T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
This year I am diving head-first into the Edinburgh International Book Festival, just one of the many festivals going on in the city this month. Conveniently self-contained on Charlotte Square in New Town, the Book Festival grounds consist of several theaters, a big book shop, a couple of bars and cafes, and lots of lovely outdoor seating (some of it covered, perfect on a drizzly day).
The Falkirk Wheel is one of those things we’ve been meaning to check out for a while. Some curious houseguests were a good nudge to finally go explore.
For the second half of our stay in Orkney, we were based in Stromness, on the western end of Mainland. Smaller than Kirkwall, and oozing a bit more old-timy charm, Stromness proved a good base for exploring the western part of the island
On our second morning in the Orkneys, we woke up to snow. It was lovely to look at, but made us wonder about our plan to catch the ferry to Hoy for the day. From what we had read, Hoy was supposed to be very beautiful, but there wouldn’t be much to do there if the weather wasn’t cooperating. While we were at breakfast, the sun came out.
The Orkneys contain a fair number of prehistoric sites to entertain the tourist. Most of these sites boast superlatives such as “the oldest known X”, “the most complete Y”, or “the only Z still in existence”, so it’s hard not to think that one really ought the visit them (even if one is not a fan of pottery shards or overly ruinous ruins).
We had some excellent Scotland adventures in April. I spent a week in Gardenstown at a workshop led by a very talented Scottish artist, and then Scott came to join me and we headed further north. On our way to the ferry to the Orkney Islands, we stopped for a couple hours to check out Dunrobin Castle.
The Isle of Skye is a wonderful place for hiking, if you’re lucky enough to have cooperative weather. We spent an afternoon exploring the Trotternish Peninsula, topped off with a hike up the Storr to visit its old man.
When visiting an Italian city, there’s a certain progression to the day that we aim for. It goes more or less like this:
9am coffee & pastry
10am coffee
11am coffee
1pm lunch
We have some good friends who live in Padua (Padova), so we like to stop by every time we’re in the area (“the area” basically referring to the Veneto, the region of Italy around Venice). It’s a gorgeous city, full of narrow porticoed streets, cathedrals, bustling squares, and humiliated graduates.
On our recent trip to the Dolomites, we mainly kept close to the adorable cabin where we were staying, but we did venture out to explore some neighboring towns in Veneto on a couple of occasions.