DavTravels

Scotland 4: Day 17

4.13.11 | Lerwick Hostel | 08:23

I forgot to mention that I had Indian food again for dinner last night. It was good, except I told my server that I wanted something spicy- but it was way too spicy. It was insane! I couldn’t even taste the food because of all the burn. I had them make the dish a second
time with less burning.

I needed to run into town and find something to take care of my cough. I worry that it has been keeping my hostel mates up at night. They say it hasn’t, but I wonder if they’re just trying to be polite. At this moment, I’m on a wonderful drug called Sudafed.

17:09

Today has been a blast, so far. We got a new guy in our room. His name is Andy and he’s from Tasmania. He has been traveling all around Europe for the last 3 years- and has been so many places. At the moment, he is living in Edinburgh working at some college. He asked me this morning if I wanted to go with him to Sumburgh on the bottom end
of the island. I thought a day trip would be a blast. Our goal was simple: Find a puffin and take its picture.

The bus ride cost us under 3 pounds to get down there, so it was a great deal. The bus dropped us off near the Sumburgh airport and we hiked out to the cliffs. Sadly, we found no puffins, but there were some breathtaking views of the area where the North Sea meets the Atlantic ocean. We climbed down the steep incline to see the rocks below as well.

At the top of the southernmost hill, there was a lighthouse. We walked up top to take a look around and there was a local man called Newton who was working there. He was a member of some British Society for Birds… or something like that. He knew so much information about the puffins as well as all the other birds. He was incredibly nice and
told us that on Sunday, he and his son counted about 270 puffins. That would have been a sight to see, but sadly, we mostly just saw seagulls. There were a few wild rabbits, however.

Andy

Newton

When we got back to Lerwick, we grabbed some fish and chips for an early dinner. We ate dinner sitting on the side of a ship dock, dangling our legs over the edge. It was fabulous. Now Andy has gone with Neil (my new friend from Stirling) to go rock climbing. They’ve been instructed to take some picture before falling off the side of the rock.

Back to Scotland 4: Day 3 | Forward to Scotland 4: Day 18