Monday, January 30, 2012

{part 9}

Swim Until You Can't See Land by Frightened Rabbit on Grooveshark
{parts 1234567, & 8}

we arrived in kyle of lochalsh at around 12:30. the town was beautiful and the train station was small. there was one train going towards home and one train going towards where we'd come from.

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we chose option c: walk around town and try to find a bus. a risk, as there would be no more trains in or out that day, and we weren't sure about hotels or b&b's being open anywhere near.

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but we'd heard of the isle of skye, and we thought we might be close. if there was one "plan" we had, it was to end up there at some point. we found a tourist information office, boarded up and looking dilapidated. it did us no good.

the thing about exploring in the off-season is that everything is pretty well deserted--which is fantastic if you don't like crowds and line-ups and feeling like a tourist. it also adds an element of adventure: you're always asking yourself, "are we stranded? where are we? where do we go? how do we get there? why didn't we bring a map? are we going to live on the streets of kyle of lochalsh for the rest of our lives?" which is why, if you explore in the off-season, you should most definitely go with someone that you like and love, someone that you trust and find good-looking. someone who will not strangle you in an intense moment of "oops, i think we're stuck in the middle of nowhere again."

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but, like i always say, thank goodness for garbage men. {i always say that.} we found a helpful one loading a bag onto the back of his truck who told us, "you're in luck, kids." and pointed us in the right direction. there would be one bus in and out of kyle that day, and it was arriving and leaving in a half hour. and it was going across the bridge to the isle of skye.

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skye turned out to be a lot closer than we'd originally realized. the bus ride was fifteen minutes, and the bus driver dropped us off in a tiny town called broadford, which consisted of a pub, a cafe, some elderly people, and a post office where we tried to buy a map. i say 'tried' because we got chatting with some locals and completely forgot what we were up to in there. they did, however, give us directions to armadale, where they said we could catch a ferry back to the mainland, warning us that the ferry would probably not be running and then we'd be really stranded. we smiled and said, "ok. thanks." i think the idea of being stranded was getting less and less threatening.

things always seem to work out. you know, sometimes not at first, but in the end i think.

for example, the bus the post office crew in broadford put us on took us to the seashore and dropped us off. we saw no ferry, no town. nothing. we inquired.

"this is the stop," the bus driver huffed. "you should've rang the bell back at armadale. you'll have to walk." and then he shut the doors and drove away.
ok.

the beauty of it was that barclay had just been saying how he'd love to get out and walk a bit, and it really was a beautiful day--probably only a few degrees below zero. and the isle of skye? breathtaking. nobody in their right mind would throw a fit about having to walk around on it for a bit.

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so, having a general idea of the direction we should head, but not knowing how far to head in that direction, we started walking.

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and it was fantastic, and i thought to myself, "things always seem to work out."
and i prayed a thank-You and smiled at the quiet water.


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and before we knew it, almost too soon, we found the ferry. the office was open and the man inside looked surprised to see us.

"yep, it's going across to the mainland today. you're pretty lucky--this is the only crossing its making this week. some weeks we don't even send it out in the wintertime. it leaves in three hours."

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so we bought our tickets and went off to spend those three hours exploring the island.



Saturday, January 28, 2012

{january 28, 2012}

happy saturday.
i'm making hashbrowns and contemplating the mysteries of the universe.
and by mysteries of the universe i mean instagram and google reader.
i love sitting around with a cup of whatever, reading blogs and listening to barclay play the guitar in the next room. 
so hey: if you have a blog or instagram and i'm not already following you, leave your address/username in the comments so i can check it out. 

if you don't have a blog or instagram: 
GET ONE NOW.
pretty please with sugar on top.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

{part 8}

Don't Panic by Coldplay on Grooveshark
{parts 123456, & 7}
 day six found us in a hurry. and we were happy to see it.

there is just something amazing about jumping into a day as though it were the great expanse beneath a cliff, a wide extent of anything {to borrow the dictionary's definition}, and just falling right up until you land in bed to sleep for the night. that morning, we jumped from the castleview b&b onto a train headed for a place called kyle of lochalsh. the train left at 8:30 am and took four hours to wind through the highlands of scotland. i put on my headphones and stared. it was a completely perfect free-fall.

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we live in a beautiful world.
yeah we do, yeah we do.
-coldplay


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

{homemade}


for the past couple years, barclay and i have been making a few of our Christmas presents. this year, we made necklaces for his mom and two of his sisters.


on a whim, we decided to try sewing wood. we figured that with enough pressure {applied with a pair of pliers}, and soft enough wood, there's no reason it shouldn't work, right? i was thankful it worked, because i couldn't think of a back-up plan.


i'm not going to sugar coat it: i broke 18 sewing needles and bruised my fingers in the process, but i liked how they turned out.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

{two things}

1} barclay and i went to his parents' house a couple days ago and went through boxes of his stuff from when he was in high school. i looked through his throw-away pile just in time to rescue an old guitar strap...which looked like it would make a completely wonderful camera strap. i modified it a tad and used some old keychains to attach it to my wee nikon and...shazaam. i just want to wear my camera everywhere now. to the grocery store, to banquets, to my friend's house... etcetera forever.



2} this video:

Monday, January 23, 2012

{part 7}

Last Words by The Real Tuesday Weld on Grooveshark
{click through if you're in a reader or email}
{parts 12345, & 6}
"next stop: inverness. please mind the gap as you alight from the train."

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we'd stopped in inverness on the way to nairn the day before, and {we thought} seen all of it that we'd wanted to see. the plan {in the loosest sense of the word} for today was to stop in inverness, switch trains, head west. ish. as westish as we could head {still mapless}. i clearly forgot that it was a sunday afternoon. the trains were not running, and we were stranded.

we left the train station a bit disappointed, but as soon as we started exploring, our disappointment quickly dissipated. inverness was beautiful.


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we stopped at a coffee shop for sandwiches. i ordered french fries; the waitress looked at me like i was dumb.

"maybe you mean crisps?" she asked.

"sure." i smiled at her, trying to assure her that i wasn't dumb. but i couldn't remember: did crisps mean french fries?

i found out when my food came that i should've ordered chips. chips are french fries, crisps are chips. pudding is not pudding and tea is sometimes tea and sometimes supper. fringe is bangs and on and on. how could it be that we spoke the same language and yet i couldn't seem to do something as simple as order french fries?

i ate my crisps anyway, and we headed out again. we found a castle on the river ness, and because we liked that so much we based our search for a place to sleep around it. we quickly found a little b&b called castleview which, as the name suggests, views the castle. go figure. we got the last room with its own bathroom and a good view. score.

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relieved to have a place to leave our backpacks, we went for a walk around town. up along the river ness, over a bridge, past the castle, through the shops. uneventful, compared to the night before, but good. just plain good.

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we walked and walked and walked. i bought a few things but mostly we just looked and talked and enjoyed. that's what a vacation is for.

that, and eating more than you normally do, and staying up later than you normally do, and spending more money than you normally do. for appreciating little things and big things and experiences that you might not notice if you were around them all the time. seeing each other in a different setting and appreciating little things and big things and quirks and traits that you might not notice when you're living your normal, day-to-day lives together.

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we ended the night with burgers, chips, soup and a hangout on the bridge in the quiet snow. the first train out was to leave at 8:30 the next morning, and we were going to be on it. we had somewhere to be, even though we didn't know exactly where that was quite yet.

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