Isle of Arran...Good Times, Bad Times

Maybe the bus being an hour late was an omen. We made the ferry on time, but about 15 minutes before we docked in Brodick on the Isle of Arran, there was a wonderful announcement that all buses on the island were canceled due to bad weather. Apparently "bad weather" meant like a half inch of snow on the ground. We got the last bus from Brodick to Lochcranza, where the hostel was, and once we got up there, there's not much to see except the loch, the ruin of Lochcranza Castle, and a lot of sheep. A LOT of sheep. A couple of us didn't pack lunch so we went on a mission to find a place to eat. The closest one turned out to be a hotel pub three miles away. Great little place, expensive beer, but pretty good pizza. We walked the three miles back to the hostel and hung out for the rest of the evening. The next day we took a cab to the Standing Stones, which are about as old as Stonehenge. On the way up, our cabbie told us that he didn't think there would be any ferries leaving the island that day because of the weather. The sea did look choppy, but we didn't really worry about it. We had to hike a mile through a guy's farm to get to the Standing Stones, passing by a lot of sheep. The Stones aren't that fascinating, but the landscape was beautiful, so it was kind of worth trudging through mud and sheep crap to see it.

Apparently, there is really only one road on the island and it goes around the coastline. The only way to catch a bus is to wait for it and flag it down, which we did to get back to Brodick to see that area and wait for the ferry back to the mainland. Brodick = bad news. We were supposed to take a 4:45 ferry back, but when we got there, one of the International Society guys said that the ferry operators were making a decision at 6:30 about whether or not to let ferries go in the bad weather. And just our luck, they ended up canceling the ferries for the rest of the day. Which meant another, unplanned, night on Arran. It also meant that I was missing the Glasgow Tigers Super Bowl party at PJ Champs. The hostel let us come back for another night, and Marie Claire and I walked in complete darkness down the street to the nearest bar to get beer (the local Isle of Arran Blonde ale was rather good) for the game. Had an interesting face-to-face encounter with a sheep on the way back from the bar. Almost walked right into it. To put it simply, UK coverage of American football sucks. The game didn't even start till 11:18, and they explain the rules as the game goes on, and the British commentators don't know what the hell they're talking about. And to top it off, the reception started to wane as the game went on, turning completely black and white after awhile, and fuzzy for about the last 10 minutes, which were probably the worst 10 minutes of the weekend, come to think of it. Thank God for the Arran ale. The game didn't even end till about 3:15 AM.

6:15 wake-up call to catch the 7:15 bus back to Brodick, which didn't bode well for the hangover, but we got the 8:20 ferry back to the mainland. Finally got back to Glasgow about 15 hours later than we were supposed to. I'm not sure the trip was worth the £38 I paid for it, but whatever. Over and done with, and I did get some great pictures of the landscape. Arran is absolutely beautiful, even when the circumstances of your being there kind of suck. Not planning any repeat trips.

I'm possibly taking a weekend off from traveling this weekend. I should probably focus a little time on my classes, since I have to take them for credit. A trip to Galway for later this month is in the works, and Allie and I have planned our first 10 days of Easter break. We're starting in Paris for 3 days, then 3 days in Venice, then 6 days in Rome, which will include Easter Sunday. Can't wait to be in St. Peter's Square for Mass. It's going to be ridiculous, and according to GoogleMaps, our hostel in Rome is a 3 minute walk from the Vatican. Plans for the rest of break hopefully will be done this week, and I'm campaigning for Prague, a train to Vienna, maybe another train to Budapest, and then flying back to Glasgow. Already had to speak to the fraud prevention department at my bank about the three flights and three hostels I booked within a span of 2 hours. Will be an exhausting 3 weeks, but I'm ready for it, even if my wallet isn't.

PS: Saw "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" last night on Ashton Lane. Great movie, typically brilliant work from Tim Burton.