Oban to Mull to Iona

Hello, hello

Last night was experience #2 in a hostel in Oban. It was better than the first experience, but still with the humidity, sweating all night and listening to people snore. Plus we didn't arrive until 10:30pm and everyone in our room was asleep and turns out, we had to be put in a men's dorm. Ah well, we were the last ones to bed and the first ones awake so it didn't matter much.

I don't know what it is about people snoring that makes me homicidal, but let me tell you, earplugs saved somebody's life last night! Hehe. Tonight we are staying in Iona, which apparently is quite unusual... it's a verrrrrry small island and a popular daytrip destination, so not many people can say that they have stayed there. According to Christine, dinner AND breakfast is included too -- must be a VERY small island since I would guess that there isn't many options for food. Anyways, it's a hotel and not a hostel. :) Unfortunately tomorrow night we are right back to staying at the hostel here in Oban again. :P Hopefully a women's dorm with no snore-ers.

The drive has been absolutely breathtaking, and not just because of the near-death experiences we've had. Ha! No actually, I haven't even driven yet, Christine took the first stint, and the only time she erred was when *I* told her the wrong way to go. Very narrow roads here though, which is a bit nerve-wracking when passing oncoming trucks, or people that hug the center line.

As for cars, we had originally reserved a car with Hertz because we were quoted some amazing deal that was going to work out to be about £300... but when we went to pick up the car, turns out that with taxes, two weeks of ridiculously-priced insurance, and the cost of a map and the daily fee for an additional driver, it would have come to about £1000!! That's like two-thousand bucks!! I had visions of changing my flight and coming home after a week.

But turns out it was just Hertz that was trying to do us in... we checked with a few other car rental agencies and they all had deals that included the insurance, additional driver AND map! We were happy & relieved to be able to continue with the driving leg of the journey. Phew! Stupid Hertz. We don't like them now.

Oban looks to be a really nice town, and when we get back from Iona I hope that we will have time to explore around here more. It kinda reminds me of a European-version of Horseshoe Bay village. Would love to just walk around for a while.

Christine & I are doing great, I think we have made a great team so far. :) Hope all is well with you guys!

Cheers,
xo
Elaan