There and back again

I spent this week in Germany. Rehe Germany to be exact. Due to the weather and a busy schedule, that’s about all I know of the little village that I spent my week in unfortunately. Except for this gem of information. It snows just as much in Germany as it does at home, and the snow is normal. On my island it hardly ever snows, but when it does it comes in little balls that pound on all the windows of our house, car, and bodies if we’re unfortunate enough to be caught outside during the downpour.

I really don’t mind snow so much, as long as it’s quiet, and as long as I don’t have to be going anywhere. This was the case for most of the week, but on the morning of our departure I was less than amused by the snow. Our bus was an hour late to pick us up because they had to wait for the drive to be cleared. It’s a little difficult to roll with the punches when the punches are coming at 6am.

Of course, we did end up finally making it to Frankfurt airport, but even then it was an uphill battle. Things just seemed to take longer than normal. I got the pat down in security along with about 60% of the passengers, so that took awhile. Then our flight had a gate change and we had to board a bus that drove us from the gate to the plane sitting out in Frankfurt Airport’s equivalent of Tibet.

Did I mention that the snow was still coming? Yes, finally got into the plane and after hanging out for a bit with my trusty British Airways Highlife magazine (forgot my book at MacDonalds!), we got word that we’d be delayed while they de-iced the plane. I guessed that I could kiss my therapeutic visit to Accesorize in Heathrow goodbye since that was as much time as we were supposed to have waiting for our next flight.

On a lighter note...it’s pretty cool that I get to sit here and complain about flight delays in Frankfurt Airport. It’s also amusing that my plane was painted green with de-icer junk.


Once in Heathrow we headed straight for the customer service desk since our next flight had already boarded when we landed. The lines were short, our British Airways customer service man was nice, and we ended up walking away with an hour of eating/shopping time at Heathrow and a £5 voucher for our trouble. I had a middle seat in the substitute flight, but ended up making friends with the British/Australian business man on my right and had a great time chatting all the way to Edinburgh. Nice.

Country strolls...

So, I love walking. Maybe even more now than I ever have, but maybe that's just because the destinations here are nothing less than breathtaking. I can walk to the sea! Yes, all that stands between me and the crashing waves is common grazing land, the croft behind our house and approximately 6 gates. And although I would consider myself a social person, when I do set out on a walk alone, I for some reason prefer to complete the walk without seeing a single person. As this is not exactly a bustling area, my walking route hits this requirement as well. Perfection.

That's not to say that I am completely alone on my walks. I'm usually accompanied by a few bunnies, and of course...sheep. There are ALWAYS sheep sharing my walk. They don't seem to mind my presence all that much, but they do take notice...

A room with a view...

It's a balmy 40 F degrees outside, and it's looking like prime walking weather outside. I woke up to sun streaming in through my window, which shows how lazy I was about getting up this morning.

So here's something I meant to blog about right after it happened, but better late than never. Over the holiday's my roommate had friends come to visit, and true to the classic Lewis tour, we took them to the Callanish Stones. A popular tourist attraction, these stones are like our island's Stonehenge.


Of course, before you actually get to the stones, there's a the option of a restroom break...sometimes there's a line of course!


Now it's time to make good on my plans for a walk and go before anything happens to this gorgeous day. You never know...

Heb madness!

Came across this gem of a video depicting the madness of our ferry crew. With excitement like this going on, you'd wonder why I've only taken the ferry off the island twice. Unless of course you've taken the ferry yourself...

A belated Christmas tree

Merry Christmas to me! I finally found my camera cord and can now recharge it and finally post my Christmas tree picture.


I was and still am quite proud of our little tree. It definitely helped to warm the place up in it's own way, and I'll be sad to put it away. Lucky for me, I come from a family of procrastinators and we always put off taking down the the tree as long as possible. This baby's gonna be around for a bit longer.

In other news, on the day before Christmas I took a walk in the lovely sunshine and got to see this:


Yes, that's the mainland! Those mountains are in the snow covered highlands! Good grief, could Ness get any better? Ok ok...it could have a few trees I guess.

Yeah, it's been awhile...

So long in fact that I've actually been living in the house featured in my previous post for over two weeks! Oh yes, we moved to Ness! Oh heavenly Ness :) I'm obviously in the honeymoon stage, but I think it's safe to say that I live in a beautiful place. I have the sea within a 20 minutes walk, the post office within about 25, lovely neighbors, and a gorgeous, cozy house.

Since I always like to post pictures, here's one of the beach closest to us:



I also took a quick pic of our Christmas tree that I wanted to post, but I can't seem to find my camera cord. In a perfect world, I will be posting it by Christmas Day, but just in case I forget, let me leave all of you still following this unreliable blog some Christmas cheer in another form.

dreaming...

What do you think...isn't it cute! We've been toying with the possibility of moving house in the next couple of months, and drove by this house today. We want to move to a more Gaelic speaking area...which is almost anywhere farther away from "town" than we are. This house is in Ness which is up in the northwest part of the island and about 40 minutes from town. It's pretty far up there, but those of you that know me know that I've done this before. Plus, Ness has it's own general store, a heritage center, and even an Arts and Crafts store! Not that the last thing would sway me in any way:)


Obviously this is all just dreaming, but so what, it's fun!