Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Scotland begins!

May 2017

With an awkward gap of about two weeks between house-sits, I had decided to take a trip to Scotland - I wanted to see some lochs!!
Initially I planned to go alone, but after getting in touch with my old school friend Dani, her and I decided to go together for the first week, and then I would continue solo for the second.
Heading up on the train through the Yorkshire dales was a trip well worth it on its own, and to celebrate I bought a beer and some crisps, and felt rather like one of the Famous Five going on an adventure (except with beer instead of lemonade. And no smugglers.)















Seeing Yorkshire by train made me decide I would definitely have to return and explore, as the landscape was some of the prettiest I had seen in all of England so far.















I met with Dani that afternoon in Glasgow, from which we would be taking a train through the countryside to the seaside port of Oban, to catch a ferry the next day to the Isle of Mull. I only spent a few hours in Glasgow, so I suppose it isn't very fair to say I wasn't enamored with it, but I wasn't. It felt like a rather grey city, probably good for shopping and nightlife, but not for sites or history.
 Soon we were on the train to Oban however, and all was well! We spent the long train journey catching up and the views of Scotland had us gaping out the window, it was so gorgeous!
















Arriving in Oban, we were pleasantly surprised by the quite pretty port. We checked into our hostel with no problems, staying a place called 'Backpackers Plus' which I would highly recommend! The kitchen was large and well equipped, tea and coffee were free, and there were tonnes of comfy beanbags and sofas to hang out in! The beds weren't bad either.
Feeling like we should make the most of being by the seaside, we went to get the stereotypical fish and chips, and eat them on the wharf. Not being a fan of fish, I settled for spicy deep-fried prawns, which were surprisingly nice (the Scottish seem to have a special love for deep frying things). Of course being Britain, it began to drizzle as soon as we sat down to eat, but we persevered. 














In the morning we took a brisk walk up the hill to see the views overlooking Oban, and then an even brisker walk back down so we wouldn't miss our ferry to Mull!

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