Oban

As a final trip for our first year, we decided to take a post-exam weekend trip to the lovely coastal town of Oban! We took a nice 3 hour train ride through the beautiful countryside to get there, and arrived to some nice sunny skies and the sea. We then got some lunch and walked around the harbor a bit before heading up to McCaig's Tower.

On the top of the hill overlooking the town is McCaig's Tower, which was built in 1897. Inspired by the Colosseum, the structure was built in order to provide work for the stonemasons in the winter months. On a nice sunny day, the tower was the perfect place to admire the bay and soak up some sunlight on the grass. While at the tower, we also happened to meet Parsley the Ambassador Cat, a big orange Maine Coon cat who likes to wander the town and is an official ambassador for the town of Oban!

After our small hike we got dinner, then enjoyed the amazing sunset on the beach before turning in for the night.

On Sunday we spent the day walking around town, shopping, and eating! We got hot chocolate and waffles at the Oban Chocolate Co, which was by far the best hot chocolate I've ever had. They even had over 10 different types of hot coco! Then we walked around a bit before stopping and getting some classic fish and chips. As it was raining, we then decided to just stop in a pub for some drinks on the pier before our dinner reservation at the Waterfront Fishouse, where we had an excellent dinner, drinks and dessert! After that we were all stuffed, so we decided to head back to our hotel and lay down for a bit. After the sunset I went for a short walk, where we saw the end of the sunset and some otters coming up on the shore to eat!

On our last day we had tours at the Oban Distillery! Here we got to walk around the small yet beautiful distillery, as well as try 3 of their whiskeys. First we tried their 14 year old, which was a very nice light whiskey. The guide taught us how to properly taste whiskey as well as the process of how it is made as we got to see all the inner workings of the distillery. We then went to the cask store, where we got to try the whiskey cask strength, which is about 15% higher in alcohol content than the whiskey you would buy in the bottle. Finally we got to head back to the tasting room where we got to try the special distillers edition 14 year old. All three whiskeys were delicious, and we even got some special Oban dram glasses to take home! After that we stopped in a local pub for lunch before going on a walk. Then we got some more drinks before finally catching the train back to Glasgow!