The hostel dorm was louder last night, not due to people packing up or talking, but due to general sleep noise. Pretty sure the guy in the bunk above me was humming in his sleep, and there was way more snoring than before. Churn for the room seemed to be about 50%, which seems high? People don’t stay long, I guess because they’re all headed out to the next bone chilling hike, based on the amount of outdoor gear in evidence.
Catching the train was a little odd, because every line map makes it really clear that the line splits, with Thurso at one side & Wick at the other, so my train from Inverness to Thurso showing up on the boards as a train to Wick was … concerning. Turns out that the train stops at the junction, reverses into Thurso, then continues on to Wick.
Phone cameras aren’t great at landscapes, so I didn’t bother, & just enjoyed the view instead.
I arrived a bit before hotel check-in, and given that it’s a small hotel, decided to wander around the town for a bit to kill time. For bigger places, or hostels, I’ll usually try to drop my bags off, but that tends to be more disruptive at small places, I’ve found; They’re often run by one or two people, and aren’t really set up for that sort of thing.
At the moment I’m travelling with a backpack & a mostly empty duffel bag that gets slung across & carried in front.
Check-in was uneventful, and I got asked my breakfast order for the next day, which is a new one on me for a place with a dining room (and bar); I’ve only run into ordering breakfast the night before at places where it comes to you, on sleeper trains or at motels.
I’ve stayed at a place that did the same breakfast for everyone unless you asked for something different, which usually caused problems because the serving staff spoke minimal English, the cooks spoke minimal English, and the two groups didn’t have a language in common other than English. Like an episode of Fawlty Towers, but in an overcrowded basement dining room with huge tables & no space; I eventually stopped getting breakfast there, because it was just too annoying.
Seriously, the room was overfilled with big round tables, so they could actually fit fewer people because of how big the damn tables were, and the gaps between them were narrow enough that it was hard to get in or out. Almost any other option would have been better.
The room’s nice, and once my stuff was dropped off I took a longer walk & found the beach.
I found the bus stop for the ride out to John O’Groats tomorrow; There’s one at the end of the road, but the stop where the route starts is only a few minutes away, so I’ll catch it from there. That way I can ask questions if I need to, or at least feel better about asking questions.
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