Friday, November 17th

We left Glasgow at noon at travel the 200 or so miles up to Kyleakin, Isle of Skye. It is amazing what is a 'major road' over here. After Glasgow, the big towns up north are amazingly small. I think Mount Pleasant would be a big metropolis area compared to some of the towns that we stopped in. And the major roads we took were really small and winding. The bus would actually have to stop at times and wait for traffic to pass it just to ensure that accidents did not happen. Makes sense why all the cars are really small!



We actually ran into snow on the way there too. I didn't think that I would miss it this year at all. But I do. Snow is very beautiful in its own way and if its going to be cold anyway, it might as well be pretty outside. Since this was an International Student trip, it was funny to see people's reactions to their first snow. Mike and I and the others from Canada just shrugged it off -- it was only a light snow -- but many others were enthralled with the idea of snow and how one even drove in it.


The only 'touristy' stop we made on the way up was to Eilean Donan Castle. You may recognize the castle from various Hollywood movies. Though the only movie I remember Jim telling us it was in was 'Highlander'. Unfortunately the castle is closed to visitors right now, but in the daylight hours you can walk around the grounds and go to the gift shop.




As I mentioned before, Kyleakin is a small town. No grocery stores, etc. Just hostels, the locals, and three pubs. One of which is named ''Saucy Mary's.'' (After a Norwegian Princess that charged high tolls to go across the sea.) We felt that we had to go into it just once given the name. We walked in, and were the only patrons in the bar for most of the hour. Apparently there is some small town dispute regarding the owner, so none of the locals go there. There was supposed to be live music, but no one working there knew when it started either. We left and went to the other bar the rest of the weekend.