Fringe Festival, Edinburgh

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I have back-dated this entry to when I went to Edinburgh. I decided to get the overnight bus from London on the Friday evening. I finished work at about 5:30 or so and headed to Covent Garden August night-markets for a drink and some food before heading back to work to shower and change and head to Victoria Coach Station.

After the last incident I made sure that I was nice and early for the bus this time. It was absolutely packed - I got the last window seat pretty much right at the back of the bus and every aisle seat was also taken. Thankfully I actually managed to get a few hours sleep. We had three rest stops along the way and it was bitter cold outside in the middle of the night!!

After the third rest stop at about 5am the sun started to rise - glorious sunrise. I think I was about the only fool on the bus awake and taking photographs! They don't know what they missed out on.

Arrived into Edinburgh pretty much on time. Paula and Helen met me at the coach station and we headed back to their place for an hour or so. Quite a cute little two bedroom unit! Anyway at about 930am or so we headed into Edinburgh where we went for a walk and saw the castle (how could you miss it). Unfortunately it rained pretty much the whole time! The plan was then to go on one of the free walking tours, which we did, albeit slightly wet and dripping. The tour guide (Helene I think was her name) was South African and quite good, chatted away and told everyone all the Edinburgh stories. Interesting thing with these tours is that they don't get paid - it is purely tips, so if they don't do a good job, they can walk away with nothing. On the plus side - if they are good at what they do then they can make a bit of money.

We had a short break during the tour for lunch as well - which gave us time to warm up and dry out - before finishing up. I am very sceptical of the story of Bobby the dog. For those of you who don't know the story - his owner died and was buried in the cemetery. Apparently Bobby didn't leave his grave side until he died - like 14 years later or something. They wanted to bury him next to his owner but that isn't allowed - so he got buried just outside of the cemetery. The place is obsessed with the little mutt though.

Anyway after the walking tour we had a wander round. Because the fringe festival was on there was heaps of street performers so we watched a few before heading to the giant upside-down purple cow. The plan was to have a drink in the cow and we were most disappointed to discover you couldn't get in!! So we had a drink outside of it instead, and got continually interrupted by people promoting their various shows. Still - nice to see that they were enthusiastic!

After a few drinks we headed to a pub to grab some dinner. I had nachos - don't think I have had them for a good five months. Mmmm. One of Helen and Paula's friends joined us and we headed to a few different bars for more drinks. At about the second bar, Paula managed to walked straight in while the other three of us got asked for ID. As if on queue we all looked at the bouncer and said "are you serious." Apparently he was - and had never seen an Aussie drivers license before in his life. Didn't believe I was 28 either...

Anyway because the Tattoo was also on, it meant that there were fireworks above the castle at midnight, so we watched them in the rain and then on the way to get a bus/taxi/get home we got drenched even worse than earlier that day. Good old Edinburgh.

Sunday was 'Fringe Sunday' so after a walk down the Royal Mile (and eating fudge) where we saw all the Edinburgh landmarks we headed to the park where the free 'thank you to the people of Edinburgh' was being held. Equipped with coats and umbrellas we were somewhat more prepared for rain.

First we got lunch - and despite the smell of sausages, what we actually got were these weird german sausages that were wrapped in bacon and had cheese in the middle. Not altogether great but not completely unpleasant either. After that it was a few street performers (people juggling chainsaws, an Aussie gymnast), an interesting girl-drum band who were quite impressive. Oh, and we managed to get into the council tent just before it started raining so we sat in there and watched children get their faces painted for about half an hour or so.

Anyway by late afternoon we decided to head back into town and have another drink at the cow before finding a show to go to. We ended up heading to Espionage for a free show which was very funny - all about bar stuff and customers and what happens on a single night. Very very entertaining. After that it was dinner at a vodka bar before I got the 10pm bus back to London.

A very rushed (but completely enjoyable!) weekend. Next stop... Brussels, Beligium.

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