Shetland

I actually went to Shetland for quite a few days so I was able to experience a little more than just the festival. The island is sublimely beautiful.  The wind is so strong there (something to do with the North Sea and the Atlantic meeting here) that trees are unable to grow.  Also, the islands are so narrow there is really no where that isn't coastal.  The ocean is always in sight.  The result is just beautiful, and so unique! (ps. Sorry for the sheer number of photo graphs, editing is hard..)

The ferry boat we took over to Shetland

Our very tiny bedroom on the boat.  The two white panels are actually two more beds to fold down, it was really cramped.  But hey, at least we had a place to lie down.

Walking towards Clickman Broch, a bronze age settlement just outside of Lerwick

The wind was ridiculously strong! The umbrella did not stand a chance.

R

"Dunna Chuck Bruck" - Shetlandese for don't litter.  Too good.

D

The beautiful countryside on Shetland

We thought the tide was coming in (across the narrow strip of beach that links these two islands during low tide) so we frantically ran across and back, fearing that we would be forced to wade through the icy waters. That was until we ran into some highly amused locals who informed us in fact the tide was going out.  Embarrassing

Rugged cliffs of Shetland

Houses seemed so lonely and isolated, unprotected from the elements.

Shetland is renowned for its wildlife, we did not show up at peak season, but we still got to sea the seals!

"Oh the serenity" - I am definitely channeling Wordsworth in this necessarily cheesy photo

Cheesy photo take 2

A long night of dancing in the town halls wore out this sleepy viking.

Beautiful, iconic castle we stopped at on our route home.

Up Helly Aa, A Viking Fire Festival

It is going to be very difficult to put down into words the Up Helly Aa experience, a fire festival in one of the most remote places in the world, the Shetland Islands.  Perhaps the reason behind this is because Up Helly Aa means nothing, it signifies nothing.  Essentially, in the cold, lonely, and very very dark winter months on Shetland, all the men in town decided to build a giant boat, dress up in all sorts of crazy costumes, get really drunk and then burn that boat down.  The festival is also really split into two parts that don't seem to have much in common, the viking bit, which could logically be seen as a celebration of the Shetlanders Norse heritage, and then the totally mental bit, where basically every male is divided into different squads, each dressed in a costume, that go through the town all night long putting on short carnivalesque skits for the women (awaiting them in various halls), then dance with all the woman, drink lots and go on their way.  The costumes are incredibly thorough, entirely matching down to the shoes, and also very not PC (I can't even write down some of the outfits I saw), but mostly it was a lot of cross-dressing.  So much so that I think Up Helly Aa could reasonably be referred to as Tranny Tuesday.  It is definitely a celebration put on by locals for locals, so it was an incredible authentic cultural experience, unlike any other I've even heard of. I don't even know how I can further describe this day and still make sense, so perhaps these few photos will help clarify the day.

The Morning

In the community center, I was allowed to try on the Jarl (viking) costume from 1991

Lyrics to the song that was song on repeat throughout the whole day

Lisa, a friend from the tour group, and I in front of the Viking Longboat

The Jarl squad musters in front of the longboat waiting to begin the parade around the streets Lerwick

Quick photo-shoot for the Jarls aboard the boat.  The guizer (or head) Jarl stands apart with his winged helmet.

A family of Jarls

I got to meet a viking!

Showing off their axes

Skip forward a couple of hours and its the torch parade, around 850 men are all carrying torches

I spotted a marshal viking, in a previous year's jarl ensemble, talking to one of the squads

The sheer number of torches was spectacular

One of the cuter vikings

In the hall, with a shetlander (who was actually born in toronto) in his garb for the night

Day in St. Andrews

Hi everyone,
Just a short update before I head off to the Up Helly Aa festival.  Today I spent the day in St. Andrew's, the home of golf, with around 300 other international students.  We flooded the picturesque little town.   On arrival we discovered a small little cafe that actually served bagels! Edinburgh is in a bagel drought, impossible to find them anywhere.  So needless to say, it was an amazing moment.
A couple of the other students and I wandered off and we hit up the ruins of the cathedral, castle and then we headed to the beach! Sarah and I even dipped our feet into the ocean.  Shenanigans ensued and we lost our balance and almost fell in.
Finally, I met up with a high school friend of mine, Maayan, who is on exchange at the University of  St. Andrew's. 
Anyways, nothing too exciting just thought I would post a couple pictures from the day!
8:30 tomorrow morning I am on my to Aberdeen to catch the overnight ferry to Lerwick, Shetland.

-love the Sheepish traveller

Return to Edinburgh

Dear Blog Readers, (or perhaps just dear mum?)
So I have almost been back in Edinburgh for a full two weeks! I am definitely re-acclimatized back to all things Scottish, including but not limited to time zone, weather, classes, increased alcohol consumption (only kidding mum..), and eating the singularly worst food known to man.  All in all things are pretty good over here.
My first week back I got fairly sick, so there may have been a lot of staying all day in bed staring at the wall and all those good things.  I always seem to end up in these fairly intense social situations with absolutely no voice.  I remember my first week ever in college at McGill, I had the raspiest voice, I'm pretty sure I sounded like a demon from hell. It was pretty frightening! But I made it through and improved my non-verbal communication skills to boot.
My classes seem like they will be quite good.  I love my American Innocence class already, (we are reading such classics as Huck Finn, Lolita, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye and also quite a few lesser known works).  It seems silly to be taking an American literature class over the pond but it was a. the only one I got into and b. American lit is sorta my thing. The teacher is extremely dry and sarcastic and spends about half the class talking about British football and ranting on various topics which is always fun. My other english lit class, is about skeptical Renaissance literature (a philosophy - literature hybrid) which I will be happy just to get through alive.
Although I continue to meet purely exchange students it is slightly more motley crew this time round, not purely New York Americans, which is fun.
Tonight I am off to a three-legged pub-crawl from the University Cocktail society.  It sounds like a dangerous ordeal, (as you who can attest to my complete lack of co-ordination will agree), but hopefully I will be able to maintain a degree of decorum sipping on fruity drinks, brutishly tied to another person.  It seems unlikely but I will not be deterred!
I am now officially a member of the wine society, whisky society and now the cocktail society.  I think I need to seriously rethink my extracurricular choices.  But hey, they don't make societies like this back home.
Saturday I'm going to St. Andrew's for the day, one of my high school friends is on exchange there so hopefully I will get an informed tour of the campus and all that jazz.  And then sunday its off to the edge of the world (aka Shetland Islands) to revel in pagan ritual and burn things.
I will update soon!
love the Sheepish traveller