STORIES: July 30th & 31st, 2014 // Oban & Kerrera, Scotland

July 30th & 31st, 2014 // Oban & Kerrera, Scotland | Europe Trip Day 4

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Oban, Scotland.

Wendy and I traveled to Oban from Edinburgh, and I have written in my journal "We sat down and read for a bit on the grass. I can hear bag pipes playing and trains departing. It really is quite lovely.

Wendy starting burring my in grass, which was our cue to get up and move." I'm glad to know I was just as attuned to Wendy's wandering attention span as I am now.

We eventually hopped on a train to Oban, and the ride was insanely beautiful. We sat across from each other from Edinburgh to Glasgow and played cards, changed trains and then sat next to each other on the way to Oban. Wendy napped and I read, it wasn't long before Wendy woke back up and I stopped reading just so we could watch out the window. This was the most beautiful train ride I'd ever been on. It was raining a little outside but it only made everything seem more mystical and beautiful. The ride was just over four hours, and we arrived a quarter to eight to a sleepy, rainy town.

We couldn't find our hostel right away so we walked into a pub and a nice bartender sent us off in the correct direction. This hostel was by far my favorite. We dropped our things off and went exploring, and that is where these first images came from.

Wendy and I eventually grew hungry and went off in search of food. We ended up eating at a Scottish version of Applebees. It was pretty dang good. Once the sun was well set, we meandered back to our hostel and met our two roommates. They were both girls in their mid-late twenties traveling for eight months to a year. One was from New Zealand and one from Australia. We ended up talking for a long while. People who travel are so interesting.

The next day we woke up, this hostel was my favorite thus far. I slept so well and we even slept in a little! (Which just means we slept in till half eight/nine in the morning). I snuck out quietly and took a shower I didn't have a towel and I didn't want to pay to get one....so I used my shirt. I do not recommend doing that. They don't absorb water near as well and I felt significantly more unclean because I used it.

I went down to breakfast, had two cups of coffee and read. The scones there were delicious. I could have eaten the entire pan. Eventually we packed our bags and regretfully left our beautiful hostel in search of an isle. We walked a little over to the neighboring town and saw a castle. It was so casually there. We headed back to catch a ferry to Kerrera. There was a single restaurant on the isle and we ate lunch there. We had fish and chips, it was significantly better than the ones we had in London.

We finished eating and walked back to where the ferry had dropped us off, there were paths all along the isle and we wanted to see it so we decided to give it a go. We started, completely clueless, on a gravel road. The road came to an end with a gate and cows sleeping on the other side of it. Wendy and I turned back around with the intention of going to ask one of the servers where the trail was I noticed a path in tall grass.

Cute old couple reading the news paper by the water

Wendy found a large, colorful and dead jellyfish

Do you see this path?

The one right here?

Because we saw it, and don't be fooled.

It was not a path.

After we spotted the (not) trail, I looked at Wendy and without speaking we both agreed to go check out this path. It was breathtaking. We became true backpackers, hiking around with all our things. Eventually the path faded into nothing, and we had to hike over a fence and through grass taller than us. We may or may not have picked up alternating British and Louisiana accents from the turn of the century and spoken like we were on a war mission. Probably didn't do that at all..

We could see people walking on a road in the far distance, so we tried to get to it as that was probably the real trail we had failed to find. This proved to be exceedingly difficult and challenging. We had to jump a river, climb a small mountain and surveyed the situation, then continued through stinging nettles and taller than myself brush.

Finally we saw a gate and made our way to it, it was not the relief we thought it would be.

Because there was this bull on the other side, staring at us. It's horns looked very intimidating. (I now know these are very docile creatures, but at the time-- I had no idea).

With my right sock down and no hope for a rescue in the near future: we slowly climbed hte fence so as not to spook the terrifying bull with luscious hair. There were also sheep on the other side of the fence, they also had horns. They didn't scare us as much as the bull did.

