Scotland (Part III)
(Written late September)
Now, all about the Isle of Skye. well, what can I say, its a very cool place. The hostel is in a small town called Kyleakin, a small fishing village just over the bridge to Skye. A great place to sit back, and do not a lot for a long time. A great place to recharge.
Other than sitting around, doing not a lot, we hired a few bikes, then rode up to Plockton, a short 7 miles away. Only problem was, there's lots of hills in between. the stubborn streak in me was the only thing that got me through. Biscuit was too unfit, he gave in, and couldn't make it up the hills (though maybe the fact that his bike wouldn't let him go into the lowest gears had something to do with it... 
). After that, sitting in front of the fireplace, talking with all sorts of strangers was pretty cool.
After a day or two there, we caught the ferry out to Harris - an island in the Outer Hebrides, and stayed in a tiny tiny village called Drinishader - which consists of about 6 houses, a post office, and a hostel. Very cool. Even managed to get talking to some of the locals for a while - very friendly. Only "problem" was that the bus went through 3 times a day. Managed to get up early to catch the first one, and headed off to explore the island. Bad thing was that not many buses run around there, so, we ended up hitchhiking. Was an interesting experience - I'll definitely be on the look out for hitchhikers when I get a car again - proper backpackers only though.
One of the places we got to was the beaches on the west coast of Harris - beaches that wouldn't look out of place in the Caribbean. Very beautiful. Pity about the temperature though . Then headed further up, over to Lewis, and to Stornoway - a place that I'd read about a bit, so it was good to know what it looks like. Managed to get a few interesting people who picked us up, ranging from a trainee reverend, to a teacher, to a couple of tourists. We had one woman who'd never been off the Outer Hebrides in her life. She hadn't even been around the islands properly. Very bizarre.
Heading back to the Skye, after catching the ferry, the bus we were on didn't go all the way back to Kyleakin, so more hitchhiking - only this time, in the pouring rain. Fun though. Met a teacher who'd just started teaching on the island, and who was heading to a rave - a rave on an island with about 28,000 people. Bizarre, but very cool place.
We arrived back in Skye, just in time for our Skye Trekker weekend - 2 days of hiking through the middle of nowhere on Skye. A lot of fun. Ended up hiking about 25 km over the two days, a big chunk of it with packs on our backs. One of the first things we did after getting the tents sorted, was wade through a thigh deep river. Kinda interesting start to the whole thing. Only problem was that it meant we had wet socks and shoes for the rest of the weekend <IMG alt=:( class="emoticon" src="/images/emotions/emotion-6.gif"> Rather enjoyable weekend though, if only in hindsight. Great scenery, a great opportunity to get back outside camping again. Very glad I went on it.
After recuperating for a day or two, headed out on a day trip round Skye, to see a bit more of the place. Saw some really cool places, and heard some really cool stories.
Other than that, met lots of really cool people - one of which was Holly - an English chick, who'd spent a lot of time in the US, and now called New Zealand home. Very interesting accent . Spent a few days hanging out with her, which was a lot of fun.
After that, it was back on the bus (after being threatened by the hostel manager when we told her we were leaving - she really didn't want us to leave (at least I'm glad it was our sausages that were stabbed, rather than us (she'd have fitted right in with the communist secret police ))), heading down to Glasgow. Wasn't too excited when the bus hit the suburbs - was tempted to find out when the next bus back to Skye was... . However, spent a very enjoyable day with my buddy, Lindsay, who was visiting family, while over from Melbourne.
And, I think that pretty much covers (in possibly waaaaay to much detail) what I got up to in Scotland. Cos, after Glasgow, I jumped on a plane, headed for beautiful Roma.
All in all, Scotland is an absolutely amazing place. I'll definitely be heading back there at some point - most likely i'll do some cleaning in a hostel for a while, just to pay for my bed, and do not a lot else. Gonna be good.