So many sheep!<\/p>\n
11:38<\/p>\n
Orkney is so<\/em> beautiful!!! She looks a lot like Scotland, but even more<\/u><\/em> rugged. There\u2019s no heather as far as I can see. The North Sea is deep blue, but near the shore she\u2019s pure turquoise. The voyage here (by ferry) took exactly<\/em> 45 min, the water was relatively calm and it was freezing<\/em>. Luckily, I was appropriately dressed!<\/p>\n The water\u00a0is patchy, some turquoise, some dark blue. Several beaches look like they should be in the Caribbean! They are pure white sand leading to turquoise infinity!<\/p>\n 12:17 pm.<\/p>\n Skara Brae. Lots<\/em> of heather here. Still, it\u2019s obvious somehow that we\u2019re no longer on the \u2018main land\u2019. The islands are for the most part uninhabited, but you do<\/em> get the occasional fair sized village. In Kirkwall, for example, there is a cinema and a fancy car dealership (why \u2018dealership\u2019 and not \u2018car store\u2019?)<\/p>\n 1:33 pm<\/p>\n I\u2019m so far from \u2018home\u2019! (As I walked through the wind and ocean swept cobblestone streets of Stromness, Orkney, the incessant buzz of a \u2018strange\u2019 accent in my ears, I came to the realisation of how far away I was from Canada.) Yet, not so far away. I mean, I found a shop that had \u2018Backstreet Boys\u2019 memorabilia on the window\u00a0! I enjoyed a delicious<\/em> vegetable broth (90p) at a tiny<\/u><\/em> caf\u00e9. I figure that any place where the soup is \u2018always<\/em> suitable for vegetarians\u2019 is worth encouraging! (and I discovered another use for barley!) I had some kind of delicious<\/em> chocolate iced cake for dessert (35p). For dinner tonight, I\u2019ve ordered sandwiches offered by the tour. (\u00a32) Stromness is beautiful<\/em>, all stone and cobblestone. You wouldn\u2019t know driving streets are driving streets until you saw a car carefully<\/em> inching its way down past pedestrians. The accent here is almost incomprehensible. It took me a while to get lunch ordered!<\/p>\n 2:15 Ring of Brodgar<\/p>\n Older than Stonehenge. Nice pile of rocks. Tried to tip a few over. Didn\u2019t work! Up there, it feels like the top of the world. I can easily imagine thousands\u00a0of half-clad men performing some ritual over 5,000 years ago. Very beautiful ring with a mat of heather in the centre.<\/p>\n Swans!<\/p>\n Orkney\u2014a self-contained world?<\/p>\n A house with a boat<\/u><\/em> as a roof! (The hull of the ship was used to roof the house. Supposedly, it\u2019s rather common in fishing communities in the islands.)<\/p>\n Honest to goodness street sign: \u2018otters crossing\u2019!!!<\/p>\n 2:48 pm.<\/p>\n Highland Park Distillery\u2014northernmost in Britain. I prefer their whisky to that of Edradour. Here, it\u2019s actually kind of smokey. Sure warms up the insides! I think that last big sip went right to my head, which explains the worse than usual writing!<\/p>\n 4:07 pm<\/p>\n My wildest medieval related dream\/fantasy has come true!!! I have walked freely through the ruins of a mostly early 12th<\/sup><\/em> century castle!!! By freely, I mean I had access to every<\/u><\/em> part of the castle\/palace that wasn\u2019t a public danger. I climbed the equivalent of 4 flights of narrow, twisting, flagstone stairs to the top of a watch tower. But, that\u2019s not all<\/u><\/em>!!! I also<\/em> wandered even more freely through the ruins of an early 16th<\/sup><\/em> century palace\/castle. This one had plaques indicating the purpose of each room, one room was tiny <\/em>and unlit, but I could see a plaque. \u2018It\u2019s probably the latrine closet\u2019 I thought gleefully as I pulled out my handy flashlight. I was right! It was so cool<\/u><\/em><\/strong> wandering through ante-chambers, kitchens, dining halls, great halls, bedrooms, latrine closets, narrow winding turret stairs, etc. And it only cost \u00a31.50 pound for both. Oh, and I also wandered through an early 12th<\/sup> century cathedral!!!!!!! As a medievalist, this<\/u><\/em> made my whole Orkney tour \u2018worth it\u2019\u00a0!<\/p>\n 7:11 pm<\/p>\n I\u2019ll never regret this day, but I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d do it again, it\u2019s a hell<\/em> of a lot of travel\u00a0! I mean 2 \u00bd-3 hours to John O\u2019Groats, exactly<\/em> 45 min ferry ride, then the grand tour of Orkney for the trip home. Whew\u00a0<\/em>!\u00a0! However, I think this trip was an excellent compromise between getting to Orkney on my own and missing out on other \u2018stuff\u2019 in the south and not going to Orkney at all<\/em>. I could live there, it\u2019s not the barren isle I thought it would be. The Orkney archipelago has several bustling towns and all the modern conveniences on several of her islands. My favourite quote of the day by our guide: \u2018To the left, the North Atlantic. Next stop: America.\u2019!!!<\/p>\n
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