Ok, the grammar nazis amongst you dear readers have by now already posted a comment: it's midges, not midgets! But Jani, Feri and Cris made the mistake a couple times and by the time I explained the difference to them it was too late, and a vision of midgets appearing from behind the bushes to bite us was engraved in our minds.
Aah, highland Caledonia. Such a beautiful place. Why was this plague sent down on you? Is this just a government plan to prevent too many people from camping in the pristine Scottish nature? Well, if it is, do know, dear Scottish government, that it did not stop us! Cause we are strong. We are brave. And we naively thought the repellents will work.
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| Red Red. Yummy |
I ploughed my way directly against the sun to the west, going to meet Sofi, a former student from AIMS, who used to call me "tutor Fero" while I was tutoring at AIMS. Since then, however, Sofi did the tutoring at AIMS herself and started a PhD in Glasgow, involving even more tutoring and teaching. Thus suddenly, I found myself listening to her explaining algorithms she used for her research, with the roles exchanged! Fero, time to get back to some studying!
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| With Sofi |
Other than excellent Red Red that Sofi cooked, I was thankfully inspired by the enthusiasm of this young lady who seems to be living the life to the fullest, not sparing a drop of her potential. A true epitome of the fact that if the right stars align, you get the support you need and you are passionate about what you do, you become an unstoppable train of energy. Keep going Sofi!
The next day morning I hopped on the CityLink bus towards Isle of Skye. Weather was stunning, driver in a good mood ("I have some sickness bags if you want, but they cut the bottom off") and scenery breathtaking. I got off in Fort William and soon greeted the rest of the crew, so that we meet the detailed plan for the next 5 days, which looked something like this:
- go to the Isle of Skye
- survive for 5 days
- get back to Glasgow on Friday
As you can see, we had loads on the todo list, but despite that were forced to improvise a bit, usually in situations when we all entered the car, shut the door, started the engine and Jani (driving) inevitably asked "so now what".
Not only we had a full schedule, the car was also tested to its limits and when I wanted to speak to Feri, the barrier of baggage in between us made it almost more personal to send him a text message. Despite that, we managed meaningful conversations, usually about midges.
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The first night, we found a beautiful place to sleep, few miles away from Kyle of Lochalsh, still on the mainland. The most picturesque little lake, small beach just enough for our tents and bit of firewood in the near forest. However, we were not the only ones who liked the place. For as soon as the fire died out, the reality, and millions of midges, settled in. In a race to get into tents relatively midge-free we somewhat won, but the prospect of a nightly use of facilities was looming ahead, worrying me even more than when we were camping in Canada and we had a bear somewhere round the tent. I will spare you of the details though. Let's just say that you want a windy place for camping, or else midges will eat you alive.
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| Beautiful place for camping (till the dusk, when the midges came from behind the bushes!) |
But not too windy! Following the train of thoughts of "better hurricanes than midges", we slept by Niest point lighthouse the next day and by Duntulm castle the day after. Both are completely stunning venues for sunsets with postcard-like views and gentle breeze for the evening to sweep off the little annoyances. However, as soon as we tucked in the sleeping bags, the innocent breeze turned into a wild beast trying to lift us off the ground and sweep too, into the sea, as if hoovering and cleaning the sheep-grazed pastures of the (often dirty and smelly) campers (for more info on our hygiene, keep reading)
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| Niest point lighthouse |
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| Jani and Cris taking pictures, also at Niest point lighthouse |
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| By Duntulm castle |
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| By Duntulm castle |
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| Frisbee session after sunset, on the field just below Duntulm castle |
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| Sunset by Duntulm castle |
The second of the two windy nights especially, the tents were put to test for a couple of sleepless hours, when the whole tent shook like crazy and bended one way under the pressure of the strong winds. Me and Feri eventually made it through the night with just a single torn strap on the tent and sleepy eyes. Jani and Cris were less lucky and had a hole in the tent, after one of the backbone construction pipes broke and torn the fabric (unexpected from MSR!). Thus the last night, we opted for wind-less midge-swarming spot again, though this time equipped with some more repellents and nets on our heads, which made us look like we want to rob a bank.
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| Cris in the Fairy pool |
Days were almost exclusively filled with clear skies and little wind. This subconsciously drew us closer to water and we gradually visited several truly magical places. Tuesday, we found a relatively unknown coral beach by Plockton. A very quiet place with just a handful of tourists and an inviting, yet cold water in the sea. An old couple was jumping in from the rocks nearby and I thought "that's what I want to be doing when I'm 65". Mind you they had wetsuits, but still, we were inspired and did a bit of refreshing team building ourselves.
On the same day, we visited the much more known Fairy pools - a series of waterfalls and the little deep pools below them, forming basically a canyoning track. After days of sun with 26 degrees, the water was perfect and the waterfall pool we found was a priceless oasis, offering excellent jumping points from the rocks around into the seemingly bottomless waters. For once I felt like Bear Grylls, although compared to me, he usually jumps from higher bases, makes a proper back-flip, and eats juicy worms.
