One Night Stanzas

Hello everyone! Exciting news: I am headed to the Isle of Lewis next week!

Lovely Boyfriend are going to go and stay in a wooden hut next to the sea, with no internet connection or phone signal — and we’re hoping this will translate into writing, writing and more writing!

We’ll be very close to the Callanish standing stones (That’s them up there, in a stunning photo by the lovely and excellent Ms Julie Howden), on the other side of the island to Stornoway.

(Photo credit)

Basically, I would like to know from you: what should I do with my holiday?

We’ll be spending two or three days driving from Edinburgh up to the crossing to Lewis, so first of all — what should we stop and see on the way? Is there anywhere amazing we can stay over to break our journey? We’ll have a car and all our camping gear, but we’d also be open to hotels, B&Bs, hostels, tree houses, hobbit holes — whatever!

(Photo credit)

Secondly — what should we do while we’re on Lewis? What should we see? What time of day should we see it?

And thirdly — with Lewis as our basecamp, where else can we go? Which islands should we explore? Where can we see seabirds and ocean-dwelling critters?

Importantly: what can we do when it’s raining? What should we do if, by some miracle, it is fine? What will we need our wee car for, and what can we go and do on foot?

(Photo credit)

Please do share your thoughts, ideas, recommendations, fangirlings, warnings and personal stories here in the comments box (NB: there is a mod queue), on Twitter, or by emailing claire[at]onenightstanzas.com

Thank you a million!

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Like shiny things? Check out Edinburgh Vintage, a totally unrelated ’sister site’ full of jewels, treasures and trinkets. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

Last week, Lovely Boyfriend and I ended up in Munich. I say “ended up,” because it’s not a city we’d ever have thought to go to, really (sorry, Munich!). However, I was offered a lovely writing-related opportunity there, so we decided to take advantage of the trip and have a mini holiday.

Turns out, Munich’s pretty fab. We loved the fact that there seem to be green spaces all over the place — and the city is full of trees. Almost all of them were turning for autumn, so we got to see all the beautiful coloured foliage.

For a city that was almost completely rebuilt not all that long ago, it feels amazingly full of history and culture — at times, we felt like we were in Paris! (And you guys know how much I love Paris.)

Speaking of Paris, we spent a lot of time stomping around Munich’s “English Garden” — a huge public park designed to resemble the parklands of an English country house. While there, we came across a little bridge covered in “love locks” — padlocks scratched, painted or engraved with the names of couples — just like on the Pont de L’Archevêché, Paris.

We did a lot of wandering around Munich’s various neighbourhoods, nosing in shop windows and seeing weird and wonderful sights. I’d recommend the University area around Maxvorstadt (especially Turkenstraße), and the neighbourhood of Schwabing (especially Augustenstraße — number 100 Augustenstraße is an amazing English language bookstore!) for this sort of activity, if you’re Munich-bound!

If you do ever find yourself on the aforementioned Turkenstraße, you need to stop by Cafe Katzentempel, which translates, of course, to Temple of Cats! These folks are passionate about two things: great vegan food, and taking care of their resident gaggle of rescued cats! I particularly loved Gizmo, Munich’s own Grumpy Cat, who took up residence in the window seat (on top of a customer’s coat) and sat looking at the world and all its horrors with total disdain…

Munich seems pretty cat-friendly in general, actually. No dogs allowed, but cats may, apparently, tip-toe in!

And of course, I can’t go on holiday without photographing some local graffiti! “Blood on the streets” was on one of the University buildings near Turkenstraße, “Love you til the end!” was in Schwabing, and “Stop Amazon” was near Rosenheimerplatz S-Bahn.

What are YOU loving this week?

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Budding writer? Creative person in need of a fun job? Check out the various resources and services at Bookworm Tutors. Alternatively, check out Edinburgh Vintage, a totally unrelated ’sister site’ full of jewels, treasures and trinkets. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!