Scottish Highlands: Oban

The trip to Oban started with a long bus ride at sunset- absolutely gorgeous. All of the pictures are through the window, so some get a little foggy as the sun goes down and it gets colder outside, but I think you'll get the picture, so to speak... =p

We arrived at our hostel just before 9, so we opted to just hit the gigantic Tesco (general grocery like Safeway or what have you, just generally a little smaller than US standard size) and make dinner ourselves. The Tesco in Oban is huge- we were giddily reminded of Target and WalMart and the like, which is perhaps a sad commentary on our mindset as Americans. (But seriously- why are all the grocery stores so small here??)

Once back in the kitchen, things took a dangerous turn. After spending so much time in constant contact, tensions between our two intrepid travelers were bound to occur....

*No kitchen utensils were harmed in the making of this blog*

After battle concluded, a lovely dinner was had, and we crashed in our adorable white-and-yellow polka dot room.

The next morning, we started out with the vague intention of taking a wildlife tour up to the island of Staffa, which is reputed to have some incredible cliff views, but the only ferry left ridiculously early, so we ended up scrapping that plan. Instead, we toured around the adorable little waterfront town for part of the morning before catching a ferry over to the island of Mull.

I actually have some pictures of myself for you all, because Clarissa's camera card filled up early on in the day.

It's a little hard to tell because it's upside down, but that formation of rocks makes a heart 

This set of bubble adventures concluded, we scurried off to the ferry that would take us to the island of Mull. 

We really thrilled some little girls who were walking on this sidewalk to my right (My right, not The right) 

And a-ferrying we go!

The wee island of Mull:

A truly excellent cat

The tickets for the ride back to Oban (they collect the tickets, sadly, so we had to photograph them for posterity/scrap-booking purposes)

A frequent sight on our journeys

The boat was late arriving to Mull, which got us back to Oban late. This put us in an unexpected fix: we had left our suitcases/backpacks at our hostel, about a 10-minute walk from the ferry and bus terminal. This was not a problem when we had 45 minutes between our ferry docking and our bus leaving. This turned into quite the problem when the ferry didn't even dock until 13 minutes before the bus left- not to mention, having to actually get off the darn thing!

We decided to have Clarissa man the bus while I ran back for the bags (mine was significantly larger than hers), and I took off running. It took me almost three minutes just to get through the ferry lot, and I realized that even running full out, which I would not be able to sustain for the entire trip, I wouldn't make it in time.

I rounded the corner, and inspiration struck: taxis were lined up. I hopped in the first one and told him I had an absolutely ridiculous fare for him: "I need to go about two blocks away, and then right back here. Fast."

It was highly stressful, but I made it. Clarissa didn't know that I had done this, so when I was climbing out of the taxi, victorious, she was still staring up the street, dancing in agitation. I called that all was well, she sagged with relief, and we hopped on board, for the long, two-part bus ride to Edinburgh. 

Still to come: various Edinburgh adventures, Glasgow, and of course, Greece!