The Circus Has Come to Town

I got back from my holiday and took a couple of days to get over my cold, then was ready to resume my normal routines. Earlier this week I started to notice some changes had taken place in town – it’s tourist season!

The cruise ships have started to arrive. The newspaper publishes a list of the ships, their arrival & departure dates & times, and their capacity. The same is posted on the harbourmaster’s website. Massive coaches are now on the roads, or parked in lay-bys meant to fit a Vauxhall Astra, while tourists wander down the middle of the road, or climb fences, cameras in hand. One tourist was spotted wandering down the middle of the Churchill Barriers – imagine Trafalgar Road, but one lane, and no sidewalks or shoulders, just ocean on either side – the speed limit is 100km/hr.

In the village they have closed off the road that I had thought was a pedestrian-only lane in the first place, presumably to allow the tourists to do more shopping. It seems like the town made this decision without advising the businesses along said road, who count on vans and trucks bringing them deliveries on a daily basis. Oops. I have heard both fiddlers and pipers busking along the harbour front.

On social media, the locals are giving one another ‘heads-up’ warnings about where the main tour buses are going and which roads and sites to avoid. No one is complaining – I think after two long, shut-down years, everyone recognizes how much Orkney needs the tourist trade.

I am doing my very best to at least look local, taking Scout everywhere I go. (And while I don’t sound Scottish, I do most definitely look like I fit in – pasty white skin, light-coloured eyes, what my mother would (somewhat less than kindly) refer to as a righ’ baw face.) I’ve also taken to carrying a Tesco’s bag with me everywhere and flashing my Orkney Library card at anyone who will stop to look. Presumably this is our new norm, at least until September.