I was quite pleased with my Airbnb bookings for our 7 day trip to Scotland. In order to keep the cost low I had managed to find two places that would accommodate our party of 8 under one roof, and in roughly the general area of Scotland we were most interested in visiting. Then I saw my brother's pictures of the hotel where he stayed in Scotland and started to worry that my choices would be slightly inadequate. How could an old school house and a cottage live up to a castle!
You never quite know what you'll get with Airbnb. This company started when its founder placed a blow-up mattress in his living room and called it a bed-and-breakfast. You get all sort of people renting out all sorts of accommodation, and I suppose I could have found a castle for a price. Because I wanted cheap, I would probably not be getting something to write home about.
I was pleasantly surprised with our first place: The Old Schoolhouse, sitting by itself beside a stream tumbling through farmland. It took us a while to find the place, and the key which had been left under a rock by the front door.
The place had 5 bedrooms, three baths and a huge open kitchen/living area. Everything was tastefully decorated with bright curtains over the windows set in thick stone walls looking out over the garden. If we felt we were better acquainted with Scotland by driving here, we were now thoroughly immersed in the land. We had a greater urge to go outside and explore our surroundings than connect to the wi-fi inside. And although it was quite a winding drive out to the nearest store, we thoroughly enjoyed cooking and eating together in that great kitchen. We wished we could have stayed longer...
But our second place was calling, literally! Our next host had been furiously emailing me for about a week now. She was asking about sleeping arrangements, and time of arrival. Then I received this enigmatic message: "spital. If I'm later than you I shouldn't be far behind and will put new mattress in when I arrive. I'm very sorry for an". We puzzled over this during our lunch stop on the bonnie banks of Lock Lomand. The puzzle was slightly cleared up with this following message: "I'm in Fortwilliam. I was getting a couple of new mattresses. While here my grandson has put flash in my granddaughters eyes. We are at the ho". We reversed the sequence and pieced together the story with the help of an introduction to the Flash brand of bleach.
After all this, we had some difficulty finding the place. We were in a remote village of the Highlands with no cell phone reception, so we stopped at the local pub and asked for our host. Remarkably they knew her, someone they called "Zola" after the South African born barefoot runner. The pub gave us a hot meal of fish and chips and directions to the cottage which was left open for our arrival. I was slightly concerned about the mattresses, but all the beds looked ready for us. No sign of "Zola" , so I messaged her to tell her of our arrival and ask her about the nearest place to buy milk. I got this reply: "Still en route to hospital. Jane will bring milk. My cat if she is a pest. Feel free to put her out." Jane, the
neighbor, was around immediately, and we made ourselves at home in someone else's home. I had fun reading the visitors book to see who had stayed here before us and what they had found out about the area. The comments about the nearby distillery, light house and bakery were very helpful in our making the most of our stay in a village whose name I still can't pronounce correctly (Acharacle).
We did finally meet "Zola", when she popped in to bring us a bottle of wine one evening. We were able to get more of the story involving her granddaughter and their visit to the hospital. She was concerned that she was neglecting us because of having to drive 3 hours each day to Fort William.
We assured her that she couldn't have made our visit to her cottage any better and thanked her for giving us a piece of Scotland that no fancy Scottish hotel could offer.... an insight into what it might be like to live in the beautiful Scottish Highlands.
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