Carefully and calmly, with no sudden movements we made it to the small river we had to cross. The entire time the bull and an older sheep with horns stared at us. We made it across and stopped to look back, suddenly the bull looked very friendly and we contemplated a name for our new friend. We decided he looked like a byson and I wanted him to fly. Wendy and I both admired his hair, (we were quite jealous of it). Then we finally made it to the road/path we were supposed to have been on the entire time. And that is when we found paradise.

This guy got life. He just got it.

Welcome to paradise. Mountains surrounded us and across the perfectly blue sea had boats just docked to enjoy the splendor (they clearly had life figured out). Some fog had just obscured the tips of the far away mountains to add depth and the breeze was perfection. The sun was out and the sounds were quiet and peaceful. It was heaven. Wendy and I found paradise.

We fixed our socks and walked slowly around this part of the isle. We were just in awe the entire time. Life could get no better.

We started up a mountain next, which was the most beautiful green. We almost rolled down it, until we realized there was just too much goat poop to attempt that. We steadily made our way across the the beautiful landscape. I struggle to say how these places truly made me feel, probably because I don't fully understand them myself. Pictures will never do it justice either. I'll just have to combine the two and hope I remember the peaceful feelings.

The hike grew harder, and all uphill. We had no idea where we were and we were getting close to the halfway point with our time, so we were quite aware we needed to be heading back soon or we'd miss the ferry and then our train. Though our detour totally screwed up our sense of distance. We weren't sure if it was a short cut or a long cut. We ran into a couple walking and they said they halfway point where ferries were was not too far ahead. We thanked them and continued forward. Wendy sheeped and continued to try and get me to join her. She was quite disappointed when I wouldn't 'sheep' with her. I stayed strong.

We both were getting tired and kept saying things like "Just around this bend! Then we'll head back." We did that and continued to do that. That is precisely how people get lost in the desert. Finally civilization appeared and we made our way towards it.

There was a ferry, but not he one we took. We decided to go talk to them anyway, just to see where exactly we were. I asked him if we could walk along this side of the isle. He said it was sheep territory, but we could do it. Sheep no longer posed a threat after the bull, so we thanked the man and started on our hike.

We put our cameras down at this point, we needed to focus and make up some time on this hike.

Just as there is good to bad and night to day, there was also paradise and poop mines. This shouldn't be a problem, he said. The amount of poop and poop rivers we had to avoid was innumerable. We started out on the beach, which had jagged rocks (made it hard to walk over them). However! I did collect a good bit of sea glass! The hike only continued to get worse.

The ground was soaked through -- so were our shoes. We hopped more barbed wire fences, scared sheep and climbed mountains to finally make it back with twenty minutes to spare. We were sweating with shit-soaked shoes and giddy as hell. And guess where we ended up?

You'll never guess.

The cow sleeping fence we had perceived as a dead end. Apparently if cattle are sleeping by a fence-- just ignore them and open it anyway.

We were disgusting, to say the least, but our shoes were worse. We found a public bathroom and proceeded to wash our shoes in the sink. We tossed our socks in the trash and in five minutes we had left to try and dry our shoes in hand dryers. Bubbles kept blowing out of my shoes...

Putting on squishy shoes may be one of the most awful experiences one can endure. Wendy and I made it to the ferry and then very slowly trudged our way to Tesco to find cheap shoes.

We ended up picking the same pair of flip flops, which we had both perceived to be the least obnoxious of the selection. Boy were we wrong. With our cheap flip flops, we walked back to the train station. We boarded and really enjoyed the calm, most scenic train ride. I had some hot tea and finished Odd Thomas. It was glorious.

It was not until we changed trains at Glasgow that we realized our mistake with our matching shoes. Not only did they look dumb because they were matching (we were all wearing jackets and jeans, it was cold! and there we were, in matching flip flops). The shoes, which we thought had a conspicuous sliver of silver was actually reflective and glowed in the station. We were hideous traffic signs.

Wendy and I were still giddy from the eventful day and I burst into laughter every time I looked down to see our feet. We finally arrived at Edinburgh just before eleven and started our trek to the hostel. I giggled every few steps. What a day.

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Avenley Brianne

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July 30th & 31st, 2014 // Oban & Kerrera, Scotland | Europe Trip Day 4

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