We arrived in Lerwick (Shetland's capital) at 7:30 am on Monday morning from our overnight ferry crossing from Aberdeen.
We had fairly smooth sailing from Aberdeen to Orkney, but from then on it was quite rough...bins scooting across aisles, cutlery thrown off tables rough. We took lots of motion sickness medication, and had a big supply of salty and sweet snacks to munch on throughout the journey which seemed to help. When it got really rough, around 11:30 pm, we lay down and tried to sleep. Lying down seems to help with sea sickness and luckily neither of us got nauseous or sick at all.
When we got off the ferry it was dark and pouring rain. Our hostel wasn't open to check into for another 1.5 hours, so we loitered around the ferry terminal for a hour or so, napping and generally acting hobo-ish. The rain didn't let up, but at least the sky lightened somewhat. We ventured out and found our hostel (which was pretty easy considering there were big signs up pointing to it as it's the only hostel on the mainland). When we arrived we were soaking wet and suffering vertigo from being rocked at sea for so long, so we had a tactical nap which helped set the earth straight once more.
We ventured out the next day and saw the town, which was small but quaint. It's a very sea-side sort of town, with lots of container ships and fish & chip shops. We had the best coffee in months at a little coffee shop which also had fast free wi-fi. This was without a doubt the most exciting part of our day, as the internet at the hostel was worse than dial-up and blocked almost everything that wasn't email, Facebook or the news.
Yesterday we begun our journey up to our next Helpx host, The Baltasound Hotel on the island of Unst, pronounced Un (like Onion) -st. The Shetland Islands are made up of a bunch of islands, but I think of it in terms of 3 in the middle, and then there are bits off to the sides. In the middle, starting from the bottom, you have Mainland (yes, astoundingly imaginative isn't it?) then Yell, then Unst. Our Host is on Unst. So to get between the islands you have to get a bus over land, then a ferry. Getting from Lerwick on Mainland to Baltasound on Unst involved 3 buses and 2 ferries. So that was fun.
Our hosts have generously given us today to chillax and become acquainted with the hotel and the island. We decided to go for a walk to the nearest shop, which turned from a windy stroll to an epic struggle for survival. It is often windy here, but it quickly turned horizontally gale-force and was also full of rain that felt like someone was throwing hand fulls of pebbles at your face. I had to hang onto Isaac to prevent tumbling over fences and into Shetland ponies, which I have been assured by a reliable source are carnivorous and very dangerous.
The landscape here is like nothing else we have seen in Scotland so far. I wouldn't call it bleak...but it's...kinda bleak. There are no trees, which Google tells me is due to the sheep. There are little settlements and houses just sort of dotted around the place in no particular fashion, and there are low dry stone walls criss-crossing everywhere. We can see the sea from our room which splashes up over the roads when it's windy (read often/always). There are about 600 people living on Unst, and apparently they keep themselves occupied by gossiping about everyone else (probably particularly the foreigners..we might start doing some extra weird things just to keep them amused). It mightn't sound very nice after that description, but there is actually a lot to like. It's a no-frills landscape, free of distraction that allows you to sit and contemplate life, the universe and everything. It also really makes you feel away from home and on a rock in the middle of the ocean.
Also if we ever need anything from the shop again, we are just going to suffer in our jocks.
