Metasaga Destination # 4: Kirkwall

It's been a strange day. I am not sure that Kirkwall likes me.

A lonely day.

Definitely.

I reached the goal, then so what?

On the other hand, this is a place with a visible human history more than 5000 years back.

Neolitic, Viking, Norwegian, Scottish.

Maybe the town wants to teach me patience.

I thought I had forgotten to bring the Orkney Schools Metasaga printout with me, but it was in my rucksack the whole time. I just did not look in the right place.

I read some questions from the Orkney School of Ambition Metasaga in Kirkwall

The questions has been created for primary school students.

Questions around the Royal Oak Memorial.

Warship that was sunk by a German submarine in 1939. 900 dead. Most of them very young

-What does belonging mean to you?

-What is your life motto?

Questions around John Rae's tomb in the cathedral

John Rae was a famous explorer

-In what ways have you explored something new?

-Have you ever had to stand your ground when people did not believe what you said?

Questions around Tankernes

s House Museum and Groatie Buckie House

paintings by the famous Orkney painter Stanley Cursiter

-How does it make you feel when you do something for your community?

-What do you think people will remember you for?

My own questions

-Why did I come here?

-What do I wish to find?

-What do I need to feel welcome?

-Do I fear to become obsolete and be thrown away?

-What would I like to be the text on my tomb?

-How does it make me feel, finding my ideas here, printed and practiced, in Orkney?

-What happens with the harbours I left behind?

-How does a small harbour town make me feel and behave differently?

-Where do I feel at home?

-Why did the cows welcome me so warmly?

I walk back to my wonderful Bed & Breakfast 2 miles outside Kirkwall. The owners, Ida and Balfour invites me and the other guest to

their living room. As night falls we fall into conversations, telling stories about island life, children, grandchildren language, dialects and journeys. At 1:30AM I fall into bed, prepared for next day. Meeting Old Man of Hoy