Stranded In Portree March 9, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Isle of Skye , add a commentMonday was the day my computer was getting fixed. We saw a computer repair shop in Kyle, so we hopped on a bus and when we got there, he confirmed it had to be the monitor. So, knowing there was not much he could do for us that Chris couldn’t do, he sold us a small screw driver and sent us on our way. Chris pulled it apart (with some locals staring) in a coffee shoppe. Chris didn’t find anything wrong with it (I personally think the thing wanted Chris’ full attention), so he put it back together and it works like I just bought it! Thank god for the computer whisperer!
So then we took the bus to Skye’s capital; Portree (Population: 2,491) to see if we could get a connection to Staffin ( it apparently has a very beautiful view
of the mountians). Well no such luck, so we headed to the Tourist Information center and was told to take a bus that follows the shore all along the north of the isle. Perfect! We already had day passes so the big tour was free!
We had a great time looking out the windows, joking, and snapping pictures at the opportune time. When we returned to Portree, however, we had a sorry surprise, all the buses going anywhere were gone. We decided that staying the night in Portree would be cheaper than hiring a taxi to drive the hour and a half back to Kyleakin (about 50 pounds or more).
Depressing? Well, it became another adventure in itself and the last time we listen to a tourist information person on the topic of buses. Great learning experience.
The hostel we stayed the night in was oddly colored..a green door here, a red hallway there, and random purple walls through out the building. It was an interesting, but quiet hostel. We shared a room with two Germans who run a French camp ground in the summer time. They were both very nice people and one of them went out and bought us a toothbrush after hearing we had left all of our stuff in Kyleakin.
The next morning we went on a hike in Portree, which was wonderful! the sun was out, it was a whopping seventy degrees(the British tourists complain “I’m out here in just a jumper, unbelievable.” ), and the wildlife and sheep were out enjoying the sun (defrosting perhaps). We borrowed binoculars from a fellow 
hiker and spotted a seal bobbing in the water. They said they saw several swimming and sometimes they jump out of the water. Too bad we didn’t see that, since I’ve had my eye out for them for four days now.
Saturday in Kyleakin March 7, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Isle of Skye , 1 comment so farThe Isle of Skye is invaded on Saturday nights by 2 different tour groups so the main pub, Saucy Mary’s, gets flooded with people, islanders, main-landers, and Americans.
With the infusion of about 40 Americans, the population of Kyleakin almost hit 200! Of course, after you include the people driving up to 40 miles to be here on Saturday night, you get well over 200 people in the town.
Saucy Mary’s is the place to be on Saturday nights for miles, there’s live music, a festive atmosphere, and happy patrons! Around 10 PM staff at some local attraction came in dressed up as pirates and faeries.
This photo was one of the last clear shots we could get as the dance floor quickly filled up to the guy playing live music on his guitar, primarily great oldies, such gems as ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ or ‘Stuck in the Middle’.
Most of the people who got off of the tour buses were Americans studying at the University of London who had been given the opportunity to tour Scotland. We found a table of people playing cards and convinced them to try to learn Shithead; about 2 hours later we were still playing despite being the front row for the music (we were also the most vocal fans!).
Portree, Isle of Skye March 6, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Isle of Skye , add a comment
After breakfast this morning, we decided to walk down the beach in front of Kyleakin (pronounced Kyle-a-kin, hard a), and found a lot of rocks that were great for skipping so we spent our time waiting for the bus to Portree skipping rocks, sometimes as many as 7 or 8 skips!
We spent our day today in Portree, the largest town on the Isle of Skye. While the town itself was a wee bit bigger than Kyleakin, it was still small and sleepy.
We had lunch around noon, talked to one of the guys who lives here who was working the bar, and learned that the language we want to learn, Scottich Gaelic (pronounced Ga-lik, soft a), is supposedly the third hardest language to learn after Chinese Mandarin and Japanese.
The bartender at the place we had lunch loves to hike and had several pictures he showed us including one of where he found a seal, his friend and he wouldn’t have seen the seal except that it barked at them while they were walking by, causing them both to jump. They managed to corner it a bit to get a couple of pictures; we thought about trying to find a seal but apparently they are really well camouflaged in the rocks.
While in Portree, we stopped in what is apparently the only ice-cream parlour on the island, their banana ice-cream was fantastic, and was what I ate, while Tiff had their toffee, also good but not as delicious as yesterday.
The beach around Portree wasn’t great looking right near the shore but once you look a bit father away, the water was gorgeous and had a breathtaking backdrop of mountains. All-in-all, today was a fun day but a slow and relaxed one as well.
Kyleakin and Kyle March 5, 2010
Posted by Chris in : Isle of Skye , add a commentToday, the first full day on/around the Isle of Skye was a cloudy one, just clearing up in the late afternoon, with a wee bit of rain.
Despite the weather, we enjoyed a continental breakfast before taking the bus over to Kyle, just across the water from Kyleakin.
We walked around the town, stepped into a couple of shoppes, and even had a great lunch at a small restaurant, toasted sandwich with ham, mushrooms, and brie.
After lunch and some more browsing, we stopped in The Cooperative, a local grocery, to do some shopping. about 23 quid (pounds) should hold us for a few days, saving us a bundle on restaurant eating! We found a package of braised beef at about 1.5 lb for 4 quid; we’ll be adding it to our spaghetti we bought, to something for breakfast, and who knows what else!
After we finished up in Kyle, we went back to the bus stop and realized that we’d be waiting for 2 hours for the next bus so we decided to walk across the tall bridge back to Skye. We were afraid that the walk would be more than we wanted to do but were glad to have walked once we were done. 
The views from the bridge were stunning and unobtainable riding on a bus. Several of the views of Skye seemed to be picturesque Scottish Highlands.
About halfway through our walk from Kyle back to Saucy Mary’s in Kyleakin the sky started to clear up, showing a bit of sun for the first time today and letting us warm up a bit. While the top of the bridge was windy, it wasn’t too cold to not feel great!
In response to Tiff’s computer issues, we saw a shoppe in Kyle that does computer repair so we’re planning to head back there tomorrow morning to see about getting her computer looked at, hopefully they can help (I don’t have any tools that can open a computer-_-).
No matter what you’re looking for, I doubt that you expect to see Sheep Droppings in a shoppe in a small town like Kyle. We saw these and had to take a picture because it was too funny to see in a small shoppe selling woolens.
Isle of Skye: Home of The Sleepy Little Town March 4, 2010
Posted by tiffany in : Isle of Skye , add a commentWe arrived in the Isle of Skye today after a pleasant bus ride (there we four people on the bus including me and Chris and we were given an excellent view of the mountains).
The town (village actually) that we are staying in is called Kyleakin and it is so small that: the grocery store, the Post Office, and the gift shoppe are one building. You blink and it’s gone, but it’s not alone; there are many more along the route the bus took to get us there.
The up side is that the locals are very willing to help you. Everyone was happy to see outsiders come in. For the record, we are the only guests in the
hostel for the night. Needless to say, they are very willing to help and give discounts (I think they’re just happy to see new faces and new business). Even a cat that we dubbed “George Boots” greeted us in the road!
There are amazing views of the mountains that we will probably do some exploring of later this week. There is a bike rental in the village across t
he bridge to the main land which we will probably take advantage of.
