculous story short, Lily and I stayed on the floor of the hotel room of two old Welsh blokes we met until 6am, when we sat outside in the rain waiting for someone to come down for breakfast so we could be let in. We managed to get in and squeeze in a cheeky 35 min snooze before we had to get the 7.30am bus to Iona at the far end of Mull. Rough night. Lead on to a rough day. Pretty sure we were drunk right up til the ferry across to Iona. Not impressed with our hostel. Who locks people out but doesn't warn them before they go out to get drunk?
Lily: "Want to throw the keys in the harbour?" Brilliant!
IONA
Iona is nice, but not a lot going on. A chapel and a church. We spent a LOT of time sitting in the dingy diner opposite the ferry dock drinking Irn Bru and eating sausage in roll. We were suffering from the previous night.
I'm glad we made it to Iona, but I don't have much to say on it. Take a look instead:
The journey home was tough. We both just wanted to be back in our Weegie beds. It went like this: hour bus ride back from Iona to half way up Mull where the ferry comes in, hour on the ferry, hour wait in Oban, three and a bit hour bus to Glasgow, ten minute underground in Glasgow, three minute walk to Ben's house. Home. Ahh.
Verdict: beautiful and dramatic landscape. Lush. Sunny. Midgies not so good, but a ferry is always fun and the castles we saw in Oban and on Mull where grand. Good times. Shit facing, but good times :)
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