May 27 & 28: Edvard Munch, the forest at Holmenkollen & the Vikings

On Wednesday morning, we woke to more chats with Roger, and shared some smoothies and juices with him.  He’d concocted a pretty delicious juice of apple, lemon, ginger, avocado and banana, which he called “the elixir of youth”.  He looks pretty good, so I’ll take his word for it.

May 26: Modern Norwegian art & “Antiks”

On the morning of May 26, we still hadn’t met Roger, the man whose AirBnB we were currently staying at.  When we arrived, his mother had let us in, and he hadn’t been home at all the past two nights.  We ran into him over breakfast this morning, though, looking particularly well-styled for so early.  Nicholas picked his brain for tips about hiking and walking, and he referred us to Norway’s DNT.  He was quickly off and about, though, and left us to our banana smoothies and roasted breakfast tomatoes.

May 24 & 25: Leaving Moss & a day spent walking through Oslo

In its advertising material, Moss is referred to as “the pearl of the fjord”, and I’m inclined to believe it.  The island is beautiful and green and surrounded by ocean. The train from Moss to Oslo takes less than an hour and travels through lush pine forests and small villages dotted with bright red and yellow houses.  The train is very clean and feels more like an airplane than the trains in Melbourne.  So far, Norway looks not dissimilar to Scotland, but has a distinctly different feel.  There’s magic here, but it’s a very different kind.

One day in Glasgow (for history buffs or those needing a culture fix)

Two of my favourite museums I've encountered anywhere were in Glasgow.  If natural or human history appeal to you, or you're a fan of art or strange curiosities, you're sure to love exploring The Hunterian Museum and Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.  They both have a weird and wonderful collection of objects - manmade, animal, world-famous artworks and an array of interesting specimens.  Both situated by the picturesque Kelvingrove Park and surrounded by cafes and restaurants, you're sure to have a wonderful day here.

May 23: A day in transit & The Island of Moss (Norway)

Frantic packing, frantic organising and a hurried breakfast preceded a very brisk walk to Buchanan Bus Station.  Going via the post office, we sent off some OS maps to Craig, feeling he would make better use of them than we would.  I also sent him my book of Scottish folklore, filled with pressed flowers because I worried they wouldn’t be let into Australia.

May 22: A dérive in Glasgow & The Hunterian

Today is Friday and it’s the last full day in this strange city, with its grimy buildings and its lush greenery and its eclectic mix of people.  

5 Tips for Popping your AirBnB Cherry!

I was a bit hesitant to use AirBnB at first.  I was nervous to enter somebody else’s home instead of opting for the safety of a hotel.  I’ve been swayed by the charms of AirBnB, though, and always check my options on AirBnB before any other hotel booking site.  The prices are almost always cheaper, there’s heaps more variety and it gives you a chance to make some friends along your travels.  Here are some tips for a fail-safe booking experience, to keep you feeling safe and enjoying your holiday.

May 18, 19, 20 & 21: Three museums, lots of organising & two Glaswegian vegan eateries

The last few days have been busier, more hectic and more stressful than I would have liked.  Between sorting out customs forms to send our bags back to Australia, sorting out customs forms to post things back to Australia, sorting out customs forms to send the tagger to Washington and organising all our belongings, we still wanted to see some of the history and art that Glasgow had to offer.  It’s now Thursday and I’m sitting outside the apartment waiting for someone to collect our bags.  It’s 9.50 and the timeslot they’ve given us was the generous 9-6, so it could well be a long day.

May 16 & 17: Two sleep-ins & two contemporary galleries

In all the excitement, I haven’t told you much about Glasgow.  We’re staying by the River Clyde, just across from the Central Station, so it’s relatively easy to get into town.  It took us hardly any time to get to Tiso when we bought our bags.   The building we’re staying in is also quite lovely, and we’ve got a huge room, and one half of the couple we’re staying with is an engineer doing his PhD in wind technology.  There’s a tiny TV in the room and a collection of DVD’s including Not Another Teen Movie, two Toy Story films, Knocked Up and Despicable Me.  There’s a real selection.

May 14 & 15: Recreating childhood photos, the Pilgrimage to Beith & the first day in Glasgow

Waking stiff and not quite used to the car after 6 nights of double bed luxury, we quickly shed our sleeping bags and decided to find some coffee by Loch Lomond.  For a tourist destination so close to Glasgow, you’d think these towns would provide necessary caffeine earlier than 10am.  You’d also be wrong.

May 12 & 13: The Hollow Mountain & The Puffins

We woke late on Tuesday.  The heavy rainfall overnight had meant that the stream and the waterfalls were even heavier than they had been the previous day, and it was quite a meditative sound.  I dragged the blankets out into the lounge room and Nicholas poked the smoldering embers from last night’s fire, getting the fire going again. 

May 10 & 11: Rainy archaeology & the Jacobite Steam Train

We’d been waiting for the rainy weather to catch up to us and on Sunday it did, coming down in buckets and activating the waterfall behind our window.  Two wet cats jumped on our laps as soon as we came into the cosy loungeroom, tempting us to start up the fire and spend the day inside. 

May 4, 5, 6 & 7: Over the sea to Skye, the Old Man, lots of fairies and Harry Potter

Warning: this post has a lot of pictures but pretty half-hearted text because I never wrote anything down because we were always listening to Harry Potter audiobooks.

May 8 & 9: Glencoe & Buachaille Etiv Mor

Before we got to Scotland, we really wanted to climb a mountain or two in Glencoe.  We also really wanted to do Ben Nevis, but had heard that it was still very snowy and wintry up there, and we didn’t have crampons or an ice axe or anything, so didn’t want to risk doing a big mountain unprepared.  Like I’ve said before, lots of tourists do stupid things and die on these mountains, even with the help of Scotland’s mountain rescue.  We decided to cross Ben Nevis off our list and move it to the ‘when we come back/move to Scotland’ list. 

May 1, 2 & 3: Smoo Cave, Nick does Suilven solo & the best drive in Scotland

We first woke to heavy rain beating down on the windshield and almost a whiteout all around.  I fell in and out of sleep until sunlight began to pour through the windows and it was impossible to continue sleeping.  The mountains in front of us had a fresh coat of snow from the night before.

April 30: Goodbye Orkney!

We are currently on the Viking Ferry, headed back to Scrabster from Orkney.  For the first couple of days on Orkney, we thought we’d overbooked ourselves somewhat and allowed too much time on the islands, but probably could’ve done with a little more.  Once you’re off the mainland, there’s so much to explore and if you’re into archaeology and prehistory, or if you like birds, you’re pretty spoilt for choice.