- 23:30 - Some guy tries his key in the door, knocks, key again, then knocks again. When we let him in, he discovers he's got the wrong room.
- 00:30 - Some guy shows up (to the right room, at least), makes quite a bit of noise getting settled in.
- 01:30 - Group of 2-3 shows up, makes lots of noise getting settled in.
- 02:10 - One more shows up, and leaves the door propped open for awhile so he can see where he's going.
- 06:30 - While packing up most of his stuff, the guy across from me spent a good five minutes rustling plastic bags... I swear he must've been collecting them.
I finally gave up & got up a bit before 09:00, showered & finished packing, the checked out & made my way to the station. Turned out my first ticket was open, so I hopped on the 10:15 to Glasgow. That meant more time in one of my least favorite cities ever, but less time worrying about getting the right place from there. Plus, I had my nook (fully charged... for some reason the adapter that wouldn't work in London worked just fine in the same type of outlet in Edinburgh) to keep me occupied, so I guess it could have been worse. Right now I'm entertained that my unreserved seat on the first leg was actually nicer than my reserved seat on this one, and unless we put on a miraculous burst of speed, I've got another three hours or so of this to look forward to.
18:35 - Oban, Scotland
Finally made it in a few hours ago. We got delayed half an hour or so thanks to a train coming out of Oban late (and it's one-way through that section) and the directions to the hostel weren't overly helpful, but I live. I was originally thinking about walking up to Dunollie Castle for some pictures, but my feet needed a rest and it sounds like they've got a sunset walk planned for tonight. If so I'll probably go on that, then spend the rest of the night reading and relaxing. Goals for tomorrow: 1) Get tickets if possible, since my train leaves just after 08:00 on Wednesday; 2) McCaig's Folly [ed: McCaig's Tower], the cool Romanesque tower on one of the hills around town; 3) The Distillery! Which, as nice as Oban is, is the only reason I stopped here; and 4) Dunollie Castle for some daylight shots, regardless of whether or not that's where we end up tonight.
I'm actually kind of wishing I had skipped Oban & gone straight on to Dublin, but a bit late for that now, eh? At this point, I'm just going to make the best of it.
I just mentioned it to Sunnie a couple days ago, and it hasn't changed: even though I've been here over a week, it still doesn't seem quite real. Maybe that's because so far I've only been to cities that I've already visited? Who knows. Right now, I'm just wondering if it will ever feel real... and if not, why not? Am I missing something? I have to keep pushing myself to go on, to finish this off, and to claim the prize of an empty wallet & a head full of memories.
I know I've mentioned it before, in one of the postcards if not here, but I'm not sure I'm really a fit for the hostel scene. Not the social part of it, at least, for the simple reason that I...
21:37
...don't really like people that much. But I like money more than I dislike people, and hostels are cheap.
The walk was fun, but tiring... I'm getting really tired of hills. Also, it was too cloudy for a good sunset, so I'm not sure how well my pictures (from the top of Battleship Rock, where there was an observation post during WWII) turned out. Oh well. As long as my legs work tomorrow I should get in some good shots. Resting out the end of today too... reading, email, then bed.
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