The Isle of Skye

After a pleasant ferry trip from the mainland of Scotland to the majestic Isle of Skye we were greeted by a rather nice lady who was giving us the keys to our hire car. The weather was a little dreary so Roy's Mum, Kate and I sat in the car while Roy and his Dad hopped into a mysterious black van to finalise the paperwork for the hire car. They were in the van for quite a while so I had all these visions of Roy and his Dad having their organs removed for selling on the black market. Luckily for us, they eventually emerged from the black van and jumped into the car. We were soon on our merry way to our B&B. We weren't sure what to expect from this little island, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that it boasted some of the most beautiful views of our trip! We arrived at our charming B&B - which was also the local post office - were a little unsure of which door we were supposed to go into. We straddled a giant, hairy dog to get inside which we then found out was the back door. We introduced ourselves to our hospitable host who then showed us to our rooms and helped us settle in to our new surroundings. The B&B was a rather small but beautiful B&B with only three rooms, so we were very lucky to have it all to ourselves!

The view from our bedroom window.

Our cute little room.

It might look a bit gloomy in the photos, but it was magical. It just wouldn't be right to have sunny weather in the north of Scotland - especially on what used to be known as the Eilean a' Cheò, or "isle of the mist"! After we settled into our rooms and freshened up, we headed downstairs to ask our host for some local knowledge of where to go. She told us a driving route to take that would allow us to see all the best parts of the island, and about the local pubs with good food. We headed to the car and started the delicate operation of squeezing in. All of a sudden we heard Roy's Dad yelling, followed by his Mum yelling even louder. Roy's Dad had used the door frame to help himself sit down into the car and Roy's Mum closed the door on top of his fingers. OUCH! Luckily nothing was broken, they were just a bit red and sore. Nothing a bit of ice couldn't fix! After everyone had settled down, we set off on our tour of the island.

We drove around the island clockwise stopping in at a town on the west called Dunvegan. We found a little cafe/bar where we stopped in for a drink. It was a rather strange little bar that was in the same building as a hostel (the mysterious sounding "Misty Isle Hotel") which we later discovered had a pub out the back full of rowdy locals. When we were leaving, Roy's Mum spotted some cute souvenir plates and asked the lady how much they were. She didn't know, so she went and got a guy who was missing a few teeth and asked him how much they were. He gave us a funny look, shrugged his shoulders and said "....1 pound?". Roy's Mum was a little surprised and promptly replied with an "I'll take one, thanks". We all glanced at each other, amazed at how cheap they were. The guy grabbed one of the plates out of the display cabinet and began packing it into a box - he was having a little trouble putting it in so Roy's Mum offered a hand with it. He looked up and smiled at Roy's Dad and said "Ah good...Women know better, aye?". We all shared a polite chuckle and left.

We continued on our whirlwind tour of the island, driving through the capital called Portree. By this time we were all just a bit too hungry to stop in for a look so we continued driving back down the island to Isleornsay - which apparently, we were told by our host, had a good pub for dinner. We parked the car near the pub, walked in and realised that it was a fairly busy night and that we might be in for a long wait for a table for five.

After a bit of exploring, we discovered a restaurant in a hotel that was in the same building as the pub. They welcomed us in and showed us to the sitting room where we were to wait for our table. After having eaten only pub meals and supermarket food for the last few weeks, we were a little surprised that we had to sit in a sitting room before our meal. This sitting room wasn't just any waiting room, it had puffy, cushioned seats, fancy lamps, a fire place and plenty of art hanging on the walls. It felt a little too posh for our daggy appearance - although we did our best to pretend that we were posh enough to be there...

Roy trying to "blend in"

After a while, the waiter - who reminded us of Dracula - came and took our orders. We exchanged glances at one another, each of us wondering why he was taking our order when we weren't sitting at our table. Obligingly, we gave him our order and politely declined the wine list since the food was going to cost quite a bit. Instead of ordering wine, we asked the waiter for some water to which he responded with a grimace on his face "...still or sparkling, madame?". By this time, we'd realised we had come to the wrong place. After Dracula had left with our orders, we erupted in laughter at how awkward the whole situation was. We felt totally out of place and the posh waiter wasn't making us feel any more welcome by the faces he was pulling at us as we stumbled with our order - us being unaccustomed to the whole posh dinner experience. So with that, there was more waiting to be done. By this time, we started to realise that we probably would have done better if we had have just waited in the pub for a table. But we waited... and waited... and made jokes about how ill-suited we were to our situation and waited some more.

Some time later, another waiter came (we wondered if we had scared Dracula off) and ushered us to our table where we sat, placed our napkins on our laps (like all good dinner guests do) and tried to remember our table manners and which fork was used for what course. Shortly after we sat, our meals came out. My immediate impression was "where's all the food?". My meal was about 7cm in diameter with a few tomatoes and garnishes to finish it. It was, to my delight, very delicious.. but extremely small. I was mumbling under my breath about how I wanted to go to the pub next door for some chips. After paying the huge bill for our tiny portions, we did just that. We walked out of the restaurant and straight into the pub next door, found a table and began ordering pints and chips. Whilst sitting and waiting for our second dinner, we caught a glimpse of our 'friend' Dracula. We watched him and wondered what he was doing in the pub surrounded by the common people. He was clearing tables! And still wearing his immaculately pressed suit! We quickly sussed out the menu in the pub and realised that the soup that Kate had ordered in the restaurant was also being served in the pub - but just under a different name and for 2 pounds cheaper!

Our chips were ready in record time and were delivered to us by the same waitress who served us our meals in the restaurant next door. Much to our amusement, she recognised us too. With plenty of room in our belly's, we gobbled down the chips and had MANY laughs about our very strange dinner experience. Of course, we finished the night with a pint.

The view off the jetty near the pub at Isleornsay.