where the line between heaven and earth grows thin

You can borrow coconuts from the office at Doune Castle and go galloping around with them if you like. I'm not even joking.

On to other things, we have been at Iona for two days now, and it truly is the most beautiful place in the world. We spent Friday night at Oban Backpackers hostel, which was, incidentally, the best hostel we have been to on this trip, and then got up Saturday morning and took the 9:30 ferry to the Isle of Mull. The sailing was only 40 minutes, much to my disappointment, but it did allow us to spend two hours sitting at a little cafe near the ferry terminal, where we ate both breakfast and lunch, waiting for a bus to take us to the other end of the island.

The hour long bus ride across Mull was made interesting by a team of rugby players who spent the majority of the ride singing songs and cheering on sheep that were, uh, copulating, as we passed by.

We took another ferry, this time only 10 minutes, and then a short walk brought us to Iona Abbey, a 13th Century cathedral that fell into disrepair after the reformation, and then was completely restored between about 1900 and 1965. We are staying in an 800 year old former monastery!

Despite Scotland's reputation of being cold and miserable, we are now on our third day on Iona, and temperatures are holding steady at about 23 degrees, and almost completely clear. Last night's sunset was at 10:15, and it was phenomenal. We watched it from a sandy beach, that we got to by walking through a sheep pasture.

Needless to say, we are in love, with a place called Iona.