While cooking noodles as breakfast this morning, I met with a lady from the states who were here for 5 days on a conference. She’ll be traveling to Helsinki next for a leisure trip. After checking out, I thought I should at least see a little bit of Glasgow but end up I only manage to see Uni of Glasgow from afar and also the Kevinough Museum before setting off to Isle of Skye.
I took the scenic route from Glasgow to Skye via A82 & A87 and crossing the Skye Bridge instead of taking the ferry from Mallaig to Armsdale. The entire journey was stunningly beautiful. The amazing landscape prompted me to kept pulling up by the roadside whenever I can to take photos and also my eyes kept drifted away from the road ahead. Loch Lomand, Oinch, Fort William, Glencoe, and some other small towns and villages which I’d forgotten the names. Oh how I wished I could have 4 pairs of eyes (front, back, left and right) and 2 pairs of hands (one to maneuver, one to take photos). Well that’s the pity part of you being alone and driving. The hills, the rivers, the lakes… you just have to see it to appreciate the beauty of it. The photos that I've taken just could not illustrate fully the magnificent views.
As I need to arrive at the hostel by 5pm, I can only stop so many times for some quick snaps and go. Nearing the Skye, there were 2 blokes hitch-hiking by the roadside. I also saw an asian girl traveling on a bicycle which is pretty rare (at least to me). AT one of the viewpoints on the hills, there’s a Scottish men fully dressed up in kilts with his bag-pipes music performance for hire. Finally I arrived at the Portree Independent House at 5pm sharp. Checked in for the night for ￡13 in a 4-bed dorm. It’s similar concept as with Deston House, fully equipped kitchen, tv room and toilets, but its more crowded here.
After settling my stuff, I went out for a walk around Portree town. The town cener is not very big with only 2 (or 3) main streets. I went down to the pier. There's a famous seafood restaurant at the pier front and next to it is a fish and chips shop with quite a long queue. Quite many people who bought the fish & chips, sat by the pier eating and also feeding the seagulls which were plentiful. The seagulls seemed to have their own territories and you can see that some are bullying off other younger seagulls by spreading their wings and chasing them away.
Later, I went to Somerfields (supermarket) to buy some food and went back to the hostel to cook dinner. After dinner, I went out exploring around the river. There were some bugs (maybe midgets) that were biting me constantly so I had to kept moving around and shoving them away. I can just vaguely see the Cuilin mountains at the far end. I stopped by the car park to pick up some stuff from my car and met my other roommate. We then walked back to the hostel together. The lady (in her fifties?) is actually from Switzerland who was a biologist and she has been staying in Scotland for the past 5 years as she loves the nature and landscape in Scotland. Tomorrow, she'll be going to The Hebrides for a year to learn the Scottish Gaelic (a Scotts language). Her reason for learning this language is because she was very fascinated by this language as it is totally different from any other language. How inspiring. To learn out of interest and because you like it.
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