No new idea will ever grow as well and sustainable when forced out, gasping for breath, to bypass rocks, buildings and alien species (The non-native weeds of the mind, or ‘culture’, if you will). When it’s suffocated outward to be as high as possible, as soon as possible, it will be tall, thin and bendable. It’ll be weak, it’ll go any and all ways to be able to survive. It’ll bear no fruit. When the wind catches it, it’ll blow over like it never existed.

Ideas shouldn’t be weak and  bendable to survive. They need to be strong, nourished, flexible but only in order to not break. They need the attention of a loving crofter, the patience of a mother, the warmth of loving friends. They need the nutrients of knowledge, of criticism, of consideration and humility. All of those, in balanced quantities. Not too much, not too little.

The seeds have been planted in all of us. Nourish the soil, enlighten yourself and breath. Saplings will appear, and they will develop into an ever growing wisdom.

Dear Allison tought me how to knit and by this time I’ve already knitted two hats (one for Will and one for Sandra, my subrenter) and a pair of fingerless gloves. woohoo! I still had my stupid cold so no real hiking for me unfortunatly. Had a nice day with Luke, Will and Allison in Portree where we had lunch in cafe Ariba where they have the BEST houmous in the north of Scotland. caramelised vegetable houmous, dried tomato houmous… hmmm after that we went yarn-shopping in Broadford and found a great second hand bookstore. amazing collection.

We generally had a couple of very relaxing days, hanging out by the fireplace or kitchen (which was my favourite spot) and sometimes having a beer or two at the pub. I had a cool night out with Will, Fab (from Pitlochry), Kate and Gordon (both tourguides for macb.) During this week I said my goodbyes to some of the tourguides/busdrivers like Ewen (had a crazy dance with him during my biginning days on Skye and met up with him again in Edinburgh and flash visits to Skye in between) and Neil (we had an intense relationship which consisted of feeding eachother new exciting chocolate (like chilli or orange spice) and him making me REAL coffee, saw him weekly the last 1,5 month) Lynn and Ruth I said goodbye to earlier in Edinburgh, those lasses are now in Thailand having a wicked time

wednesday I went to Broadfort with William to a secondhand store for some clothes for the party. It was the rainiest day I’ve experienced in Scotland. Even our underwear was completely soaked (which makes for good conversation). we had fun though as we were walking by the roadside, being splashed upon by passing cars, and him teaching me opera-singing techniques. AND we found cool stuff for the party so hurrah!

Had a few rough days before the weekend, headache and very tired but a LOT of sleep fixed that for a bit and Sunday it was time for the big Skye staff party! theme: Safari crazyness! because of the bad weather almost no one showed up from the other hostels though… which on the one hand was too bad, but on the other, we were so comfortable with eachother that the party turned into complete madness!

Rich had made punch which seemed to make everyone slightly insane right away (for some reason Allison grabbed and squeezed my boob… out of the blue… two sips into the first drink, like wtf?). Luke came back that day after spending a couple of days in Edinburgh with his bonnie lass (cute girl) and looking like an oldfashioned safari hunter, complete with monoculairs, great!

Will was sporting the pretty gay but rooaaarrrw look as such:

And Rich had the whole safari-glamour-look going on:

Maz was the iraque safarie tourist and Allison very cute with ponytails (playing the stare and don’t smile game I guess):

Nicole, Allison, Kathy and me had just ripped up the animal-print clothes we bought and messed around with it.

more pics:

Nicole and Luke

Katy and Luke

Luke and Will

Me and Will

ah… and as the night proceeded we got into many pillowfights, twister competitions, dancing to Hanson, gay-offs (between Will, who isn’t gay, and a girl from Edinburgh), houmous fights, weird happenings in the loundry room (we’re dirty girls, we need to be washed!) and after a long long time Rich, Nicole and I fell asleep on top of eachother. magic!
And on the next day only Luke was really hungover. the rest of us were kind of fine actually! although cleaning was a bitch…

That monday was a day of rest, completely messed up tradition and had taco-tuesday that evening because  I was leaving and packed my bag…
Tuesdaymorning I hugged everyone goodbye (snif…) and headed of with Rich to go hiking. We took a bus to Armadale, the ferry to Mallaig and got a ride to the place where we had to go which was close to Loch Ailort (which is about half an our from Fort William and Mallaig.

