Orkney

What can I say about the Orkney Islands? They were just about as magical as I expected... remote and wild, full of lore and history, beautiful and rugged... and largely empty of tourists, which worked out well for Lori and me, because Lori hates people in general and I hate stupid people (which are often found blundering around with tour groups).

To get to Orkney we drove north from Edinburgh to Aberdeen to catch a 6 hour car ferry that put in at Kirkwall at 11:15 p.m. We had a little adventure finding the hotel because we didn't write down the address or directions, but there are really only a few main roads on the island, and after passing our turn and stopping once to ask directions in the middle of the night, we made it to our destination.

We stayed at this cute little hotel called the Merkister. It's in the middle of the main island, between the two lochs (that's Scottish for "lake" if you were wondering, and yes, it will come up again). During the "on" season, apparently this place is known for it's great trout fishing. In the "off" season, when we were there... it's pretty much empty. Oh, and when I say empty, I mean that we were literally the only guests at the hotel for 2 of the 4 nights we were there. The other 2 nights we had 1 other guest staying in the building.

I was so excited to take in as much as I could without overdoing it on the "touristy" thing... so we started out the next morning with a jaunt to the neolithic standing stone rings at Stenness and Brodgar. Amazing. 5000 year old sites of mysterious and mystical ritual that are still there to be witnessed and experienced today. After the standing stones, we went to Skara Brae, an excavated neolithic village on the shore. Pretty amazing, too, I must say.

Excerpt from my journal on what we did next: "We visited the Castle Stack at Yesnaby. That was my favorite part of the day. We hiked along the rugged Orkney coastline, gazing at the North Sea and listening to the calling birds and the thundering crash of the waves in the sea caves below us, smelling the sweet moor grass and the salty sea air. There was magic there for certain. I will forever be in love with the shores of Orkney. My heart was swept away with the tide. The amount of migrating birds is exciting! There are mute and whooper swans, oyster catchers, curlews, ravens, hooded crows, gulls of every shape and size and a myriad others I have no names for. The puffins won't be here for another month, so I'll have to come back again to see them... but I think I will. I want to bring Noah with me..."

My travelling buddy and our cute little car

Take a moment to reflect that this photo is NOT taken in a mirror

On the ferry to Orkney!

View from the hotel room window. Since we were literally the ONLY people staying there, they upgraded us to a Loch view room :)

Orkney wildlife

Shetland pony! The Shetland Islands are about 6 more hours away by ferry...

One of the standing stones at Stenness

simply amazing. These stones were erected 5000 years ago!!!

The Ring of Brodgar

Oyster catcher!

This is for Leslie... thinkin' of you, friend! Missing you much :) For the record, a "close" is an alley that doesn't have an outlet...

I loved the springy hummocks of grass!

The stunning coastline at Yesnaby.

The Yesnaby castle stack

There were shorebirds nesting all over the cliffs. If we'd been there NEXT month, the puffins would have been there, too. Note for next trip :)

in downtown Kirkwall

This church was built in the 1100's A.D. Amazing!

A lot of the graves from before 1600 had skeletons/skulls/hour glasses/"Memento Mori" inscribed on them... they were very conscious of their mortality... and didn't candy coat it the way we do now... interesting.

The church as seen through the ruins of the bishops palace across the street. I'm still amazed that the palace, built in 1600, is in ruins but the church, built 500 years earlier, is not only functional but pristine!

The Italian Chapel. This is an amazing story. You can read about it here.

Brough of Birsay. The Norse ruin on the island is accessible at low tide only. Of course we waited for the tide to go out so that we could cross :) 

On Birsay at the ruins of a Norse chapel.

The solar powered lighthouse!

Rainbow and a passing storm. It stayed off to the east and didn't rain on us.

I built a rock stack for Noah at Mull Head... but it was so windy that it was already falling down when I took the picture!

This dog was amazing. Look for a short story on him in the very near future...

Birsay at sunset on our last evening in Orkney.

We took a different ferry from Stromness when we left Orkney... saying goodbye to the island...

Old Man of Hoy stack. Next time I go, I'm going to visit Hoy and hike out to see him.

My souvenirs from Orkney: a silver necklace made on the island of Odin's Bird, a book of Orkney folklore (research), and some North Ronaldsay yarn to knit a scarf.

The purpose of my trip to Scotland was to visit the Orkneys. I am writing a novel set there (or a novella not sure how long it will turn out to be) and I wanted to see the islands first hand. Magic...

Edinburgh

The trip is over. I really enjoyed experiencing Scotland and Ireland... but am so very happy to be back home with my loving husband. He's such a heart's companion that traveling without him loses it's luster. Also, I missed the dog. People all during our trip were tramping with their dogs and I wished I had mine with me, too! He adds so much exuberance to a hike :). All in all, it's good to be home.

