misting...inauspicious to say the least, and most unwelcome since I
had to lug my stuff up a hill to get to the starting point of my tour.
But now, at a quarter to nine pm, the weather is gorgeous...I ate
dinner on an outdoor patio in Oban, wearing a tshirt, which says a lot
about how nice it got. Now I'm sitting in the lounge of my bed and
breakfast, watching the sun set over Oban harbor, and listening to the
cries of the gulls (who did not attempt to steal my dinner, which
makes them preferable to Brighton gulls).
Today's drive was lovely...I was surprised at how markedly different
the Lowlands are from the Highlands, and we drove past many gorgeous
lochs, mountains, etc. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow...we are
going to Iona, the cradle of Gaelic Christianity, with an optional
side trip to Staffa. I will have to decide in the morning whether to
go to Staffa...it apparently has some awesome natural formations,
including the same hexagonal basalt columns that I failed to see at
Giants' Causeway in northern Ireland, but it will depend on how much
time such a tour will cut off of my time on Iona.
In other news, the people on my tour are much younger than
expected...there is one older couple, a few people in their 40s or
50s, and then the rest are in their twenties or thirties. But I was
spared the awkwardness of hanging out tonight because I'm the only
person out of the 16-person bus staying at this hotel, so falling into
my preferred antisocial behavior was quite easy. And the hotel is
lovely...as I mentioned, the lounge (which looks like an old,
well-lived-in parlor) overlooks the harbor, and my room opens with a
bona fide skeleton key...when was the last time you had a real key at
a hotel, rather than a keycard?
But the one drawback about tomorrow is that I have to be ready for
pickup at 6:45am...which is an abomination. Hopefully I will sleep
well...I had a nightmare last night, involving Robert Downing Jr., the
Asian dude from 'Heroes', and some albino raccoons, which I would
prefer not to repeat. So I'm going to finish watching the sunset, lay
out my things for tomorrow, and go to bed!
2 comments:
I almost wish I had such terrifying, star-studded dreams.
Im glad that in your eyes I am not OLD...LOL Sorry you will miss Bubba graduate and even wear a tie! Had to about bribe him on that one.
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