Well just got back from a long and tiring journey from Orkney
(
if you dont know where Orkney is check out the map of our journey below).
I've set it out in a kind of day by day road journal so you can see what we got up to.
Thursday 21st Day 1 : Set off with the youth group on a long minibus journey to Preston where we would stay the night in Preston with Morgana and her bassist Jon.
Friday 22nd Day 2: After a fairly good sleep we left Preston early on the long journey to Aberdeen. After many hours of travel through the highlands of scotland we arrived at Aberdeen, where we met Liam a friend from our youth group now studying in Aberdeen, University. We had a good relaxed evening with a tasty Chili Meal for all cooked by
Liam. I was impressed, well done Mr Byrnes. Afterwards we settled down to watch the Little Britain DVD before going to bed.
Saturday 23rd Day 3: Started off the day with Liam showing us around his campus and then the city. Was interesting to find out that Aberdeen was the birthplace of `Free Masonry` and we saw many Freemasonry symbols encraved into the walls of the old buildings of Aberdeen. After a good day of looking around the shops and seeing the sights we went to the port to catch the ferry to Orkney. The ferry trip to Orkney took around 7 hours, it was a fairly smooth crossing and we arrived on time with Miriam Hartley waiting to take us to where we were staying. She took us to a house a friend of hers had kindly let us use while they were away.
Sunday 24th Day 4:Today we got up early and went to a lively Baptist church in Kirkwall. The message and worship were great and all songs we knew so we could join in easily. Later on we met
Andrew Jones and his family who had recently moved from New Zealand to Orkney. (Andrew is one of the leading christian bloggers in the world ( web logging) with thousands of people visiting is site all the time.) Later on some of us went on a refreshing walk in the wind and rain around a lake before coming back and going to sleep.
Monday 25th Day 5: Today we went to Kirkwall, Orknies only City and the most northerly city in the United Kingdom. We looked around the shops there and then got some supplies for the journey back. We visited Miriams Home and then went to the *Ring of Brodgar* a stonehenge like site which has frequent occultic activity. After praying there, we packed our belongings and then travelled to Orkneys Bowling Alley for a game. The journey was quite eventful with bags flying off the roofrack and us having to search for them on the road. After a good game of Bowling, we travelled to the port to catch the overnight ferry back to Aberdeen. On the ferry we couldnt afford cabins but had a choice of reclining chairs we could sleep in. Before we went to sleep some of us went up on deck, it was a full moon and we could see for miles.
In the end most of us slept in the Childrens Soft Toy area which was quite comfortable.
Tuesday 26th Day 6: After only a few hours of sleep we arrived in Aberdeen and set off straight away to Manchester where we would be staying the night. We slept most of the journey and late in the evening we arrived at Manchester where we stayed with Anna Clarke a friend of ours working in the Pais Project.
Wednesday 27th Day 7: After a great night sleep, we set off again on the final part of our journey home. On the way home we stopped in Newcastle to see the Angel Statue of the North which has been recently erected. Later on we stopped in Bristol where everybody did some shopping at Ikea. After a couple more hours of driving we were home.
