Hiking and Sailing in the Highlands!

To hold up our end of the sweet deal...we stripped sheets and pillow cases, cleaned bathrooms and showers, and mopped the floors of the hostel! It wasn't that bad really, we got a free nights stay in our private room ($70) and free breakfast for both of us. We wanted to hike to the mountain "Ben Vrackie" so we got our bags ready and ended up hitting a souvenir shop and getting a milkshake before we went! The hike was awesome, half way up the trail there was a lake. All of a sudden, it started pouring and blowing wind sideways, so we hid behind a rock until it slacked off, we could barely stand up in the wind it was so strong! After it quit, we were wet and started walking back to the town...then we decided we came this far (to the foot of the mountain) we had to keep going! We went up, all the way to the top, took plenty of pictures, but we finally made it! A RAF Tornado flew by while we were on the mountain, it was so low, fast, and loud we thought we were about to die! We didn't see it because it was so cloudy, but they run a training route over Pitlochry. We heard another one when we got back to our hostel. We tried to get back in time to get food, but everywhere was closed. So, we went to the grocery store, bought Scottish beef steaks and made fajitas and potato wedges in the hostel kitchen! We slept like logs, but caught the 8:42am train outta there to meet Mano and Louise in Helmsdale, Scotland. They had another guy, Eric, from France staying with them and we all went out on their sailboat and learned how to "tack" into the wind and hoist the lines! It was pretty awesome and nobody fell overboard despite all of the leaning over the sides to keep the sail up and the keel down! We had fish n' chips (I had Haggis) and headed to Lybster to their house. We met a man named Duncan, a friend of Mano and Louise, and he offered to take us fly fishing for trout tomorrow! We are cooking octopus...looks awesome, but could be deadly for me, so I don't think I'll try it :( Fishing report tomorrow!