SCALLOWAY

Like I said, I now live in Scalloway, AKA the "Ancient Capital of Shetland"

They have a general store here with all that cool-ass candy you used to buy as a kid; milkbottles, pinepples, cherry string, warheads, candy necklaces, everlasting gobstoppers, lifesavers and those toxic-yellow bananas that were always shrouded in a strange dust-like substance and were rock hard enough to threaten potential dental calamity, but alas! No redskins. Whatever happened to redskins??

But I digress...

Scalloway (Old Norse: Skálavágr - "bay with the large houses") is the largest settlement on the North Atlantic coast of mainland Shetland with a population of approx 900 (+ me = righteous place to live). Now, the aforementioned old school candy supply is a noteworthy town trait indeed, but nifty confectionary is super-trumped by the fact that during World War II, Scalloway was the home base and headquarters of The Shetland Bus resistance operation against Nazi-Germany.

The Shetland Bus was the nickname of a clandestine special operations group comprising a fleet of small fishing cutters that were responsible for rescuing refugees from Nazi occupied territory and providing the Norwegian Resistance with supplies.

Crossings were mostly made during the winter under the cover of darkness which meant that the crews and passengers had to endure the unforgiving tempestuousness of the North Sea with no lights and the constant risk of discovery by German aircraft or patrol boats. But despite the cover of the winter darkness, several Shetland Bus boats were attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft and German motor torpedo boats on patrol along the Norwegian coast. As a result, forty-four were killed while others were captured, imprisoned, tortured or executed. The North Sea caused its own share of death and disaster. On November 14, 1941, the Blia was on its way to the Shetlands with 35 refugees on board when it was caught in a hurricane. The boat was swamped and everyone, passengers and seven-man crew, died in the raging sea and then in January 1943, the entire crew of the Bodo perished when their boat hit a mine off the Scottish coast.

Here's a little silver linin' for ya..Leif Andreas Larsen (popularly known as Shetland Larsen) managed to make 52 successful trips to Norway!