Stornoway!
Hello :]!
I'm currently in Stornoway, updating. It's my third day here, and I really don't want to leave. Sadly, money circumstances and rent for a good few months prevents me from moving here permanently. For those of you who have no idea where Stornoway is, it's literally the middle of nowhere, North west of Scotland. You have to get a ferry for three hours to get there. Although it's in the middle of nowhere, it's where I want to stay for a long time. I love these places and can see myself setting up camp in a cute wee cottage!
The journey here was the worst I have ever had! But to be honest, I've never had to travel 10 hours before! I was originally travelling on the Sunday, but moved my tickets to the Saturday. Well, David did and Scotrail were sending me the tickets. Turned out they had my address wrong and they were sent to 6/8 instead of 8/6. So, he phoned them the day before I was travelling, and they said they would fax the Edinburgh Waverly team. I went on the Saturday before travelling and turned out Scotrail didn't fax them. The lady was apparently rude on the phone too. He had to call again and they were supposed to be faxed right then but it never arrived. I'm not a well traveler, so I was pretty stressed out my nut! It was around half an hour before I had to leave so I bought new tickets for a wopping 40 quid. Not really what I wanted to do, but I did want to get to Stornoway that day! The guy David had on the phone was sympathetic, called the station to tell them, but by then it was too late, and they offered a refund, so Scotrail aren't too bad in the end. Just the lousy team that are beneath the managers.
The train lasted 4 hours. It wasn't too bad as I probably slept for 2 hours of the journey. I had an hour and a half wait at Inverness for the bus to Ullapool. I pretty much got lost! Apparently the bus station is right behind the train station! That depends on which exit you leave from! I had to ask 6 different people, eventually found it and it looked nothing like a bus station. Anyways, I managed to get on my bus to Ullapool, which took another 1 hour 20 minutes. Shortest of the journey's. Once in Ullapool, I had another hour and a half wait for my ferry.
I've never been on a big ferry before so it was an experience. I definitely don't want to travel on the ferry on my own again! The ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway was the longest journey in the world! Three hours! Luckily they had loads of seats, a bar, a wee shop and a canteen type place.
I arrived in Stornoway at 21:00 and David was waiting for me :)! We went to pick up some Thai food and then headed back to the cottage where I got to meet his flat mate Fern and the four fluffy wee ducks which are all around 8 weeks old.
The views from the ferry were amazing. I only stayed on the top deck for a few minutes. It was way too cold to stay out there any longer.
This is me, holding onto Theodore...My duck :)
All four of them. Theodore is the one with the black beak. Quackers which is Davids is the one in the middle, the prettiest of the bunch! The other two are Ferns, and they are Lewis and Harris.
We went on a walk before dinner to the shore that's about 5 minutes from the cottage. The weather was rainy and windy! You can't tell from these photos but it was pretty cold!
The water was so clear!
Honestly, I could live here for years!
For dinner we had Guga. You can only get Guga on the Island. I think from Ness? Guga are gannets, and I think they are protected and only 2000 or so are allowed to be caught each year. They are horrible looking birds! As you can see from below!
Ew
Traditionally, it's boiled for around an hour,,,
Served with bread carrots and broccoli and of course milk.
As you can see, I didn't like it. It tasted like fish but had the texture of chicken..and looked so grey! It was also very very very salty! Hence the milk.
Luckily David had a wee back up :) and I had some chicken!
That's pretty much the past few days here on the Island. The next few days until Friday, I'll be doing nothing during the day, maybe go for a wander but I'm afraid of getting lost! David is a primary school teacher, so he'll be working for most of the days...:)!
Right....long post over :)
Cheerio
Kells
