So, we’ve got to the end of our first week with the hostel open. What’s happened and what have we learned?
The first thing we’ve learned is that if we or anyone else thought it wouldn’t be hard work then they were wrong. The day begins with serving Caffe Kimbo from our Espresso Hub while our guests have breakfast. The coffee uptake has been better than expected. Then the rest of the morning up until (late) lunch is spent cleaning and doing laundry. The laundry can be a challenge if we have a lot of people leaving and it’s raining. Unfortunately, May in Scotland has been very wet this year. Most afternoons at the moment are then spent doing paperwork and online chores at the moment. Then the guests arrive.
The upside is the guests. We’ve had a huge variety of different people already. We’ve had groups from George Watson’s College in Edinburgh and Stocket Hillwalking Club in Aberdeen. We then moved on to a huge variety of others. There have been Spanish touring cyclists, the Iron Drivers on their Harleys from Switzerland, Rene from Austria walking the Scottish National Trail, Janet Crossley walking from John O’Groats to Land’s End, touring families, and a whole host of hill walkers.
Everyone has story to tell, and we could (sometimes do) talk to them for hours. It is so interesting to hear where people have been and are going. We try to help out when asked with our own knowledge. There can’t be many jobs where you get to do this.
And so onwards to week two. The season has barely begun for us.