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Published: August 30th 2008
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Edinburgh
Arriving in Edinburgh An airport filled with shops selling mostly whiskey and shortbread gave it away that I had now arrived in Edinburgh after a one hour flight.
I took the bus into town and the moment I got off I pretty much just walked and didn't really bother with the map. I blame Tracey for this habit of not using 'the directions manual' :P So anyway, walking in no particular direction at all and the reason being is that the moment you get off the bus you're just blown away with how huge this town actually is and just how much there is to take in. You're immediately faced with the most incredible architecture and the scenery is nothing short of breathtaking. I am absolutely in LOVE with this place it's AMAZING.
Walking down High Street you're faced with stores blaring Scottish music, people walking around in kilts and the most gorgeous buildings, it's just stunning.
After an hour of randomly walking about, decided to try and figure out where Ash's play 'Mommie and The Minister' was being performed that night as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. After an hour I finally figured out how to get to cowgate
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The Scott Monument and the underbelly theatre, bought my ticket and continued towards Edinburgh Castle.
Joined a tour around and had time after to go and check out the castle's prisons and crown jewels. What was surprising was just how massive this structure actually was in real life. There was alot more to it than has been shown on tv broadcasts etc.
By 1.30pm had realised that I'd forgotten to check in at the bed and breakfast that was booked for that night. Hailed a taxi outside the castle and headed off. The taxi driver was a scream - he had the most awesome sense of humour and could have talked to him for hours. Something of a rarity in Melbourne....
Arrived at this absolutely cute little cottage, walked through the door and was a little disturbed by the extremely extensive number of framed photos of pugg dogs covering the walls from ceiling to floor.... had a sneaking suspicion that the owner had a 'slight' fetish...
The owner was a lovely woman though, really sweet and more than happy to give heaps of advice on places to go and see. Fantastic cook too.
After checking in, headed back
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The Scott Monument into town via bus and decided to catch a tour bus around Edinburgh. Had been seeing them driving around all day and it was a good way of getting to know your way around town.
After the tour bus had finished, I headed back into High Street and latched onto a tour group. You're actually supposed to pay for these things, however upon discovering that there were only a small number of 'creepy' tours left and they all finished by the time I was meant to be in seeing Ash's play, i figured, as one does, I'd resort to the next best thing... I snuck in on one instead. It mostly consisted of talking about Edinburgh's history of hangings and punishments inflicted upon criminals or 'people the locals didn't like'. The tour was so fantastic though, our guide was full of energy, dressed up as an undertaker and put on a brilliant performance. Truly would have to be one of the most fun jobs to have in Scotland. Definitely will need to go back at some stage, there was just so much to do and so little time.
Managed to catch a bit of the Edinburgh Tattoo.. or
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View from the bridge at least what I could see from the road block as people passed through with their tickets. It looks amazing and the number of both locals and tourists that go along is massive.
Arrived at underbelly and went in to see Ash's play. He did, as usual, a wonderful job. The play was hilarious and for a little while it felt like I was back home. Gillian who I've met on a number of occasions, was the most funniest 'psycho' i've ever seen and it's been brilliant to see the range of character that she has.
We all met up afterwards for drinks and it then became a contest between the Scotts and the Aussies as to who could do the better imitation of the other. Two of the scottish guys persisted with their rendition of 'chuck one on the barbie' to which we argued 'who even says that anymore?' and Deklan (Ash's co-writer) won the night with his 'Scottish Swearing' performance.
It also turned out that Ash's first arrival in Scotland consisted of him walking through a field and being shocked at seeing a Scottish man walking along with pieces of a broken glass bottle in
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More views from the bridge the back of his head. What added to the absurdity was that his family (or at least it seemed that it was his family) acted like it was a normal occurance (which is probably was).
So anyway, we're halfway through drinks and one of the strings holding up a row of lightbulbs from the roof came crashing down and exploded on to the floor...the funny thing about string is, is that once the start end of it fell, the entire row comes crashing down with it and we found ourselves jumping out of the way to avoid being hit by crazy flying bulbs. We all managed to get out of the way in time save for one girl who only bumped against one so she wasn't really injured, but even so decided to attempt to score free drinks for her 'injuries'.
That was pretty much our excitement for the night, nothing really flashy but entertaining nevertheless. Overall it was a pretty good night of catching up and what not.
And that be all for now 😊
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