{part 7}

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{parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6}
"next stop: inverness. please mind the gap as you alight from the train."



we'd stopped in inverness on the way to nairn the day before, and {we thought} seen all of it that we'd wanted to see. the plan {in the loosest sense of the word} for today was to stop in inverness, switch trains, head west. ish. as westish as we could head {still mapless}. i clearly forgot that it was a sunday afternoon. the trains were not running, and we were stranded.

we left the train station a bit disappointed, but as soon as we started exploring, our disappointment quickly dissipated. inverness was beautiful.

we stopped at a coffee shop for sandwiches. i ordered french fries; the waitress looked at me like i was dumb.

"maybe you mean crisps?" she asked.

"sure." i smiled at her, trying to assure her that i wasn't dumb. but i couldn't remember: did crisps mean french fries?

i found out when my food came that i should've ordered chips. chips are french fries, crisps are chips. pudding is not pudding and tea is sometimes tea and sometimes supper. fringe is bangs and on and on. how could it be that we spoke the same language and yet i couldn't seem to do something as simple as order french fries?

i ate my crisps anyway, and we headed out again. we found a castle on the river ness, and because we liked that so much we based our search for a place to sleep around it. we quickly found a little b&b called castleview which, as the name suggests, views the castle. go figure. we got the last room with its own bathroom and a good view. score.








relieved to have a place to leave our backpacks, we went for a walk around town. up along the river ness, over a bridge, past the castle, through the shops. uneventful, compared to the night before, but good. just plain good.







we walked and walked and walked. i bought a few things but mostly we just looked and talked and enjoyed. that's what a vacation is for.

that, and eating more than you normally do, and staying up later than you normally do, and spending more money than you normally do. for appreciating little things and big things and experiences that you might not notice if you were around them all the time. seeing each other in a different setting and appreciating little things and big things and quirks and traits that you might not notice when you're living your normal, day-to-day lives together.








we ended the night with burgers, chips, soup and a hangout on the bridge in the quiet snow. the first train out was to leave at 8:30 the next morning, and we were going to be on it. we had somewhere to be, even though we didn't know exactly where that was quite yet.

{part 8>>}