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| Exploring the Fairy pools |
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| Coral beach by Plockton |
On Wednesday we lingered around the Niest point lighthouse and later hiked the highly recommended Old man of Storr hike north of Portree, before finding another pool with waterfalls just off the road by Uig.
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| The waterfall pool by Uig |
Finally, on Thursday we aimed southeast again and decided for something to finish us off - a hike to Bla Bheinn, with close to 1000 metres of ascent. The views were fully worth it though, and so was yet another cool waterfall pool at the end of the hike.
It is interesting to see how days of camping and hiking change your perspective on life. If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend to get out there for a few days. Worries are left behind. Things like "where do we sleep", "where are all the damn bird who eat midges", or "does someone have an extra pack of Pombears" start to dominate your mind. Thoughts are coming in, such as "why is linear regression important anyway, I just want to wash", making you rethink and tidy up your mind and the priorities of life. Conversations inevitably turn to the socially less acceptable topics, you start to speak in the Scottish accent (or in Feri's case, you sound like you are from Mumbai) and you start attracting looks from the passing by cars at the local superstore, as if they never saw someone take 4 parking places to dry their tents, cook chilli con carne on the curb or prep salmon sandwiches in the shopping trolley!
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| Hobo style! Boom like that! |
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| Cipolla al pomodorro de salsiccia il riso con fagiolo (things just sound better in Italian) |
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| There's some proper mountains on Isle of Skye . View from Bla Bheinn |
In Glasgow, we encountered again the true civilisation with hundreds of people milling around the streets, shopping and hurrying about their business. Even more drastic was the sudden absence of midges - our daily companions, points of conversation and jokes for the past days have suddenly been gone. We could almost say it was a sad moment, but then we entered Paesano and all the tears were gone.This place tops the list of pizzerias in Glasgow on Trip Advisor and already entering inside hinted at reasons why. The large open space, modern (almost hipsterish) interior, filled with wooden benches and tables, packed with customers, staff flying around and delivering the hot smoldering pizzas from the two wood fired ovens... Atmosphere scoring straightaway!
Menu was also very promising. Only 10 choices, VERY reasonably priced (5-8 gbp), cutting down on heavy decision making, yet offering ways to upgrade your own pizza with a list of extras. We all went for a different option. I decided for a red pepper, spinach and ricotta combo + shared a pure Marinara with Jani. Order was taken and our choice scribbled on the menus in front of us, which I thought a bit unnecessary and not much environmentally friendly. The waiting has begun though. and one could see the excitement, impatience and hunger on our faces, demonstrated clearly by the following pictures. |  |
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The place claims to be doing traditional Neapolitan pizzas. This means super hot temperature and cooking just around 90 seconds. Thus despite the large number of customers, the 5 beautifully looking circles landed in front of us after just around 10 minutes. And they looked SPLENDID!
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We dived in and soon silence settled as everyone was enjoying the experience. Or enjoying really? Ok, real Neapolitan pizza is not my most favorite type as I prefer the crispier crust, but even despite that, I felt the pizzas lacked something. For one, the bottom was slightly burned on few of the pizzas, which was especially notable when one munched on the pure crust. The taste of the dough, I found, was simply a bit uninspiring. Similarly, some of the ingredients, such as the pepper or mushrooms seemed to be a bit tasteless, possibly lacking some seasoning. Mushrooms and spinach would also deserve a bit more moisture and it felt as if they were just thrown on the top with little thought. Adding garlic oil or chili oil might do the job but these are either not provided or were simply not offered by the waitress.
On the other hand, the sauce was very satisfying and thus my favorite became the pure marinara, with a nice rich tomato flavour and a touch of garlic. And despite the critique above and me not being that much hungry, we finished them all, without a heavy feeling on the stomach afterwards. Others seemed to share my thoughts and commented "good, but definitely not the best" or simply expressed their feelings on a picture.
Overall, I must say expected a bit more from the pizzas themselves. All the other ingredients of a successful pizza hunt were, however, fully present: the vibrant atmosphere, great company (I did mention it, Jani!:P), friendly and helpful staff, and all for a deal well worth it. So when couple travellers asked me later on in the hostel I stayed in during last night "what would I recommend in Glasgow", I confidently replied "Paesano pizzeria". Yep, if I lived here, I would be a regular.
It was, however, time to say goodbye to my fellow travelers and soon goodbye to Scotland. And somehow, I found it a nostalgic moment, as in that short time, I really came to like Scotland. It just really feels like a completely different country from the rest of UK. People seem somewhat more friendly and down to earth, joking in their Scottish accent, the nature is beautiful, lush and often quite untouched, and in general there's a certain character to the country that just makes the place worth to visit. It's perhaps hard to say after a week, but that makes it a good reason to come back. Perhaps in the winter for some alpine skiing, when the midges sleep :-)
Dough - 5 (mind you, I am not fan of Neapolitan style!)
Ingredients - 6
Sauce - 9
Atmosphere - 9
Service - 8
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