The Isle of Arran

On Friday, March 23rd, my dad and I went to the Isle of Arran for the night. It's a pretty small island off the west coast of Scotland, almost due west of Glasgow. It's largest village is Lamlash (where we stayed) with a population of just over 1,000. It was a little hard for me to fathom. I went to high school with more students than people in this village... Anyways. We started our journey from Glasgow Queen Street Station, which I have become oh-so-familiar with in my time here. We took the train to Ardrossen Harbor, which was in the itty-bitty town of Ardrossen (shockingly enough). The first (and pretty much only) thing we saw was the marina, which was fairly neat. It was kind of creepy, though. The place was like a ghost town. I don't think we saw a single other person outside of the ferry terminal. Eep.

Once we made it to the ferry terminal, we had over an hour to kill until the ferry showed up, so we got tea and coffee and sat in the terminal, where I saw this hilarious poster. Yeah... that's exactly what the Scottish islands look like... PSH IN YO DREAMS
Then the ferry arrived! It was massive. I guess I forgot the actual aim of ferries is to... well... ferry. Meaning cars, vans, bikes, trucks and lastly, people. You can see here that the front end is lifting up. That's where the cars drove in. The pedestrian traffic went over a bridge into the side of the boat.
This is where we parked ourselves. It was super nice. It looked a bit like a hotel lobby. Except for the fact that we were right by the bar... which was totally unintentional, I assure you...

So we arrived into the town of Brodick, which is the only village the ferry goes to. However, Lamlash is about 5 miles south of Brodick, so we had to catch a bus. But of course, because we were not familiar with the layout of Lamlash (not that there was much of one, considering the town could have fit on a TicTac), we got off way before we should have, and had to walk across town. But that was okay, again considering the village was the size of my toe. We made it in to our hotel, freshened up a bit (aka changed my socks and put my glasses on) and headed out to find a pub. Of which there was one. So the Pierhead was the pub of choice. We got dinner (shepherds pie... oh my goodness... easily the most delicious thing I've ever eaten in Scotland) and... well... drank. What else do you do in a tiny Scottish island village pub? And so libations were had. And then another one. And then some more. We eventually made it back to the hotel, had a few more for good measure, then went to sleep. You can only imagine how we felt in the morning at breakfast... We had to make it back to Brodick to catch the ferry back to the mainland, so we decided to walk through Lamlash to get back to the same bus stop we got off at the night before. It was a very pretty town.

Not a whole lot to it, though. Very green, gray and brown. But what else is new? It is Scotland, after all.
You can just see the pier up ahead, which was not very impressive in person, either...
Here are the weary travelers. We slowly came alive over the course of the day... but the morning was not a pretty time...
We found this freakin' adorable puppy dog on the pier. She would run up, put her stick down then lay down behind it like this and wait. As soon as you took a step toward her, she would stick her butt up in the air and get all jittery, like she just couldn't wait a second longer for you to throw the stick. Once you grabbed it, she would sprint down to the end of the pier and wait for you to throw it. The effort necessary for a good throw was way past my limit that morning, but I mustered a few half-hearted tosses for her.
This little swan was hanging out in the harbor, too. I never saw if it had a mate. Seems like a lonely life.
This is Brodick. Again, not terribly impressive. I did get some pretty tasty chicken nachos for lunch, though. And the fog made the island looks pretty.
More Brodick, before we got on the ferry. I guess this was an old fishing boat that was abandoned in the sand. Kind of sad looking. So we finally got on the ferry, got back to Ardrossen, took the train back to Glasgow and walked home. And nothing else was done on that day. It was all I could do to stay upright. And my poor father had to get up at 5 the next day to catch a cab to the airport. Suckaaaa. I got up to see him off, then went back to sleep for another 6 hours. So the Isle was a lot of fun, and there was a lot of pretty scenery. But I would not have quite as much pub-fun if I was to go again. It kind of leads to wanting to pull your head off. Ow. All in all, a very fun overnight trip, though!

Love from Glasgow!