The Highlands- Day 2

Day two of the highlands was an incredible experience! We went to the Isle of Skye that day, also known as The Misty Isle. It certainly lived up to its name as the island was so covered in fog we could barely see it!

 This was the bridge to get onto the island. Our tour guide told us how it was built. Apparently Bank of America financed it then put the most expensive toll in the world on it. It irritated me, and my friends noticed this too, that whenever our tour guide told a story it was an American as the bad guy. We were not amused by it. Anyways the bridge is now free to cross in case you were wondering.

 This was the picturesque little town we first drove into. All the towns looked like this. Extremely beautiful and very small. The total year round population of the Ilse of Skye is 9,000 people. But during the summer this swells to 200,000 people.

 Here is the bridge at the base of the Cúchulainn mountain range (which we couldn't see because of the mist). Our tour guide gave us a very long tale about Scáthach, a female warrior from the Isle of Skye who was the greatest warrior in the world and ran a training school. She trained a man named Cúchulainn, a famous Irish folk hero. Now the story she told was very horny and didn't sound right to me. So I looked it up and true enough the story she told us was not accurate to the actual legend. Maybe she heard it wrong, or maybe she just elaborated it, or maybe it was just a local variant, who knows.

 After that (and after lunch and shopping) we headed to the mountain named The Storr. At the top of this mountain is incredible and unusual rock formations. You can look it up online because the fog was so thick at the top of the mountain, I never saw them. Well I saw one, but my camera died. Anyways The Storr mountain is 718 meters tall. The climb up was not very difficult as you can see from these paths.

 After you got above the tree line, however, things got a lot more rugged.

 See? Not great visibility. I got in trouble on this climb. The tour guide had said that you could try to get to the top if you wanted to, and so I tried. I kind of get overtaken by the desire to reach the top when I do stuff like this, and everyone else was moving so slow, so I went on ahead. I thought we would meet each other at the top. Well I kept going higher and higher. Every once and I while I would wait for them to catch up to me but they never did. Eventually I made it to a part where giant rocks loomed out of the fog. The one I could clearly see looked like the top of a cathedral. (later on I realized I was actually at the top of the mountain, but I couldnt see). The wind was blowing so hard and the fog was so dense, it was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Again I was overtaken with emotion and the desire to explore. I ended up climbing up the side of the cathedral rock. I only made it so far before I could not longer climb up it sideways. It was a straight down cliff. I made it probably 20 feet up and just sat there, staring over what I could see. I waited for a while for someone to appear, but no one did. Well, begrudgingly, I turned back. By the time I found the rest of the group they were headed back down the mountain. The tour guide and some others had gone looking for me. When the tour guide came back and flipped out on me. She made me apologize to her like 5 times and to the entire group for making them worry. She lectured me about how I should have stayed with the group and I put myself in danger yada yada. She really kind of pissed me off actually. But I got over it and the day continued. She was not going to taint that amazing experience I had up there.

 When we got back to the hostel we were treated to a boat ride on the loch with a local fisherman! We were fishing for scallops!

 The below picture is our catch. The tide was coming in so it wasn't a good time for fishing. We didn't really catch much, but I learned a lot about the marine life....more than I wanted to.

We ended up with something like 15 scallops, which the captain of the boat had us all eat raw. I didn't want to because I hate sea food and I take issue with eating something still alive, but they made me do it. It didn't taste bad but the texture and the still living thing made me feel sick. But the boat ride was fun. Unfortunately we didn't see any otters, which I have kind of developed an obsession with. They are just SO CUTE! Anyways dinner was authentic fish and chips that night (a burger in my case because I don't eat fish) and then afterwords we had the great pleasure of introducing the smore to the Europeans! They were a bit wary of it, but it was good fun. I went hunting for sticks in the woods and we showed them how to properly make a smore. The Spaniards liked them, but the Italian women did not particularly care for them. The Italian man however, Julio, LOVED them. He had to have eaten 6 or 7. He kept going until we ran out of supplies. Eventually everyone trickled away from the fire to go to sleep. I stayed out and talked to the couple that owned the hostel and one of their neighbors. It was a very in depth and deep conversation. We talked about Scottish nationalism, alcohol and cigarettes, the world view of Americans, the Scottish view of other counties. We talked about places we had been, jobs we had had, the hair styles we used to have. We talked about what it was like to live in the Highlands and the man, Alan I think his name was, gave me advise about life. It was a conversation I doubt I will ever forget. I learned so much and I really enjoyed it. (Although I think I will ignore his advise about how alcohol and cigarettes help you live longer). I went to bed that night smelling of campfire smoke but extremely content.