Shopping in Oban

It was a typical Scottish grey and rainy morning. A good look for the landscape: the fog in the mountains and over the lakes make the scenery look wonderfully dramatic and mysterious. Unfortunately less pleasant weather to go hike in, so we decided to change our original hiking plans and drive to this town called Oban. But not before I had quite the scare. As most of you will know, I am afraid of spiders. No, let's rephrase; I am absolutely terrified of spiders. And for some reason I see them everywhere. So, I was just brushing my teeth in the bathroom when I saw this big monster in the bathtub. Usually I will scream, run away and call someone to save me, but I didn't want to trouble the hosts, so I was quite proud of myself that I made it to Sean alive. Of course he was very happy to be my hero (after a lot of laughing and teasing) and the bathroom was safe territory again. 

One adventure down, we hit the road to Oban. Now that Sean is getting comfortable with driving on the left side, we've come to the conclusion that driving in Scotland is great. The roads are fun, windy and with quick changes in elevation and stunning views around every corner. Oban is a pretty seaside city with a bunch of touristy shops and cafes. In most tourist shops, there's different items with clan apparel for sale, ties and scars etc. Of course the MacIntyre's (McIntyre Sean's version) were present as well, and apparently there are two different patterns, something we' ll have to look into. Sean bought a bunch of souvenirs and a Scottish hat for himself. 

'Pint-sized cocktails, £3,99!' was an offer I couldn't resist, so we walked into this big, kind of American style bar/restaurant. It was very busy and I was getting annoyed not getting served even after making eye-contact with the waiter several times... until we realized we had to walk up to the bar and order ourselves, haha. All was better when I got my pint-sized Mexican cocktail with tequila, sol (bottle of beer) and lime. Sean was content with his ' wannabe cheese coney' . As I hadn't eaten since breakfast, the cocktail was hitting me pretty hard. Sean of course made fun of me for getting tipsy after ' only one drink', but trust me, it felt like at least three!  

As we were both quite stuffed we decided to get a salad at the supermarket to eat at the B&B in this tiny village called Onich, not too far from Oban. I had high hopes for this B&B as it promised a room with lake-view, and it didn't disappoint. We got a warm welcome by our hosts Alastair and Louise and the view is nothing less but stunning (see pictures). Right now we're chilling on the bed, hoping for the rain to stop so we can have a stroll outside, and hopefully afterward we will be cheering for the Netherlands fighting for the third place. The weather should be better tomorrow and we' re looking forward to an active hiking day again.