It was a GREAT walk up to the bothy we were going to spend the night in, although because of the rain, the first bit was kind of like walking up a waterfall. the rest of the way was very boggy so had to do a lot of jumping (me, Rich not so much since he’s about 35 cm taller than me… ) but the walk was beautiful.
Rich got some pics here when he took the walk alone:

we arrived at the bothy and met up with a guy who was also staying there. That evening the five of us played cards, ate quesedilla’s and drank wiskey with hot chocolate. The night though, was pretty cold so we kind of all had to snuggle up to stay warm, which was cosy

The following day we went looking for a beach, found it after climbing many a rock, crossing many a stream and filling our shoes with a lot of mud and water from the bog. it was beautiful though. so clean and pure… lovely! Rich and I had a swim at another small beach (cold but great!!!) walked back to the bothy, took our bags and started our hike back to the highway. wednesday was a beautiful day and the walk was yet again, awesome. At the highway I said goodbye to Rich (damn I hate doing that…) and promised him I’d make him a hat.

I got a lift from Rich’s friends to Fort William where I JUST missed my bus to Edinburgh so all in all, I arrived there around midnight. Hung out with John for a bit, said goodbye to people there and went to bed. the next day I met up with Gordon (driver), had lunch outside with a take-away potato and then… really had to go…

Sigh….

So here I am now, Sweet Sandra and Bram picked me up from the airport, of which I’m very grateful because I had expected no one to be there. I takes getting used to to be back… it changed me so much, and for the better! and I want to hang on to it with everything I got. This was the best thing I’ve ever done for myself, ever. and it won’t be the last time I travel. Barcelona’s next

cheers!!!

Renting a car with Will, Sancia and Angus, woohoo!!!

Fairy Castle at Fairy Glen, not manmade, but looks earily like it was… (oooh….)

Sancia at Fairy Glen

Will, me and Sancia

Fairy Glen

and more Fairy Glen

Kilt Rock.
Not very visible in this weather but the rocks in the background look like a Kilt when the sun is shining. The waterfall in the front drops right down onto the beach and into the sea, beautiful! The whole rock has small holes in it so when the wind blows you can hear it whistle…. coolness!

So… that’s Scottish weather and no wipers on the old glasses for ye

I met Bas in Edinburgh, had some tea in the afternoon while he was showing off his new collection of Terry Pratchetts (yes! I’m jealous!) The next evening we had a cool night out in the royal mile inn, together with some of his colleages and I met Emily and Mady there again which was awesome. Sancia arrived on the 1st of September bravely ignoring her jetlag, Bas and I picked her up at the airport. we had a briliant baked potato and after that went for a little stroll around town. that evening we went to the Royal mile inn again where we also met up with Lynn, Mike and Ewen, who are all busdrivers for Macbackpackers, and there I also saw Kylie and Nicky again. Sancia and I had great fun watching Mike do his ‘spin the glass’ trick, which… of course… ended up falling to it’s death on the pubfloor (the glass, not mike).

the Next day we went from Edinburgh to Inverness, and then to Skye ( in an interesting way ) and meeting up with everyone here again was great. The next day Steve, Will, Sancia and I went hiking up at Sligachan, beside the waterfall. but because I have been having a huge cold ever since going to Edinburgh, I wasn’t able to walk all the way up the hill. It was a great walk though, and one of the sunniest days I’ve had on Skye. unfortunatly it was also the worst Midge (musquito)-day every so everyone was completely covered in musquito bites… the agony!!!
The next day we rented a car together with Will and Angus (from Edinburgh, I keep meeting him everywhere haha) and we went up to portree, Fairy glen and Kilt rock, which was briliant.

