Day 7: Over the Sea to Skye!

Wednesday we woke up VERY early only to realize that we had mapped to the wrong Mallaig and only needed 1.5 hours to travel northwest, not 2.5 southeast. We dragged a bit but still hit the road by 9:45. There weren’t too many stops on the way, but we did pull into the carpark at the Glenfinnan Viaduct. That’s the famous bridge from the Harry Potter movies. You know, the one that Harry takes to Hogwarts. C’mon guys, know your nerd trivia. Anyways, it cost money to park, it was raining, and we had a ferry to catch so we did not hike up to it. It looked neat though.

We made it to the ferry a little early and caught the 12:00 on standby. The harbor crossing looked a lot like the harbor in Husavik. It was a pleasant crossing with nice views, except every time you looked in the center and saw the giant tour bus tilting back and forth, you’d want to throw up. Once back in the car, it was an hour drive up to Portree in the northern part of the Isle. We had some lunch at a small cafe before checking out some shops. Interestingly, Kaylea managed to find a bookstore with a section dedicated entirely to men in kilts.

Being as tired as we were, we decided to head back to the hotel to check in and nap. Our guide company booked us a really nice room with a view as an apology for not getting us something closer to the water, so that’s cool. We accidentally napped most of the afternoon before waking up and realizing that we only had two hours before the whole village shuts down. We made it to a nice restaurant with good seafood and fun tunes. Partway through the meal, the Isle of Skye Pipe Band did a street performance so our dinner was extra Scottish.

After dinner we walked to the water and facetimed Kaylea’s parents to show them an unreal view of a rainbow over the inlet. We ended up having to sprint back to the car and hotel in a surprise downpour. What’s that Scottish equivalent to Pina Coladas?

Anyways, tomorrow should be hiking and fairy pools. Cheers.

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Day 9 & 10: Ice Ice Baby

Get ready for a two-dayer! Day 9: Like every other blog post before this one, we woke up. The breakfast at Fosshotel wasn't very substantial, and the options were pretty limited. The continental breakfast was a few slices of cheese, meat, and cucumbers. Kaylea had some lackluster pancakes. We had a glacier hike to get to, so we ate as much as we could. After that, we spent a little time working on the blog and getting ready before we made our way out. We put on all of our thermal gear, and a bunch of layers, and hit the road. We were only about 20 minutes away, but 20 minutes in snow gear in the car gets pretty hot. We pulled up to the meeting spot for our tour, and our guide was just wearing a long sleeve shirt. We got out and asked how cold it's going to be on the glacier, and she said "It's like this. Maybe just bring a light jacket." So we had to take off a bunch of layers in the parking lot. We met some of our fellow tourists, and hopped in a van to head to...

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Day 31 Deep Water Soloing

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Beauty and the Beard:
Bound to Wander

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