We had a long day of traveling to get to our first destination. Our round trip to and from the states was through Dublin, Ireland, but our trip started in Edinburgh, Scotland... so we had a long LONG layover after a red-eye flight to Dublin before we boarded RyanAir for Edinburgh. The Dublin airport is... very nice. We survived it. And RyanAir is an experience I'd recommend to anyone traveling in Europe. On our way back from Scotland we landed a full half an hour early (??!!!???). But, I digress...

The big to do for the whole trip started after we got to Edinburgh. I was driving the rental car. Which means I was driving on the wrong side of the road (for me) and the wrong side of the car (for me)... and it was a stick with the shifter on the wrong side of the driver (for me)... and I was doing this all on 0 sleep. Eek.

For the record we had no accidents and only a handful of incidents where I could be heard to say "Oh shit! The left! Drive on the left!"... all involving only our car. I'm quite proud of myself.

We stayed at the Best Western in Dublin... one of, that is. It was a good walk to city center, but Lori and I like to walk, and there were multiple enticements to motivate us.

The view from our hotel room. The building in the background on the left is Edinburgh Castle.

Beautiful architecture

Sunset on our quest to find food

Guinness at a cute little pub

 We had delicious coffee and croissants from a shop right across from our hotel the next morning and set off to find Edinburgh Castle and other sites.

I want!

On our way to the castle we stopped into a church and church yard. Donald the caretaker showed us around and talked about the history for a while... and even told us about his pet squirrels that live out in the cemetery. I had already met one of the squirrels. It grabbed my finger asking for food!

Spring had certainly come to Scotland! Everything was in bloom. We had to walk through a large city park on our way to the castle. It was beautiful and alive with color.

Of COURSE William Wallace was standing out in front of Edinburgh Castle.

 Edinburgh is a very pretty city. I really enjoyed the vistas from the castle.

If you serve in the Scottish military, you are allowed to have your wedding at Edinburgh Castle. This groom (his face is not visible in the photo) had just returned from a tour of duty in Afganistan.

Tiny kilt!

 After visiting the castle, we wandered around a while and then went on an "underground" ghost tour. The tour was a bit of a cheesy experience, but we got a shot of whiskey and a shortbread afterwards. It was my first shot of whiskey and while it was I'm sure watered down, it was quite pleasant.

We met a couple of girls on that tour who were traveling around, too... and walked to a park at the other end of the city with them. They were quite fun.

Another view of the pretty city

Karen (left) and Angelina (right)

Thus ended our stay in Edinburgh.

Flash post: Dublin

Back in civilization again... at least as close to it as you can get in Dublin. I'll be home tomorrow afternoon and able to post photos sometime after that, although... I have to edit them... so... it may be a slow process. :)

The trip has been grand. Exhausting in parts, but quite enjoyable. Scotland is my favorite. I think the ruggedness of that country just spoke to me in a way that Ireland could not have. It's nice here in Ireland, too, though. The people are friendly and the atmosphere is lively.

More when I get home. Cheers!

Flash post from Scotland

Sorry, no pictures yet... and I only have 5 minutes left of webtime, so this will have to be really quick. I just wanted to update anyone who reads and/or cares about this blog/me on my trip. Scotland is amazing. It's green and cool and rugged and I love it. I just spent 4 days in the Orkney Islands. What a beautiful part of the world... I can't express in words, although I'm hoping to at a later date express in a novel... I can't wait to share my photos with you!

Things that have surprised me: the vegetarian friendly options at almost every location... the ease with which I've adjusted to driving a stick shift with my left and and on the left side of the road... the super weather we've had...

It's really lovely. I promise to upload photos as soon as I hit US soil. I'm in Ireland all next week, though, so it'll be a little while yet.

I miss my dog and love and miss my husband so much! But this has been a wonderful adventure so far, and I'm glad that it will continue for a while longer.

If you post a comment, I won't be able to moderate it right away, but rest assured, I'll publish it as soon as I am able.

Cheers!

The snow has passed us by

The past few days we've spent bracing ourselves for another bout of winter, snow predicted, up to 10 inches! My head kept saying "No! It's March! This can't happen!" And luckily for the winter-weary, it did not. Spring has kept it's tenacious finger hold on us. Flurries fell and melted and the sun has returned today to make us warm.

Now it's April and I can't believe that I'm planning to go to the Orkneys in just a few short days! I'm bracing myself for cold and dark days there, but hoping for sun if no warmth. Just the journey there will be an adventure. Two flights, a car and a ferry that docks in the middle of the night... and then we'll be there! It's unreal to me still.

I follow Neil Gaiman's blog. That and his twitter feed were the ways he convinced me to give his novels another shot. (I hated Stardust.... with a passion... but I love American Gods and Anansi's Boys) Anyhow, his recent blog entry indicated he was in the Highlands writing. I thought that was cool, since that's what I'll be doing soon, too!

I don't know that I'll be able to blog every day while I'm travelling this time. It's possible, but I won't have a computer with me, so you may have to wait until I get back at the end of April and have time to process my trip before you get the story from me.