The Simple Life

Today we find ourselves far away from the bustle of city life, on a little highland island called The Isle of Skye. The island just recently has a bridge attaching it to the mainland - prior to that there was a ferry that took cars and passengers to the island. I'm sure the bridge has changed the overall feel of the island, but it still retains much of the small-town, fishing village, Mayberry-feeling that I'm sure it's residents love. To give you an idea exactly how NOT-commercial this island is, we got into town about 4:00PM today, and we hadnt eaten since breakfast at 8:30am, so we were pretty hungry. We had collectively decided to wait until we reached Skye to eat, so we could have an authentic first evening there. So, upon our arrival and check in, we set out to eat somewhere... only to find out that NOTHING is open from 3-6:00pm. Well, we were too hungry to wait an hour and a half, so we set back out across the bridge to the mainland to find a cafe somewhere (and THAT, my friends, made us grateful that the bridge had been built already!).

The weather here is not that great, overall, but the views are pretty amazing. Since we're coastal now, we're just about at sea level... but looking out our front window we can see mountains that are as much as 2500 ft straight up! There is a small sea channel, also, in our front view where there are always fishing boats coming and going (when the tide allows - it's a pretty dramatic change throughout the day!). And on of one of the smaller mtns across the channel, there is a small castle in ruins that is just perched atop the summit. It's very cool. I hear that when the tide is completely out the channel dries up completely and you can just walk across the land to climb up to the castle ruins. We might try that tomorrow if we're around at the right time. Also, the cold rain, though sometimes stinky, never lasts very long, and makes for some AMAZING rainbows - seriously the most vivid I've EVER seen. The camera shots we got of it just dont do it justice.

Finally, we're staying in our first hostel of the trip. It's a first for me, and for Justin too, though I understand that this one is much nicer than others, and so maybe we're not getting an accurate taste of what hostels are sometimes like. I think that's ok with me. Overall, I do think it's quite comfortable. The 5 of us are sleeping in one room with bunkbeds, but we have our own shower and there's a comfy livingroom area to chill in the evenings. No internet, of course - but I hadnt expected that. There are 5 other people in the hostel with us tonight - 3 girls from Sweden, 1 from Canada, and 1 from Germany. They're in a different sleeping room than we are, of course, but we got to chat with them for a few minutes earlier in the livingroom. Nice girls. I think they think we're wusses though, since we've rented a car and we arent backpacking up 4000 ft peaks like they seem to be - of course, they never said that... But, I got some strange looks when I was using my hairdryer & straightener at the "Hair Dry Station" in the hall. Maybe I looked less rugged than hostel residents tyically do - not to stereotype, but if you're there to backpack it probably doesnt matter too much what your hair looks like, right? Well, I was headed out for the evening, so I cared. Anyway, looking back, I seem to have been able to retain some small level of prissyness despite what crazy conditions I find myself in, right Mom? :) Anyway, if I could trust all hostels to be like this one, I would definitely do it again sometime (I mean, after the 3 nights we have in this one!).

So here are a few picures to give you an idea of where we are now...



This is the front walk of our hostel... the channel would be to the right - you can sort of see the boat masts in the background.


This is our room in the hostel - pretty bright, and very clean. All we need!


Again, the camera can't possibly capture it well, but this rainbow was almost flourescent! It went all the way from one side of the channel to the other, right down to the ground on both sides - and there was even a faint double rainbow above it. It was perfect.

Talk to you all again soon!