Sara had an appointment with the local brewery to do a photo story on. I had her drop me off just down the road at a cafe/ "chocolatier"/RAF (Royal Air Force) "museum". By the way, when I put something in quotation marks...that means it's a real stretch to call it that.
I ordered the "chocolate experience" which was a cup of cocoa, 2 bon bons made there, and 3 skinny biscuits dipped in chocolate. It cost 4 pounds ($7). I sat there for awhile. There was one other couple there. After they left I noticed there was an electric outlet next to that table so I moved there and plugged in my Ipad because it needed charging. The not-so-friendly owner came by several times and then came over and said that if I was going to use the electricity, I would have to pay 1 pound ($1.70). It must have been my mouth hanging open that clued him...he further stated that electricity was very expensive on the island so he would have to charge. I said alright then. So I sat for another 20 -30 minutes and he came over twice to ask if I needed anything else (I had finished my "chocolate experience"). The last time when I said I was fine, he told me that if I was going to stay there any longer he would have to charge an additional 5 pounds because after all, this was a cafe. Keep in mind that all the other 5 tables were empty during this time. So basically I got kicked out of a half-assed chocolate cafe! A new experience!
I went down the road and met up with Sara who had a great time with the owner of the brewery. Heading back we drove by a well known bus stop on the island. A family has made it whimsical. Every year it has a theme. This year it's Nelson Mandela:
Came back and cooked our dinner at the hostel. It was a bit better than previous meals at hostels (back in the day)...they consisted of bread, wine, cheese, and cooked veggies.
Forgot to mention yesterday that while hiking up the trail at Hermaness to see the puffins, 2 women said hi - they were going down the trail - and they said that they had talked to us the day before while we were weeding in Jan and Pete's garden. We couldn't believe that we recognized someone up here!
And we also talked to 2 other couples on the trail...asking them how much further it was to the top ...and amazingly both couples are staying at the youth hostel so we have been visiting with them today. There seems to be this odd sense of connectedness around here.
We were in the kitchen, cooking, when the warden came in. I introduced myself and she asked if we were the ones in room 6. I said yes and she said she had a message for us. I thought that was odd. She came back and told us that someone tomorrow morning was bringing us an injured gannet that we were to take back to Hillswick. I asked her to repeat that. And then I said "a GANNET?!!" She said that's what the person said (Jan). I asked "in our car???" she said yes that a couple would be dropping it off tomorrow morning. Well, apparently we are on another adventure to have a wild gannet (you saw the photo and the size of the bird in yesterday's post) in our car. I guess we are supposed to cover it with a sheet to keep it calm. Oh Lord, what are we getting into?
We sat around visiting some more with other hostelers and then went to bed to be rested for tomorrow. It was a very dreary, cloudy, and cold day today so we didn't get to go to some of the other places we wanted to today. Here's a photo just before we went to bed...taken from the sun room at the hostel. It was around 11:30...still simmer dim...but is more dark due to cloud cover.
Location:the island of Unst, Shetland Islands
So loitering with Willie Wonka at the chocolate factory got you in trouble. Must have been peak time at the cafe.
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