6 Quick Snippets of Edinburgh and the Fringe

Over the past few months I've had a wonderful email exchange with Lexi from Life in Transition- she's witty, great fun, and posts both on the goings-on in her life and the not-so-goings on about being a late-twenties PhD in a crap economy- which she still makes enviable!! Not to mention she's got two horses (Fanta and Polly) and the most adorable little kitten, Scoop!!

I know Lexi's great, but stay with me for a minute-

I decided that I couldn't possibly move out of GB without meeting up with her- and she happens to live just outside of St. Andrews, Scotland, so I emailed her and we planned to meet up in Edinburgh- where the Fringe Festival is going on (along with Edinburgh's 400 other festivals; that city gets INSANE).

I booked a room at Pollocks Hall, University of Edinburgh (genius idea: the Uni lets its dorm rooms out during Festival for a modest rate and it includes breakfast in the dining hall!), and managed to get a semi-reasonable train ticket by checking the website at strange hours. Apparently businessmen who'll pay anything don't buy tickets at 2 AM... 

I digress.

I left Leeds Rail Station at 11:10 and arrived in Edinburgh at 14:10 on Wednesday (last week, duh).

I walked around by myself the first day, as Lexi wasn't able to get away until Thursday- but I don't mind a day in the city alone, despite my camera bag and backpack weighing on me!

I happened to be seated next to the one British person who chats on the train- so I didn't get a chance to eat the lunch I'd packed. When I left the station I found a pleasant sitting area just outside and had a little picnic looking up at this building. 

This building looks so much like the castles around Aberdeenshire! 

The Scott Monument from across the railway.

Street performers were everywhere- and you know I love some street performers!

Oh, yeah... that happened! Lexi's got some great posts about attending Olympic events (here and here).

In the right background you can see Edinburgh Castle- Paul and I visited it last year when we were in town for the Military Tattoo.

I then wandered around the Royal Mile, watching and photographing the Fringe participants as they did their live-adverts for their shows. 

I ended up pulling out Sophie, my medium-format camera, and shooting three rolls of film with her- so I guess you'll have to wait until I get those back to see more. Let's just say she drew quite a bit of attention- I got stopped and asked about her twelve times and even had one German tourist take a picture of her... yep.

I managed to fit in two Fringe shows Wednesday night, including one that was a very entertaining Flight of the Conchords knock-off- Bush & McCluskey. I was laughing so much at their set "The Loves I Haven't Known" I didn't want it to end!

This isn't Pollocks Hall, but it is the building next to it. Not a bad looking campus!

Thursday Lexi and I met up and spent the day wandering Edinburgh, having great conversation, seeing two more Fringe shows (the entertaining "The Ride of the Bluebottles" and "Love All", the play Paul and I saw in Clonmel, Ireland last year and by far the funniest play I've EVER seen!), and even went to see "Brave"- Pixar's newest film that's set in Scotland and has a princess with insane-curly red hair! (FINALLY!) Sadly, we were too busy having fun to take a single photo- I didn't even take my camera out all day!

I caught the 9PM train back to Leeds, and got home at about 1:30AM. The trip was a whirlwind, but totally worth it- I had a GREAT time!