A Weee Dram : Ferries, and Puffins, and Whiskey, Oh My!

We started the day with Walt adding whiskey to his porridge and me forgetting my phone. I had to sprint back up the hill because we were already running late. The hill this house is on is no joke, straight up from the town below. I hoofed it and was huffing and puffing because not only did I have to run up the hill, then there's the steep driveway and the two sets of stairs. I was of course wearing my heaviest sweater, a scarf, and my jacket because they said to be prepared for all weather and dress in layers. I wasn't prepared for it to be warm. By the time we hit the ferry terminal I was dripping sweat and wanted to strip down. Again. Didn't this happen once already? Everyone warned us that Scotland is cold and rainy and super windy. We see none of that. It was a balmy 70 today with everyone in their summer clothes. Yesterday was lovely too. It was of course cold on the ferry ride to Mull but we were in the Atlantic riding a ferry on the outside deck so you expect that. I was thrilled with it after my run. So here's the lowdown on what you have to do to see the coolest stuff ever. You take a ferry from Oban to the Isle of Mull. Mull is pretty big but where the ferry docks there's nothing. So you have to have some kind of transportation lined up or have your own car. You can go to the main town or head to Fionnphort, the small port (if you can call it that, more of a boat launch) where you pick up another small ferry to Iona or take a super small boat to Staffa which is where we were headed. The bus ride from Craignure (ferry port) to Fionnphort is an hour and a half. So, that's 3 hours round trip just to go from one ferry port to another. The bus ride is supposed to be really fun with engaging drivers that teach you a ton of history and tell jokes and point out all the cool parts of the island. Unfortunately, our driver was called in on an emergency and usually only drives the mechanical busses, he's not a regular driver. So our commentary went like this..."over there a lady named Sarah lives. She's lived in that house for 10 years. Her kids go to the school that's right here. Up there are some bald eagles but they're not our today. Usually there are highland cattle out but I guess not today. On your right there are a bunch of wild deer in this yard. Oh, there's only one today. Up ahead is a large rock. You'll see a lot of these on the road. We don't know where they came from or why they are here. There's a body of water called a Loch." and on and on and on. I fell asleep. The bus was hot and it was rocking back and forth and we had gotten up early. Night night dude. Oh and the weird thing is, it's only a one lane road, going both ways. So there are these little turnouts in the road here and there on both sides. So if you see a car coming and you're closest to the turnout, you pull into it and let the car pass. This went on forever it seemed like. We finally arrived at the boat launching area and got on a boat for the 35 minute ride to Staffa. It was an open boat and we were all sitting in the back, maybe 30 of us at the most. I can't imagine if it was raining. We would have been soaked by the time we got there. Fortunately for us it wasn't raining. So off we went. When we pulled up to Fingal's Cave and I got the first look at it I felt like those people in Jurassic Park who saw a dinosaur for the first time. I was in awe. The pictures can't begin to show how amazing and awe inspiring it is. This is natural. This is volcanic. This took place thousands of years ago. These are hexagonal basalt columns that occurred on their own for whatever reason. The earth was like a basket at one point, all curved and hexagonal and columny (I made up that word). I couldn't take enough pictures. I was giddy. And this was before I saw the Puffins. Walt and I were the first off the boat. You only get an hour on Staffa so he was like, "the cave or puffins first?" I said, "cave" and we took off running. We were the first ones there and enjoyed it for a few minutes before everyone else arrived. Then off we went to see if we could see Puffins. It's just the beginning of the nesting time so they weren't sure if they were going to be there. But they were! And oh my gosh they are the cutest!!! I have an affinity for Puffins because I've been studying them for almost 20 years in 3rd grade. So to see actual real live ones was a dream come true for me. I could have sat there for hours just watching them. At one point I didn't realize I was sitting next to one of their burrows and out one popped. Cutest ever. And I love how in Europe you can do what you want with no rules. There were no barriers, no signs, no ropes, just the edge of the cliff and the Puffins. I got so close at one point (I kept creeping closer and closer to them and the edge) that Walt yelled at me to move back. Later that night I had a "what if" freak out. What if I stood up and tripped on my own feet and launched off the cliff edge by accident like a Puffin? What if I slipped and just slid off the cliff? I was obviously too close. BUT THEY WERE PUFFINS!!! Anyway, we had to be back at the boat at a precise time, sharp. Or they'd seriously leave you on the island and there's nothing there but open expanse, a cave, and of course, Puffins. As we were headed the 35 minutes back to Iona I crashed a little. The thought of spending 2 hours wandering around Iona, then ferry back to Fionphort, then 1.5 hour bus ride to Mull, then 45 minute ferry to Oban to arrive back here at 8:05pm was just too much. I could have rallied, but I honestly didn't want to. Iona has an ancient Abbey, a few beaches and a hill to walk to the top of. A small restaurant if you're hungry but that's is. So we would just be wandering around for 2 hours and after what we saw it just seemed dull. I hate saying that but I wasn't feeling it. I knew there was an early bird tour, the same one we were doing they just left a few hours before us. If I calculated it right, we could hop off our boat, hop straight onto the ferry and catch the early bus back to get the early ferry back to Oban. That was a lot, you still with me? It was a risk, but I was willing to take it. Walt was more iffy on it than me but I convinced him. We hopped off the boat and walked 10 feet right onto the ferry. We arrived just in time for Walt to convince the guy to let us hop on his early bus back and off we went. We even had time for a pint before our ferry headed back home Ahh, we did it!! There was a lot more planning that went into it but it's too much to write. We were so stoked to back early and get to enjoy this incredible room we have. The views are stunning and we just wanted to enjoy them. Dinner in town then back here again to hang out. I even got to enjoy a bath!

Today we woke to the most beautiful weather. It was sunny and clear and 70 degrees. We had nothing to do today so we thought we'd do a little shopping. Kill me, shopping with Walt. It consists of walking into a store, start browsing, he comes over 60 seconds later and says, "you ready?", walk to next store, repeat. Pretty obvious I didn't buy anything. We walked the whole town in about 15 minutes. We ended up on an outdoor terrace having a drink while waiting for our Oban Distillery tour to begin. This tour was cool and we learned a ton and actually enjoyed the Oban Whiskey. All in all it was a mellow day just relaxing. We are off to St. Andrews and hickory golf tomorrow. I'm itching to swing some clubs and play some golf!! It's only a wee drive of 3 hours. Wee is the word here. They use it in place of little. Hiya is another. You say it when greeting someone. Yous for you guys, as in "Can I get yous anything else?" oh and when you cheer, you say "Heeeeyyy" . It's all pretty funny and I love hearing their accents. They make everything beautiful. Even when they tell you where the toilets are, it just sounds lovely.