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Published: August 6th 2011
Thai Orchid
My delicious pork. I wanted to lick the plate clean....but then realized that I was in public.Another late start to the day, but we ate a quick breakfast of scones, jam, and clotted cream and headed over to Market Street in order to pick up our tickets for the Military Tattoo. We then made our way past Waverly Station in order to go to the Princes Street Mall that ended up being a successful trip for Corwin. Then we headed back to Thai Orchid on Johnston's Terrace to see if we could get in for lunch without a reservation. We both decided to have the 7.95GBP "Business Lunch" where we could choose a starter, a main, and then ice cream or coffee. We both started with the deep fried bean curd with sweet chili sauce. Cor had the red coconut curry chicken, while I had the pork stir fried in curry with long beans. Both meals were good, but the pork (other than a few chewy pieces) was outstanding....and I couldn't believe how cheap it was for a restaurant just off of the Mile. A definite recommend.
Then, we FINALLY did something touristy - we headed to Gladstone's Land on the Mile which is a 17th century tenement house. It's about 5.50 GBP to get in,
Stilts dude...
...this guy was everywhere that we went. He was a maniac - on both the stilts and the pipes. but worth a look if you are into that kind of thing. I went to John Knox House the prior year and found it not only hard to find with the crowds in the middle of Fringe, but also kind of boring. This was better because they had a lot more things to look at within the rooms as well as guides to tell you about the rooms and the implements that were shown.
Then, after a little cheesy Royal Mile shopping, which was a little painful since it was Day 1 of Fringe and the crowds seemed to double over night, we (of course) decided that we worked up an appetite. We met Jemma at the Bee Hive Inn on the Grassmarket near our flat. Nothing was really jumping out at me on the menu - and then we saw it: vegetarian fish & chips. Instead of the fish it was deep fried halloumi which was salty and delicious (and oddly enough, from far away, could maybe pass for fish). I see me retaining about 10 lbs of water after that meal.
We then grabbed some warm clothes and made our way up to the castle for
Bee Hive Inn
Vegetarian Fish & Chips...yum!! But maybe don't eat it if you have high blood pressure :) the Tattoo. Reviews in the past said to make sure that you get an aisle seat (which we did) because the seating was VERY tight (also, tickets normally go on sale December 1st each year, so if you want choice tickets, get them as soon as possible as they often sell out). This year, they have new stands, and while they aren't the roomiest, we didn't feel like we lacked for space at all (having an edge seat still was kind of nice though). We were seated in section 7 which faced the castle (which is worth it since they are projecting images on the castle), and other than the crazy dude next to Corwin who got WAAAAAY too excited and couldn't clap to a beat to save his life, it was incredible and definitely worth it. There were not only bands from the UK, but also Brazil and Germany. The castle was lit beautifully, there were fireworks, and even some type of fighter jet flew over at the beginning of the show. There was only one demonstration that was kind of weird. They simulated a pirate ship (where all of the pirates looked like they were punk rockers from
Tattoo
Awesome.... Camden) and then the marines rappel down the castle (okay, that was cool) and save the day. Then everyone cheered (wow, thank god they saved us from those pirates)....weird. 😊
The show ended at 10PM, so it was off to meet people at Jeckyll & Hyde's because I had four more sins to go: greed, wrath, envy, and sloth (the last two both being milky drinks which scared me). I polished those off in about an hour, and then we took one last trip to C Venue on the Cowgate for a last drink (and cheese chips that I didn't really need). Off to St. Andrews tomorrow.
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