We said goodbye to Tirzah and her family and plotted our trip out of town. Inverness has a famous bookstore called Leakey’s Bookshop, which I ensured we visited. Afterwards, we picked up Samer’s friend Joe from Lebanon at the Inverness train station. We’d been in Scotland for about a week, and Joe was joining us for the second half. Today’s destination: Portree on the Isle of Skye.
On our way to Skye, we tried to stop at Urquhart Castle but failed miserably. Parking was utterly impossible, and the walk from town was significant. We didn’t really have the time we thought we’d need to be able to do that and to go to Portree. We made our way to the castle of Eilean Donan on a small tidal island. It’s something out of an old Arthurian story because it has this long bridge, and the castle is perched on this island. However, when we arrived, it was raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock. It was torrential. We thought we could make it work, but that was foolish. I was absolutely soaked and unable to enjoy this picturesque castle. This bummed me out, and then, to make matters worse, I discovered that most of the original castle was destroyed, and this thing was built in 1911. I had two castle failures, so I was grumpy and ready to get to Skye and dry off.
Booking rooms in Skye was one of the most stressful parts of planning this trip. Finding space was tough for the three of us, and I had to break the budget and stay at The Bosville Hotel. This is a lovely waterfront hotel with a beautiful harbor view. It’s nice, not fancy, but there are so few hotels on Skye that it can charge whatever it wants. I was annoyed about my castle misadventures, so after resting, I left for the hotel bar to watch some soccer and have a pint. On trips like these, I sometimes need a moment to myself, and it was very nice to enjoy the time in my own thoughts.
While I was at the bar, I struck up a conversation with a couple from Texas. The moment of quiet with rote sports was gone, but chatting with them was fun. They had come to Scotland on a lark and were surprised to find the Fringe happening in Edinburgh. They hadn’t gone to a single show! I was shocked and slightly appalled. Eventually, Samer and Joe made their way to the bar to find me, and we went a few buildings down to the Scorrybreac Restaurant. I got lucky with this reservation and found space by direct messaging them through Instagram. This is Portree’s one modern fine dining establishment. It was good but not particularly memorable.