From the little village of Arisaig on the west coast you can see the Isle of Skye, Rum, and Eigg just off the coast. I was supposed to take the train here, but as the rail workers were on strike I ended up in a bus instead, along with many other disappointed people; the rail from Fort William to Arisiag is said to be one of the most beautiful routes.
One of my fellow passengers was a young man from Germany with his 2 friends making a tour around Europe before starting university. Since then I've heard several other Europeans talk about making the same trip from their various homes in Europe up to Scandinavia and down to the UK. I guess these places seem a bit further a field than just the plain old mainland! I have also met many other travelers speaking English as their second language, all I've thought very well, and all who say they are not very good at it. I am simply impressed with their almost perfect English.
The collection of nationalities at my host's house in Arisiag steadily grow over the two days I was there. Shortly after I arrived a young man from northern Italy arrived as well to help in the garden in exchange for his room and board though an organization called HelpX. The following evening 2 young women from Vienna asked to pitch their tent on the bit of grass across from the garden. After considering the rainy weather our host simply invited them inside to stay the night. It was quite interesting to have such a variety of nationalities to exchange stories with. The Austrian women told us how Austrians hate to be mistaken for Germans and as a country try to think of themselves as victims of Hitler's rein, ignoring the fact that he was actually born there.
Taking advantage of the nice weather our host sent us out on a walk the afternoon we arrived with her shy, but well behaved dog: Bess. We scrambled around the hillside between the bracken a bit for a great view of the small harbor and the islands beyond. When we arrived back at the house I was tick free, but my companion counted a total of 15 pinhead sized ticks! I put my luck down to the fact that I was wearing long pants.
Over my stay I too lent a hand to weeding the path in the garden, which is only a thin layer of decomposing wood chips over the hard rock of Scotland. With our meals we enjoyed some of the lettuce, peas, and radishes from the garden despite the fact that it has been "a bad summer" in Scotland (colder and rainier than usual).
My host was once a farmer in the Highlands and consequentially usually differed in her opinions on the environment. For example she is in favor of once again allowing fox hunts with hounds to track down pestilent foxes. You can probably guess where I stand on this current question in Scotland. Although we did not agree on these things she was very generous and welcoming to us in her home. We even got a look at her husband's 1920's vintage car, which I subsequently missed getting a ride in by a few days! Ah well, on to other adventures instead I guess.
I am having some trouble at the moment getting my pictures to upload, so I will have to add them when I get it figured out.
