Well that was an 'adventure'

So, 20 hours after I had planned to arrive, I have eventually made it to Shetland and settled into my accommodation. My journey here has been somewhat of an ‘adventure’ to say the least. It all started with my flight being a bit delayed getting into the airport, nothing major, just meant I was sat in the waiting lounge for rather a long time as I was quite eager with getting through check-in and security. However, it did mean I had plenty of time to grab a coffee and gather my thoughts. Once on the rather washing-machine like plane, I tried to just close my eyes and keep praying that the plane would actually get off the ground. Once we were in the sky, I actually started to quite enjoy it and although I couldn’t see much more than a white blanket of cloud below me, I was able to recognise when we went over Edinburgh (or at least I think it was Edinburgh…). The fun then began when we tried to land in Sumburgh, the airport on Shetland. Due to bad weather, visibility was poor so the pilots decided after attempting to land that they couldn’t see enough to land safely, so up we went again to circle for a bit longer in the hope the cloud cleared a bit. Now this wasn’t too much of a problem, I didn’t really have to rush anywhere after my flight, but I was beginning to miss my feet being on the ground. After about 40 minutes of trundling around in the sky we tried to land a second time, and again the pilots couldn’t see enough so had to abort the landing. By this point we were running low on fuel so our only choice was to fly to Aberdeen. Once we landed in Aberdeen, we were told that the airport in Sumburgh had been closed due to the weather, so the only way to get to the island was to take the overnight ferry. Now I wasn’t against the general idea of going on the ferry, in fact that’s how I’m making my way back at the end of my trip, but the combination of a hungry Freya and just wanting to be rid of travelling was not great, so cue lots of tears and multiple ‘I want to go home’ messages. Once we had all collected our bags, we were taxied to the ferry terminal and eventually set sail for Shetland.

After throwing a pity party for a couple of hours, I eventually picked myself up and plucked up the courage to talk to a group that I knew had been on the plane. Hillary, Martin and a lovely Danish lady who’s name I never quite got, ended up adopting me for the duration of our voyage and we all sat together for dinner and we chatted about everything and anything. Hillary and Martin are quite possibly the cutest couple I have ever met, I aspire to be that level of adorable when I’m old, and I hope I might possibly see them again at some point during my trip as I know they were planning to visit Lerwick.

The evening and a lot of the early morning was spent reading and just staring out the window as the ferry quietened down for the night. Probably only about 3 hours of sleep later, I went and made full use of my complimentary breakfast voucher, and made a beeline for the coffee machine. By this point we were very close to Lerwick where the ferry docked, and I got an amazing view of the island that would be my home for the next few weeks.

Finally, at 7.30 this morning, my feet finally got their wish of being on solid ground again. I walked from the terminal to my accommodation (via a co-op to get the essentials of tea bags and milk), and within minutes of stepping through the door I was in the shower and making myself look less like a dishevelled gremlin, as I’d been in the same clothes for over 24 hours. After napping for a few hours, I got up and went to the shops to get my food for this week, and spotted a lovely looking café that overlooks Breiwick which I will most definitely be visiting. I have walked past where I will be working for the 3 weeks and seeing as it is only just down the road from my accommodation, I think it’ll probably be the shortest commute I’ll ever have.

Now that I’m actually here, I am finally beginning to accept that I might actually enjoy this trip. As I’m sat writing this, I can still feel my head swaying a bit from the ferry and standing up is a delicate process as not to topple over, but hopefully that will subside by tomorrow, ready for my first day…

Not a bad view for my stroll to the shops