Upcoming trip to ancient sites with online friend

A

Ameriscot

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I used to be on a senior forum called Eons which went belly up a few years ago. One of the friends I'm still in touch with is coming to the UK from where she lives in the NW US this summer. I've known her online since about 2007 but we've never met. We were in the Living Abroad group and the British group on Eons as well as some other groups. We've been friends on FB since Eons closed, so I've known her a long time.

Anyway, I commented on a post about the ancient sites on the island of Orkney off the northern coast of Scotland. We both commented how we'd like to visit as neither of us have. A few days later she sent me a message that she's coming over for a wedding and how about going to Orkney together. Cool! We've got the whole thing booked for 3 days in August - flight, car, hotel.

This is the site we're most excited to be visiting:

http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/skarabrae/

The iron age settlement of Skara Brae was uncovered during a storm in the mid 19th century. It was inhabited between 3200 and 2200 BC.

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How very exciting, Annie. Enjoy ! ! ! I hope you will enrich our lives with your wonderful pictures. :D I have worldwide online friends from 1998 that I have yet to meet. So wonderful that the internet opens the world and allows us to find others with the same interests.
 
Thanks, Nona! I will certainly post tons of photos! This lady is very optimistic and contented and I can tell from how she posts that she's an outgoing, fun and exuberant person.

I was on a forum in 1997 but didn't stay on it or remain friends with anyone. I do have friends I've known online since 2002 from an American expats forum.
 

Great that you will meet up with your longtime internet friend. That's how I met my best friend who lives in S.Au. who I shared interests with, back in late '99. It will be interesting, getting to know one another and sharing travel experiences together. Looking at the images, gives me shivers (since I was a very small child, I felt a connection to the Scots .. go figure).
 
Pinky said:
Great that you will meet up with your longtime internet friend. That's how I met my best friend who lives in S.Au. who I shared interests with, back in late '99. It will be interesting, getting to know one another and sharing travel experiences together. Looking at the images, gives me shivers (since I was a very small child, I felt a connection to the Scots .. go figure).
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Yes it will be nice to finally get together.

I love ancient sites. Saw some for the first time in Ireland. And Scotland also has tons of them!
 
Great story and photos. Thanks, too, for the map, for those of us who have never left the US (except for Canada at least). Looking forward to hearing how it goes.
 
Thanks all. It's the same for me - the older it is the more I'm fascinated. When I got married one of the places my husband took me (I'd never been to Scotland) was Kilmartin Glen which is jam packed with 5,000 year old burial cairns, cup and ring markings, standing stones, stone circles, etc.
 
vickyNightowl said:
How great is that?!!

Have fun,I can't wait to see all the adventure in pictures!
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I'm ready to go now! Been looking at Orkney on streetview google maps. We decided renting a car is the best option and since I can't drive a manual but my friend can, we're renting a manual (the most common here) and is nearly half the cost of an automatic.

In the meantime - sister is coming end of May and we're all flying to Michigan together mid June. Then in July a wedding to go to and my Australian inlaws will be here and we'll spend lots of time with them. Then....end of August - Orkney! In between all this some nice, long bike rides.
 
jnos said:
Great story and photos. Thanks, too, for the map, for those of us who have never left the US (except for Canada at least). Looking forward to hearing how it goes.
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Here's a better map showing the entire UK. Orkney had 70 islands and north of that is the Shetland islands. I believe the Orcadians and those on the Shetlands don't really think of themselves as Scottish. Lots of Viking heritage. I'm very curious to hear the accent and how well I can understand it. They have some of their own unique words as well. The town of Kirkwall where we'll be staying was settled in the 11th century.

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Oh, that sounds like a WONDERFUL trip!! My sister and I have talked about visiting the Viking settlement in New Foundland but not sure we'll ever get there! I have seen photos of the sites in the Orkneys and Shetlands - so amazing they are still there. I also hope you will share photos with us, along with any other tidbits of knowledge interesting enough to share. :)
 
Myquest55 said:
Oh, that sounds like a WONDERFUL trip!! My sister and I have talked about visiting the Viking settlement in New Foundland but not sure we'll ever get there! I have seen photos of the sites in the Orkneys and Shetlands - so amazing they are still there. I also hope you will share photos with us, along with any other tidbits of knowledge interesting enough to share. :)
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I've been wanting to visit Orkney since I heard about that settlement, probably about 12 or 14 years ago. Got hooked on ancient sites when I visited Ireland in 1998.

As always I'll take lots of photos. :)
 
Here's a small one near me. Its history is a bit confused. It does have very early origins, but in later years it was removed by farmers clearing the land. It was then rebuilt by archeoligists using he original stones and what historical evidence they could find.

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Capt, don't know if you'd be interested, but the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh is having a Celts exhibition from March to Sept. One item is the Gundestrup Cauldron which I've read about and seen on the documentary The Celts from the 1980's, and it's also on the cover of one my books on the Celts.

I'm spending a week in Edinburgh in June with my sister and husband so will definitely visit this.

http://www.nms.ac.uk/celts

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Making final plans for this visit. My friend is now in London visiting friends and will come up to Scotland in a couple of weeks for a Pagan wedding. Then we'll meet up and head to Orkney.

I got a newsletter in my email that said this year they are offering a new twilight tour of Skara Brae. It has to be booked ahead, only 12 people at a time, and we get to see sections that the public can't. The site gets quite crowded during the day, so this will be really nice. While reading this I thought, yea, right it'll cost 100 or more. Nope. 10 each!

http://www.orkney.com/whats-new/twilight-skara-brae

The rest of the sites are free to me because I'm a Historic Scotland member, and my friend will get the Explorer Pass for 3 days.

I'm going to bring my 'real' camera with all the lenses, my phone camera of course, and I think I'll bring my GoPro video cam and stick it to the dashboard for the drive.
 
The Twilight Tours is brilliant, and so is the fee. I am already excited to see your photos from the trip. Enjoy!
 
Pinky said:
The Twilight Tours is brilliant, and so is the fee. I am already excited to see your photos from the trip. Enjoy!
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Thanks. We go on the 22nd. Wishing we'd booked for 3 nights instead of 2!
 

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