August 26th, Day 30(1/2) - Arrival in Shetland

We left the Mousa Ferry (and, sadly, Ranger Howard) and headed north for the big city (relatively speaking of course) of Lerwick.

Being that there is really just one main road in Shetland, finding Lerwick was absolutely no problem whatsoever. Finding our bed and breakfast on the other hand proved to be a little more challenging. I guess I was a little over confident in my navigating ability because I thought I knew exactly where we needed to go once we hit the town, but before I knew it, it seemed we were headed out of town on the other side! Lerwick isn't that big and it didn't take very long to get to the other side.

After some backtracking, checking and rechecking of the map that we had, we finally found our way to Fort Charlotte Street - home of our bed and breakfast, the Fort Charlotte Guest House! Yay!

Or so we thought.

Fort Charlotte Streeet, it turned out, was nothing more than a one lane alleyway - a dead end alleyway at that! Cars were parked on one side of the street and we had gotten to the end before we realized there was no way out - and we still hadn't located our B&B! I somehow managed to turn around - while being stared at (and I'm sure later on, mocked) by a little boy who had the good sense to stand way off to the side of the road as I tried to maneuver our sporty litte (but too big for this alleyway!) Kia.

Tired, hungry and severely frustrated at this point, I found a spot to park and got out to find the B&B on foot. Did I mention this alleyway was also a very steep hill? Well, it was. I left Constance sitting in the car looking terribly worried - not so much that we wouldn't find our B&B, but more that she knew I was getting hungrier (and more grouchy) by the minute - while I made my way down the hill, to the adjacent road looking for our B&B.

No luck.

I decided to head back to the car when I saw the sign - the sign that was facing the opposite direction from which I had originally come of course! - pointing the way to the Fort Charlotte Guest House.

Hallelujah!

I get to the front door only to find it locked, but through the window I see an old lady wandering from one room to another. I manage to get her attention - and actually get her to open the door - and tell her that we have reservations and would like to check in.

She very politely directs me to the "chip shop" down the way and says the gentleman there will be able to assist me.

Oookaaaaayyyyy.

So I find the chip shop - and a very long line to the counter. So I stand in line.

About 10 minutes later I am finally at the place where my order will be taken and I explain to the nice girl behind the counter that I want to check in at the Fort Charlotte Guest House up the street. I half expect her to not have any idea as to what I'm talking about, but the very grim looking man who has not said a word to anyone the whole time I've been standing in line suddenly lets loose a very bemused grin and proceeds to give me an envelope with keys and a welcome note to the Fort Charlotte Guest House. He apologizes and says I needn't have waited in line. Oh well.

At long last Constance and I are in what will be our home for the next two nights.

Sigh of relief.

BUT! I have yet to eat and so before I have a complete meltdown so Constance and I head out to find ourselves some nourishment.

We ended up at a little pizza/cafe the name of which I can't remember but it was just a few doors down from the B&B and at that point, that was all that really mattered.

After dinner we took a short walk...

It seemed all the streets in Lerwick were about this narrow!

The street eventually opened up to this little beach with this little replica of a Viking longship floating in the bay.

After our walk we decided to find a nice place to have a little after dinner drink (naturally) before heading back to the B&B and to bed. What we soon discovered is that while Lerwick is a lovely little town, there weren't many places open for a little after dinner drink on a Thursday evening.

We wandered into a bar called Da Noost. It seemed friendly enough from the outside, but we couldn't see in until we actually walked in and by that point, it was too late to walk out! Not there was was anything or anyone terribly threatening inside - in fact, there were only two people inside: one patron and the bartender.

The patron introduced himself as Donald - pronounced "Donalt" with a "t" on the end - and the bartender (also owner) as Bill. We ended up chatting with them for an hour or so and left only after promising Donald (with a "t") that we would be back the next evening to meet his "lady" Denise.

What a wonderful way to begin our adventure in Shetland!