Scotland Pt. 2: The Fort William Hostels Walking Tour

We learned two important lessons during our first days in Fort William:
1. Never trust Mapquest—sometimes it leaves out minor geographic formations such as the tallest mountain in Britain.
2. “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

We spent much of those two days, unexpectedly hiking between Fort William hostels, chasing down hats, and wishing for just a little more fascism*.

(Credit: Randall Munroe, xkcd.com)

I won’t bore you with the details, but we were in general successful. Hostels were found and subsequently slept in. Hats were bought—real genuine Scottish polyester. And trains, though late, did eventually arrive. (SmallShacat, can we go back to Scotland together?)

And more importantly, there were mountains. And we got to walk around in them. The Scottish Highlands are beautiful: greener than the Rockies, rockier than the Appalachians. It really made me second-guess my decision not to go back to camp. Fortunately we had a five hour train ride with a troop of fourteen year old boy scouts to remind me.

Also, we added to the list of things Scotland has that the United States, in this case particularly the Midwest, needs. Sheep. They exist in basically the same capacity as the Midwestern cow: something to look at on road trips. But they are cuter, can climb mountains with grace, and are easier to clone. The last was a relieving to D, who has decided to change her independent project to creating a phospholuminescent lamb named Flory--the Florescent sheep.

We seemed to come to the consensus that it was disappointing to have to spend so much time hunting down hostels and dealing with upset plans, but it was worth it to be in the mountains with nothing particular to do, and nowhere to be. Time always seems like a luxury. Even in London, with the considerably lighter work load, there is a sort of constant pressure to make the most of every second we have abroad. In a town with exactly one attraction--Ben Nevis--it was unbelievably lovely to just chill with the mountains and the sheep.

Day 3 is more exciting, I promise. We take four hour naps…oh yes, and climb the TALLEST MOUNTAIN IN BRITAIN.

Stay tuned.

Love,
The Mouse


*Only insofar as it would ensure that the trains run on time.