Bleh. If possible, I'm starting to like mornings even less than usual. Ferry wasn't leaving until almost noon, but for some reason we decided that we need to meet at the ferry dock at about 10:00 or so. Maybe earlier, even; things are starting to get a bit fuzzy. We didn't have breakfast at the hostel that morning, so we were given £5 each and set loose. Emily and I found a grocery store, and managed to spend a grand total of £2.81 between us. Went back to the waiting room and ate while some of the others went out shopping. Ferry finally showed up at 11:50, and we were off.
The ferry ride wasn't too bad; about 45 minutes to the Island of Mull, then a really crazy bus ride on a more or less one lane road (there were some very close encounters, several of which fall into the "holy crap, we're all going to die!" category), and then a short ferry ride across to Iona.
On Iona, I learned that Barb measures distance differently than most people do. When we landed at about 15:00, we were given our housing instructions. Rob, Alyssa, Jeanna and I would be up to the north: the girls' B&B was "just beyond" and abbey, and our hostel was "just beyond" that. Nothing had signs, which didn't help. The only help we really got was a small sign near the abbey that said "Hostel 1/2 mile. Turn left at end of road." 30 minutes and somewhat more than half a mile later, we finally found our hostel... where we got to wait for another 15 minutes, because it was closed between 14:00 & 16:00. Yargh. We also got instructions [directions] to the girls' B&B there: "It's the one with the little leprechaun by the front door."
Dinner at 18:30, at Martyr's Bay. Not the best food ever, and it cost us £17. Yay for the only restaurant on the island. The starter was good--seasoned potato wedges--but I don't even remember my main course, and the cheesecake for dessert was decent at best. While at dinner, I informed Barbara that my earlier joke about our hostel probably being on the other side of the island was, in fact, a fairly accurate statement. Turned out we were only about 100 yards, 200 at most, from the northern coast of the island.
After dinner we wandered back to our respective sleeping accommodations, and then Emily and I met up again and headed to the north shore. We found a patch of grass that was relatively free of sheep dung, sat down, and watched as much of the sunset as we could through the clouds.
About 22:30 I decided it was time for bed, but while walking Emily back to her B&B, we got distracted by the ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) going on at the community hall. It was a sort of community dance/entertainment thing--not that hard to pull off when the population is only about 70 (before adjusting for the constant flow of tourists of course). Much of our group decided to join in the dancing, but I passed. I did have fun laughing at them, though. At some point, it was decided that one of the Americans should perform; Emily got "elected," and ended up singing "Summertime," some old jazz song. She actually has a great singing voice, so it sounded really good. It's just unfortunate that there was no jazz music to back her up.
After she sang, I actually went back to the hostel and went to bed. Even though it was about 23:30, nobody else was in bed yet. Oh well. End of day one in Iona.
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