We were finally approaching our final Scottish destination: Shetland! As alluded to several times over the course of this series, the primary reason we had gone to the UK was to go to Shetland Wool Week. We had also had some friends who had gone to Shetland, so were excited to see the rest of the place too. But first we had to get there. I left you, dear reader, as my super amazing wife and I were jumping the car and departing Inverness. We had about a two-hour drive ahead of us to Aberdeen, where we would catch the ferry to Shetland. We could have taken a flight to get to Shetland, but I pushed us towards the boat. I was looking forward to spending an overnight at sea and we sprung for the cabin instead of confining ourselves to chairs.

We almost didn’t make it. I should have looked more closely at a map and the locally available transportation options. We had a rental car we had to drop off at the airport and turns out the airport is not at all near the ferry terminal. I was stressed from driving down all the tiny little two-lane roads on the route the GPS took us between Inverness and Aberdeen, and my super amazing wife was stressed because we were looking at the clock and realizing this was going to be close no matter what. But we arrived at the car rental place and jumped on out, forgetting my super amazing wife’s sunglasses in the process (the rental place later emailed us to say we could pick up the sunglasses at our leisure, but we were, you know, in Shetland). We were planning on getting an Uber, but turns out you can’t get a ride share from the Aberdeen airport.

Okay, no matter, we just got in the taxi line. The very long taxi line. And waited a few minutes. And no taxi came. Not great! And then the taxi lady came out and said no taxis were coming anytime soon. This had us very stressed and we had no real time to spare. So we shuffled on down with all of our baggage and the rest of the people in the taxi line to the bus stop, with no real indication of when the bus was going to come either. But then! Our savior! A taxi appeared! With everyone else distracted at the bus stop my super amazing wife and I ran on down with all our bags to claim the taxi and we were on our way! We arrived at the ferry with time to spare but seem to have been some of the last to board.

And so we were onboard our chariot, the MV Hjaltland. We unpacked in our spacious cabin (spacious after the Caledonian Sleeper anyway) and settled in. Despite our very anxious time getting there I was even anxious-er to explore the ship, so we went off to poke around. It is super cool. It’s got a gift shop and a bar and a movie theater. As soon as we were underway I insisted we go up and see the deck before it got too dark and we were too far at sea, dragging my super amazing wife away from her tea to do it. The views were gorgeous man, the open sea, the offshore wind farm, the wind in your face, fantastic.

Things were soon not so fantastic though. After we descended down from the weather deck we got in line for dinner. My super amazing wife was starting to feel not so great from the rocking the boat was already experiencing. I thought some food would help, but not really. It made her feel worse though it made me feel better for a bit. We returned to our cabin and although she avoided puking she was soon confined to her rack. I wasn’t far behind. Before long I, too, was seasick. This was a major blow to my ego. My time as a landlubber has made me weak.  I spent a few hours listening to podcasts and feeling nauseous but did eventually recover enough to have a fairly comfortable night.

The next morning I got up early to have a rather nice shower actually in our ensuite and then explore the boat some more. Back up on the top of the ship I caught my first glimpse of Shetland. I always like the first glimpse of a distant land by sea. I remember my first sight of Australia from the submarine, easing up over the horizon its long and low shores. With my stomach feeling better I also got some very good breakfast. It included a banana though, and maybe that was the root cause of all my troubles. We docked before long and so it was back to the cabin to pack and then unload. I think we were some of the last ones off. No matter, because that meant the car hire lady was easy to find. She ran us through the info, with a stern warning that although we had the comprehensive insurance coverage, that still did not cover the car doors being ripped off by strong winds. Quite the introduction to Shetland! But we were glad to be there, safe, sound, dry, and with a new set of wheels.