On the Isle of Skye!

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Today, we're going to the Isle of Skye. We took our pre-paid / pre-paid booked coach from Inverness to Skye. ₤14 for the 3.5 hour journey. The coach was packed and “everybody” was going to the Isle of Skye”. Its a popular destination for backpackers and German-speakers! They have good taste. We have good taste too. Luckily, we had pre-paid 'cos the going rate would have been 60 pounds for the two of us. Gulp!

We got to Skye about 12:00, in the town of Portree. We were at the Portree Independent Hostel which was right in the centre of town in the old Victorian post office building. It's in a yellow building with a comfortable common room and a large dinning / kitchen area which is allocated in the original sorting room and has views across the Portree Bay.

It was ₤13 per bed and fairly basic but comfortable thus no extra facilities and no breakfast included although a help-yourself system was in place for ₤2 !

I'm not in the habit of cooking whilst on holiday mainly 'cos I'm on holiday! However, I relented and along with others, went to the local supermarket. The supermarket “ Somerfield” is fantastic for basics so we bought bread, pate, milk, pizza, wine, juice and cake! My consolidation: putting things in ovens and letting it take care of itself!

The residents and staff are a mix of backpackers, groups and individual trekkers with a large mix of nationalities and backgrounds however, once again, our booking was no longer there!

I tell a lie.

It was there. I mean, my name was in the reservation book but the booking had been cancelled out with a pencil! I was very annoyed. Not again! Thank goodness I had brought my confirmation Email with me!!!

The Manager was very helpful 'cos there WAS only one double room as the others were shared bunk rooms and with a child legally, one cannot share with strangers so the Manager called every B& B in town and offered to pay the difference in price but to no avail. All of them were fully booked!!! We thus ended up sleeping in the office that was hastily made up for us and so we weren't charged for the night!

We went along the harbour and also for the first time, visited a “real” pub in which I chatted with some Scottish locals and drank a few pints of cider as I didn't like the native beer! There were no customers present so they were happy to have “The Small Young Gentleman” hanging around.

We turned in quite early as I had had enough. We had two single beds but “The Small Young Gentleman” still found it prudent to sleep with me so we both snuggled into a single bed made for one person only!

Good Night!

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