Wednesday it was Caleidh night again! so we went out to the local pub to do some traditional scottish dancing (which means hopping about). great fun

Thursday Sancia unfortunatly had to leave again… but those days was great, it was awesome to share that with you! everyone still talks about you up here haha!

ah… the days after that, we had some great evenings together with the two new girls from USA, Nicole and Kathy. sweetest girls, great fun! We said goodbye to Steve who is now on his way to Australia again. Tuesday morning I got up and Rich (the manager) asked me if I wanted to join him to take back a rented van to Fort William. He needed someone to stay awake, so yeah! of course!

We rode up to Fort William while the Glens were surrounded by beautiful sea mist. We tried to look for a tiny fairy forest (unsuccesful but oh well…) dipped our heads in one of the lochs (for luck and eternal beauty!) and arrived in Fort William after a beautiful trip. Rich had decided that we were going to take the train to Mallaig to take the ferry to Armadale and than the bus to Kyleakin. In the train we met up with some friends of Rich, with whom he travelled in Africa. They were great fun and we were able to pusuade them to come to Skye with us to listen to the great band that was playing that night in the pub next door.

The train ride was absolutely stunning… every part of it is… wow! fairytale like. It also passes the ‘Harry Potter’-bridge, which got all the biddies excited hehe… Rich and I had to punch eachother ever so often to keep awake though…
At Maillaig we had the greatest fish and chips I’ve ever eaten and then took the ferry and bus back home. that night we went to the pub to hear the band playing and it was AWESOME!!! apperantly they are really famous in Scotland. Did a lot of dancing, even had a dancing battle with one of the local fishermen, who was a brilliant dancer. good fun!

ah… that’s it for now folks… I miss you all!!! will see you again on the 20th! and then I have to look at plans for Barcelona…. maybe the 28th… maybe the week after that teehee… he misses me! cuteness..

not checking spelling because I’m lazy! woohoo!

cheers

I’m still having a great great time up here in Kyleakin, Actually delayed my flight to the 20th because there is a big staff party coming up sunday which I really want to go to so expect me home later!

Haven’t done much hiking unfortunatly because I have had a huge cold these past two weeks that keeps sticking around… bleh… but, Had the BEST time with Sancia, I loved having you here! that was so much fun!!!

oke, gotta go…

cheers

oke, so I’ve just spend 2 and a half hours uploading pictures for you guys, it’s a shitload, so to speak and you can find it at my flickr page Click here!!!

love you all!

cheers

Yesterday I made a great long hike at sligachan again together with Will, we walked along the black Cuillins and the Masco and it was the hardest thing to turn back at some point because it was getting to late. all together we spend more than 5 hours hiking and it was the most beautiful thing In the evening we had a barbecue together with Steve, Luke, Greg, Will, Anna, Rich, Allison and Neal. great great day, but I was exhausted at the end of it. When I come back to Skye I will do a hike with Will and Rich (and maybe other people) through Sligachan to Eigol, camping in one of the freehouses during the night. can’t wait! will also try to do a hike with Steve along a ridge (either the cuillin or near old man of Storr). cool stuff!

this morning we took some awesome pictures with the Skye backpackers staff (which I hope to upload soon) and then I took the Jo-Jo-tour with Greg down to Oban. Our tourguide Ruthie is the best… the tour involves 3 stops, one at a Eileen donan castle, one at Fort William and one at Glen Coe. during the drive she tells us about the legends of the different areas we drove through and she’s so damn funny! it’s a great way to drive through the highlands like that, learning about so much interesting history and folklore. recommend it to anyone! During the stop at Glen coe I talked with Ruthie about hiking there and maybe… I will try to get back down there and do a hike up one of the three sisters… but need to find someone to do it with. maybe steve! we’ll see

At 19.30 we arrived in Oban, where I met up with Emily and Mady (from skye) again and Laura, who just designed a great tattoo for me….. Also seeing Nicky (the manager) and Kylie again is awesome, cool cool people.  Greg, Ruthie and me got some great indian food and drinking some wine and tomorrow we’re heading for Edinburgh on the Jo-jo. should be interesting!

aaaaanyway, I’m off to bed, leaving at 9 tomorrow

love y’all!
cheers

cheers! I’m off to pubdancing!

