To describe the town of Oban I think it would be best to say it's somewhere we probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to see if it wasn't for Helpx. Oban (not Oh-Barn as we were saying with our Aussie accents) is only about 3.5 hours by train from Glasgow. Yet it well and truly has the charms of a small town and for this reason is probably overlooked by the average backpacker. In the summer it has a bustling tourist population who use the town as a base to explore the nearby islands. But in winter the town is a whole lot quieter, filled with residents rather than visitors. This was a place where we would get a true taste of Scottish culture. Oban is a harbour town and is built around the hills surrounding the water. Because of its proximity to the sea it's also a fishing town, and we immediately realised this when we got off the train and saw no less than 4 fish and chippers in the main street and smelt the greasy goodness of batter in the air. The biggest shop is the Tesco supermarket; the main street is filled with either chemists, cafes or little giftware stores; and there's about seven different pubs in such a small place. But it felt like home, and after spending three months living a nomadic lifestyle and moving cities every 3 or 4 days, we came to love the town of Oban.
This had a lot do with the fact we were living in the hostel with a group of fun and interesting people. The hostel was on the main street of town and was actually made up of three buildings: the main building, where we lived (and which had the dubious honour being the building without central heating), Backpackers Plus across the road which was more of a townhouse with private rooms, and Backpackers Super Plus up the street which had private rooms and ensuites. The helpx arrangement was quite simple- at 10.30am we would all meet in the common room, the work would be divided up by whoever was running reception and we would clean for about an hour/an hour and a half in little groups. The work was very reasonable considering there was always someone to help out. At the beginning of our time there we were part of a crew of about 18 helpers which meant the work was VERY easy and we would be finished by 12pm each day. Our main jobs were cleaning toilets and bathrooms, cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming and making beds (and I soon developed a love/hate relationship with the top bunks of bunk beds). Since it is a quiet time of the year we were mainly just cleaning after ourselves, which meant it was just like living in a really clean share house. Thursday's a tour group came through and there was actual work on a Friday- sometimes up to two hours. After we finished the rest of the time was ours, but considering it was dark by 4pm it meant relatively short days.
After a 'tiring' hour or two of work, our days were filled with little routines that were weather dependent: if it was a sunny day, we would go for walks to the nearby sights of the town and find little pockets of Oban that made me love the town even more: the green moss-covered Dunnollie Castle on the bay about 15 minutes away:
The looming McCaig's tower which can be seen no matter where you are in Oban:
(Although this tower bears an eerie resemblance *ahem, copy* to the Collosseum, we were disappointed to see that no battles to the death actually took place here. It was actually built for a strange reason- some time back there was no work in town and so a man designed the tower to give builders and stonemasons something to do).
The beautiful scenery from the top of Battleship Hill that overlooked the bay and the Isle of Mull:
And the sunny days even inspired a short-lived attempt at a daily exercise routine, where Mike and I would go for a jog and do laps up and down the stairs to McCaig's Tower- sadly this didn't last too long when I got a cold and decided bed rest was better than running. But at least we tried.
One day we also visited the Oban Bay whiskey distillery and did a tour of the whiskey-making process. We tasted a 59% whiskey that gave a big burn to my throat- which was probably a good way to get rid of my cold- as well as the regular Oban Bay whiskey. I can definitely see why they drink it so much in Scotland- it warms the back of your throat like nothing else, but I have to say it was a bit too strong for my tastes.
On the days when the weather was less than perfect, it was a bit more effort to actually leave the hostel. I can't even say it was because the hostel was warm and cosy- most days I would have thermals on by 4pm and be wearing my coat indoors. But more because doing things on the computer was more enticing than the thought of walking in the rain, and so on days like this the highlight of my day would be a trip to Tesco to buy some groceries. Something as simple as having a box with your name on it full of groceries so you can cook proper home-style meals- like pasta bake, casseroles, and chicken schnitzel with mash and gravy- is a small luxury when you have been travelling and on the go for a while. So the trip to Tesco became a bit of a routine for me. Mike and I have worked out that he prefers cooking and so we have come to the arrangement that if he cooks, I clean so it works pretty nicely. It felt like we were living in a proper home with a weekly routine, and on Sundays we would have fish and chips from one of the takeaways for a little end of week treat.
Nights in the hostel were a mixture between social nights where everyone was keen to do something, or quiet nights by the fire with everyone reading or on the Internet. Even when we weren't doing stuff it was nice to just be with friends while we were all doing our own thing. Mike took to trying to learn a bit of basic Spanish, since there were about 4 Spanish- speaking people working there with us. We had regular games on the pool table, and when that got old we bought table tennis bats and turned the common room table into a ping pong court. We had home-made Sangria from one of the Spaniards one night, and a poker night where we playing for a grand tool of £6- the exact amount needed to pay for fish & chips down the road. On Thursdays the tour groups would come through which meant our entertainment for the night was traditional folk dancing at a place called the Skippinish. A guy playing bagpipes would come to the hostel to collect the tour group and parade them down the street to make a grand entrance to the dance, and since we were staff we got the perk of getting in for free. The dancing was a funny test of coordination, and if it wasn't mike and I laughing and falling over one another, it would be someone else stepping on us as we all tried to dance in a line. Definitely not something I've ever done on a normal night! Fridays we inevitably ended up at the Irish pub that was across the road from us to watch 'Oban Mic Night' (I love a good pun). And then Sundays we would go to trivia at a pub on the waterfront, where we came second one week thanks to a couple of Australiana questions we excelled at (embarrassingly I knew the name of the actor who plays Alf Stewart in Home & Away).
Our timing in Oban also meant we got to celebrate a few holidays as well. We had our first ever Thanksgiving since there were 5 Americans there during our time. I was expecting a little bit of home cooked food but instead we had a MASSIVE feast. Derek, one of the Americans, used to work as a cook back home and so they made a huge turkey with all the traditional trimmings- sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, Mac and cheese, and the best bit was the home made apple pies and sticky date puddings for dessert. The Americans told us that the whole point of Thanksgiving is stuffing yourself with food until you hate yourself and can't eat any more. I think by the end of it we could say we experienced a true thanksgiving.
Since we were there in December, it also meant we got to have our first taste of Christmas in winter. On December 1st I got into the festive mood and decorated the hostel with the help of Augusto, an Argentinian guy. That weekend there was also a Winter festival parade and fireworks in town to mark the start of Christmas- there was a lantern parade down the main street of town led by a group of bagpipers, and later there were fireworks in Oban bay. We all crowded around by the water waiting for the fireworks, and when they started they were the most hilarious display- they started for about 30 seconds, stopped for a few minutes, and then started again for another 2 minutes. Then it all ended with a big boat burning display, that was shaped like a train and was complemented by Thomas the Tank Engine theme music. Those Scots sure know how to ruin childhood icons.
TO BE CONTINUED....
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