The Isle of Skye

Saturday, April 23, 2011
Portree, Scotland, United Kingdom
The rest of the way to Isle of Skye was uneventful, with the exception of sighting several deers, some stray sheep on the road and a really nice-looking castle! Even though the bus was running late, driving like crazy on narrow winding roads it managed to make up most of the time and we arrived only 10 minutes late. We checked into the hostel, and that's where the next adventure begins! (The next part will be covered by Julia ;) )

Comments

juliettka
2011-04-23

The Isle of Skye is the stupidest place, but let me continue...

So we checked into the hostel that Dima had previously booked - a pretty yucky place, though I've seen worse in my past... The highlight of it was two torn sheets attached together that we received at the reception with the commentary, "Your beds".
When we asked a Chinese couple that we were sharing the room with what they made of that, they told us they were instructed by the hostel stuff to use the weird constructions as "sleeping bags".
So, basically, the bed sheets, pillow cases and blankets NEVER get washed, you're just supposed to wrap yourself in that sarcophagus so that you don't touch any of the above. Trying to maneuver between someone's hairs left on the sheets (which, I'm sure, were pubic), I swore that Dima's "sarcophagus" will become a real one if we don't find an alternative place for the other night.

Scared for his life, the following morning Dima went down to the reception and asked for a refund for the second night. We then went to look for a more decent place to stay, me swearing to myself that I will never be staying at a hostel again (I've done my fair share of those in my younger years!)

And here the fun starts! It is not possible to get anything on this island! Pretty much every hotel and B&B that the Tourist Info lady called for us had no vacancies. Apparently, Easter weekend makes Portree (the shithole on Skye we were staying at) the tourism capital of the world!

Finally, we were lucky enough to get the last room at a B&B.
We rolled our suitcases there and went to wait for a tour bus that, as the TI lady told us, was supposed to leave from the main square.

juliettka
2011-04-23

When the bus didn't come after 15 minutes, we weren't too worried, based on our past experiences in Scotland. However, when it was late by half an hour, we went back to the tourist office, just to find out that the tour got cancelled for today.
- Is there any other way to see the island? - we asked
- Only if you have a car.

So, we decided we'd rent a car and somehow figure out how to drive on the left side of the road. The helpful TI lady started calling car rental places, one by one, to find out, of course, that all their cars were rented out for the day!
Unwilling to give in to our tough fate, we hopped on a regular bus and did a 2-hour loop around a picuresque peninsula, trying to self-guide ourselves by Rick Steeves' book on what we were passing. There were lots of mountains, sea sights and grazing sheep - apparently, there are more sheep on Skye than people. Unfortunately, all the sheep are fenced off - I really wanted to catch a small lamb and squeeze it!!

Then we had some cake and tea - we drink tea with milk here all the time, it being Britain and all - and went for a walk around the harbour and the town...
Returning to the centre in a couple of hours, we were ready for dinner. We started checking the restaurants one by one and - guess what?? That's right, they were all booked for the night!! Who knew we had to make a reservation hours in advance to freaking eat in this place?!
We checked every single restaurant, cafe and bar in this town, and none of them had any tables available!

So, to sum it up, the scenery is cool on Skye and so on, but:
- you can't get a place to stay
- you can't rent a car
- you can't get a tour and
- you can't get any dinner

If one day you are in Scotland, please avenge us and don't go to the stupid island!!

~that's all ;)

Rob
2011-04-24

LOL - awesome island... :)

2025-02-14

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