I’ll try to pick up where I left off with my last blog. Wednesday night, we went to one of the hotels in Castlebay (like a 5 minute walk from us) where they have dinner at their restaurant and also free wifi. Elise got this chicken stuffed with haggis dish and I tried some of the haggis. I don’t know if it tastes different inside a chicken than just eating it straight up, but either way I had a bite. It wasn’t my favorite. To me (which I thought was so weird) it tasted like stale leftover Chef Boyardee sauce from a can. I had the shrimp and those were wonderful.
Thursday we went to the Heritage Center in Castlebay. They have a cafe as a part of it and we ate there for lunch. I had like the best baked potato ever (or maybe it felt that way because I hadn’t had one in awhile). At the table next to us was three old ladies who looked like they met here often and this was their usual hangout. After hearing them talk a little bit, I came to the conclusion that they were not speaking English. I knew it was probably Gaelic but I couldn’t make out any words. After we finished, we went outside to wait for them (which is really hard to do without looking like a creepy stalker). They came out finally and we talked with them and they had all grown up on the island and were native Gaelic speakers. We asked to interview them, but as soon as they heard the word “video” they didn’t want to be interviewed. It was still nice talking to them though. I came to the conclusion that they are the Gaelic Golden Girls. I'm glad we met them! (Even if it was stalkerish).
Thursday night, yesterday, we went to the Castlebay school summer ceilidh, which was like a talent show of sorts. It was really neat! They had a whole bunch of music and dancing stuff. The kids were so talented. Aalso, one would think that a performance like this would be formal kind of. But this was totally not. People were getting up the whole time and it was like a party or something, but everybody was okay with that. I thought it was funny. I felt like such an outsider though because the village is so small that I'm sure everyone knew Elise and I weren't from there. We saw one of the Golden Girls there too, so that was good to talk again. They are so nice!
After the ceilidh, we went back to the hostel and repacked. That is quickly rising to the top of my "things I hate to do" list. In order to procrastinate, I played with the owner's cat. Pause. Let me tell you about this cat. It's a con artist cat, as called by the owner's mother. One time this cat totally stowed away on the ferry to Oban and got lost there and someone sent it back! That's crazy! Unpause. Okay back to packing.
Oh another thing, Wednesday night, at the hotel, we didn't know exactly where to pay (one of those do you pay up front or at your seat? type places) so we just passed time by playing a game with a ketchup packet where you flick it back and forth trying to get it to stop halfway on and halfway off the table. We played this for awhile and names the ketchup packet Craig (after the hotel) and decided to bring him with us and document his journey though Scotland. It doesn't take much to entertain us sometimes it seems...
This morning (Friday) we had a 7 am ferry to Lochboisdale. Then from there we got a bus to Lochmaddy, where we are staying until Tuesday. On the ferry, I pretty much slept all the way so it went by fast. Once we got into Lochmaddy, we went to find where we are staying. It looks like we are two of four people staying there, for tonight at least. It seems so empty compared to the hostel in Castlebay, which was always full and lively. From our initial walk around Lochmaddy, it looks even smaller than Castlebay. There is one school with 2 teachers and 20 students. There was like no one out and about, which worried me in terms of getting interviews. Right when we got to our hostel though, the owner told us about a house nearby where two men are that we need to talk to and interview, so that seems like a possibility and I was glad she suggested it!
There is a hotel near us (it seems a a little weird that there are hotels, but not much else in the village to me) that has free wifi, so hopefully I can come and update over the next few days.
Oh sidewalks! I need to mention this about sidewalks. Here there are sidewalks generally, but they always go a little bit on one side and then just stop and there is no more. You have to walk to the other side of the road to get back on. It's so weird.
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