Alas, the Isle of Skye

I'm sitting here in my hostel in Inverness and after 24 hours of trying, I still cannot easily put to words my experience visiting the Isle of Skye yesterday. It was by far the most breathtaking and inspiring place I have seen in my almost 20 years of existence. I took hundreds of pictures, and none of them even closely compare to what it was like seeing it in person.

Our bus stopped a few miles before the bridge so we could take pictures of the isle from across the small channel between mainland Scotland and Skye. I knew then that this was a special place and I was in for a once in a lifetime experience. We journeyed over to the isle and had lunch in a small town. Janelle and I passed on the sit down expensive lunch so we could just buy sandwiches from the co-op store and have more time to walk around. We walked to this small paved jetty and I just sat on the side and took it all in. 

I still can't believe that it was real. It went by so fast, it's already starting to feel like a lifetime ago I was sitting there. I watched the small waves break on the rocks and boats go in and out of the harbor. The green highland hills and mountains in the background were perfect, I will never forget that sight.

We walked through small areas of seaside shops and homes. As we've traveled more and more north up into the highlands, the people have been harder and harder to understand. In Skye, it was impossible to comprehend 99% of what anybody said. They don't just have a strong accent, they speak an entirely different language: Scottish Gaelic. The primary school on Skye is the only one left in Scotland that teaches exclusively in gaelic. The residents I met either spoke only that, or an equally impossible to understand mixture of gaelic and 'english'.

The homes here were modest, and everybody was going about their daily lives without a care in the world for affairs off the isle. After lunch, we continued the drive inland on the isle to a few different lochs and glens. We saw a bunch of animals (I'll post about them separately) and went to completely deserted areas of the isle. 

We went into the main harbor and had coffees and teas. There's an extremely old ruined castle right in the middle of the bay, and a lighthouse on the other side of the bridge. The bridge is actually very new, until a dozen or so years ago the ferry was the only way on and off the isle.

I will never forget the Isle of Skye, and I pray that I get to go back and see much more of it. It was the highlight of the trip thus far, and will be extremely hard to beat. I've never seen bluer ocean and greener hills.