A Brave and Victorious Journey: Post-Shetland

Returned from Shetland this morning at 7:00am and went to class straightaway and what an adventure it was!

It all started with a ferry ride from Aberdeen Harbour at 7pm.
A freaking long 12 hour journey to Shetland it was.
The boat was rocky and it took some nice fudge to keep the motion from getting to me.

Northlink ferry that took us to Shetland.

There was a restaurant, a bar, a shop, cinema, cabins on board the ferry.

In the morning we woke up to see Shetland approaching us and soon got off the boat to reach Lerwick, the capital of Shetland. We wandered around for a bit to find some makan as it was too darn early (7am!) and no shop was open yet. Finally we found a nice cafe called Harbour cafe to have a nice breakfast!

Dawn came and we woke to see Shetland! At last!

Like a small toy but its actually a normal size boat

Its a beautiful day in the town of Lerwick!

A hearty breakfast before our journey at the Harbour Cafe!

Opens the earliest and save good breakfast at a good deal!

First time driving in a while! Edwin needs to 'warm up' he says.

First time driving also in a while but I'm calm and cool as always.

We rented a car that turn out to cost 100 pound (wow!) for two days....after we added in petrol money.
Well I am kind of glad the car came back in one piece given how we were driving it haha. Edwin and I (mainly me) didn't treat it very kindly haha as we were so out of practice. Incidents like stepping on the gas pedal too hard when starting, hitting a wooden pole while reversing, driving with handbrake on, stalling on a roundabout during peak hour...etc.

Shetland was a good place to practice our driving a bit as the roads didn't had too many people. Mind you when there were people they mostly just zoom past us! (I was travelling at 50 miles per hour only which I feel was quite fast already!)

Other firsts was driving into a ferry which brought you to another island to continue the journey and defrosting the car in the morning. We definitely gain a lot of valuable experience driving on our own. Just don't tell our moms! haha!!!

Had to defrost the car in the morning!

Reaching the next town!

Shetland ponies were plenty!

We saw many lochs and islands like these as we drove around!

The ferry to bring our car across to the next island!

Alas, most of the place that we went to were closed as it was winter and most people were slacking/sleeping/holidaying which is just as well as it seems me and Edwin are the only 2 tourist on the island LOL!

Foords Chocolate - CLOSED!

Give me some Valhalla Beer which the bottled version you can find only on Shetland - CLOSED!

During the summer, another thing that you can find on Shetland is many wildlife abound. Especially birds, like puffins can be found! You can kayak or hike around to see them! In winter you will just see the ponies, countless sheeps that leave droppings or what Edwin call 'mines' everywhere and also seagulls hanging around the cliffs.

An example of a puffin! (which i certainly didn't see)

All I saw were some seagulls!

The reason why we wanted to go to Shetland was because there were huge fire festivals around Shetland around these periods of time. Called Up Helly Aa, they are the biggest fire festivals in Europe! Especially the biggest one in Lerwick with like thousands of torch barrels as they march in their viking armour and burn their galley (viking longboat) at the end of it before the party of all parties begins and lasts till dawn.

See why I wanted to go!

Biggest Fire Festival in Europe!

The one that we wanted to go to was much smaller and at most a hundred people and it is at Norwick which is as far north as you can go in Shetland.

The most northern of places, Norwick.

However due to some misleading information from the internet, we were ONE WEEK EARLY!

I really felt like crying at the moment! Luckily something happened to save the day!

We met with the people of Norwick and they were really welcoming and really sorry that we came too early. I guess most people don't come to visit them and they were surprise to find that we travelled all the way to see them.

They gave (YES GAVE) us a set of their old costume from a previous Up Helly Aa and let us pose for pictures with the galley. They also lit up a torch for us as well!

We were so grateful for their hospitality or maybe it was the beer and whisky that they plied us with haha.

Lighting up the torch!

Our very own Up Helly Aa!

The kid was scared haha!

Nice blokes!

YARRGGGHH!!!!

Oooops! Almost forgot to mention another person who made our trip really worthwhile!
Willie! Our housekeeper at the Bed and Breakfast place that we stayed at in Shetland. He was really nice and made a really good breakfast that probably counted as our lunch as well given the portion that we ate.
The previous night we couldn't find a place to get dinner as the place was too ulu and he made some lasagne for us with NO extra charge! I was really touched by that effort as he could just f*** care and leave us to starve on our own. Bed and Breakfast and Dinner for 30 pounds! Worth it!

Here's Willie!

Just a simple dinner with some lasagne and bread and tea!

Awesome breakfast with Black Pudding, Fried Egg, Fried Tomatoes, Mushrooms, Sausages, Bacons and Toast!

Our cosy room!

Wanted to see some northern lights too but all we saw was a full moon!

On our way back on the second morning, we had to wait a while for the ferry to arrive and I started goofing around in the new costume that I had haha!

Viking Stowaway! SHHH!

Never see viking drive car ar!

I have come to conquer thy land!

We also drop by a place called Brae where there is this Frankie's fish and chips shop that is the top 3 fish and chip shop in Scotland so naturally as Singaporeans, we have to get the best things! And it was good!!!

The fish was fresh and like 鱼片 instead of one huge fillet!

Fish Cake!?? Really good too! Fried Potatoes with fish!

I drove back all the way from Hermaness the most north of Shetland where you can only see the north sea back to Lerwick and saw more scenery along the way...

Before long it was time to say goodbye to Shetland...