On another bright side, Rob and I decided it was Kilt Day, and wore the kilts we had bought back in Edinburgh. On the dark side of the bright side, it decided to rain. But not until about 10 minutes after we left the hostel, so I really didn't want to turn around for the umbrella I had removed from my backpack before I left. Oh well. Luckily, I had decided to wear my Gortex [Gore-Tex] jacket, so I didn't get too soaked.
As usual, half the group--including Barb [ed: who was in charge of setting the meeting times]--showed up late. Which really didn't matter this time, because she just wanted to tell everybody about the pilgrimage group that left about 5 minutes ago, that lasted about 6 hours. Needless to say, nobody went. Crystal & Nicole headed for St. Columba's Bay right off; Emily and I decided to wait till it got nicer, and I'm not sure what everyone else did.
When the sun finally decided to show itself, we set off. Unfortunately, we missed the turn to the bay, and wound up over on the west side of the island. We enjoyed the sights (but not the smells) for awhile, then decided to head back in and look for a map. On the way, we ran into Nicole and Crystal, who gave us directions; but we needed to drop stuff off and get some water anyways. This was accomplished in short order, and we were off again.
The trip to Columba's Bay is a pretty decent hike; it's a good workout, but it doesn't leave you sore. To be perfectly honest, though, it isn't much different from a Pacific Northwest beach, except for the part where it's about 5000 miles away and in Scotland. It did have some really cool rocks there, though. Some were just speckled weird, some were agates, and some were scraps from a nearby marble quarry. I'll have to give Matt one of those and the one I picked up on Arthur's Seat; maybe that'll make up for not getting him one from the Thames.
We found Erin, Rachel, Rob & Chelsea already there; Alyssa & Jeanna stayed behind to do homework. We chilled for awhile, looked for cool rocks, threw some not-so-cool rocks in the water, then headed back. While collecting a wine bottle they left behind, Erin tripped & broke the bottle, cutting her finger up pretty good. It bled quite a bit, but fingers have a tendency to do that, and she was fine.
Dinner at Martyr's Bay again; once again, a waste of £17. We almost got to use a real menu, because Corliss was allergic to pretty much everything on the "value" menu, but that didn't pan out. She got to keep the real menu (understandably), but the girls decided they wanted dessert, which came with the "value" menu. I felt that with a good meal dessert isn't really necessary, but oh well. I ended up with gammon (ham) steak, which probably had enough salt in it to re-salinate the Pacific Ocean, if it somehow became fresh. It definitely wasn't my favorite meal, but two shots of vodka later I didn't care quite so much. Amazing how that works.
After dinner we had a little while to chill, then it was time for a service at the abbey. Maybe it was just really different from what I'm used to back home, but it seemed pretty dead to me. We "prayed"--read off people's names in monotone--and asked for healing or whatever. Then there was the laying on of hands, and the same little chant for each person. To me, this just seemed like going through the motions. I'm used to people being excited to be in God's presence; these people just seemed to be "there," if that makes any sense.
Picked up my stuff from Emily & Rachel's place, then started the long walk back to the hostel. Ran into Corliss by the old nunnery and talked to her for awhile. Got really bummed that she wasn't leading the tour, 'cause heres sounded much more interesting; probably because hers was focused on history instead of art. She also said that she'd rather see us in a pub or out experiencing something than stuck inside doing Barbara's worksheets, and I agreed wholeheartedly. Once again, oh well. Rob joined in about halfway through the conversation, and then we left for the hostel a little after 23:00. Other than it being dark and us finding a frog, it was the same long, boring walk as before.
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