Many greetings from beautiful, breathtaking and awesomely fun Skye! I’ve already met so many great people here, I’m at THIS hostel right now and absolutely loving it! I met Greg here again (from pitlochry) and many many other people. The manager, Rich and the head receptionist, Will are two cool Canadian dudes. Will is a great singer as well by the way. Luke (aussie) also works parttime reception and cleaner and is the funniest and cutest (as in puppy-cute) guy, his parents are actually from Holland so he keeps calling people mafkees and ouwe viezerik.

Then in the beginning of the week I also met Amy (Seattle) and Natalia (Belarus), Emily and Mady (NY), and two of the coolest Spanish (or no, sorry, Cataloni) girls ever, Silvia and Julia. The minute they open their eyes they are like a wirlwind, but I love em! the first four have already moved on to other places or home but silvia and Julia still rock my world

(ah, by the way… no i-net @ Skye hostel so public comp. again, hence the small amounts of updates, sorry!)

Last week on Thursday we had a Ceilidh see expl. dance-night at the local pub (of which I will try to upload som pictures) and I had a awesome dance with Ewen, one of the macbackpackers busdrivers. walzing around like madman occasionally adding some pulp-fiction dance moves and ending up with a big stackpile (we fell over, people jumped on top, ouch! hehe)

and……

teehee

I met the cutest, most gorgeous sweet, smart, funny and freakin sexy (sorry ma!) guy from Barcelona… He made me dinner and … well… we kissed while sitting by the fire because summer still hasn’t arrived here…
unfortunatly he had to leave the next day but I kind of promised him I would visit in Barcelona. Which I’m planning on doing anyway because I want to visit other people in Barcelona as well. so woohoo!

anyway… my time’s almost up. unfortunatly I’ve been a bit sick the last 4 days. just went to a doctor and he says my sinuses have a slight infections so yeah… that sucks a bit. Will has been very sweet though, paid a cab for me to go to a doctor… really good guy.

oh! last thingy! I was the nightporter yesterday and it was wicked fun! Will and Julia say my scones (which you have to make for brekky) are sexy as hell oke, that’s about it for now!

love y’all!
Cheers Yu

for some reason everyone just goes out to get druk here… which I’m not really used to. When I go out I like to remember where I’ve been and who I’ve talked to… if you catch my drift. aaaanyway ->

Today I had my day off but because of yesterday I was a wee bit tired. I tried to catch a small ferry to the seal collony nearby but after waiting for about 20 minutes I had to face the fact: the ferry wasn’t coming anymore But I hope to catch a ferry to the Isle of Mull and one of the castles on it tomorrow (which also passes the seal collony, yeah!) at 2 o’clock.

So after my initial disappointment I came back to the hostel where Kylie told me to go to a ruin of a hotel build in 1890. After walking up to McCraig’s tower first (weird building, made by some rich guy back in the day) which gave me a beautiful view, I started to look for the tiny road to the hotel. It’s kind of a secret to tourists although all the locals know about it.

I got lost several times in the town, walking into peoples backyards a couple of times (don’t make them look like parks man!) I found the wee road. At that time it had started to rain and the path led through a small forest and because of the rain it smelled … green! awesome, I couldn’t stop sniffing the air!

The path was turning very muddy, so I finally got to make my boots decently dirty I could see footprints from men, deers and rabbits and it was so quiet! when I finally got to the hotel it was raining even more but for some reason it didn’t matter at all. the ruins were completely overgrown with small trees with red berries and bushes with blackberries and although the ruins were almost creepy, they had something fairytale-atmosphere about them. No regrets at all about walking for 2 hours trying to find it.

So Tuesday I’m going back to Skye to work in the hostel there. Dean (from Edinburgh) and Greg (from Pitlochry) will probably be there as well and Will (who I met here) is quite fun as well so… wicked! no internet there though, so will probably not be able to update much… so don’t be mad!

oke… gotta go make scones for tomorrows breakfast and then off to bed!

cheers!