Edinburgh: Fringe/Tattoo

Hiya again,

Today was AWESOME!! I can't believe we did so much and the weather held off I am a lucky one!

I woke this morning at 9 after an excellent sleep - so great to have a proper bed again! Headed straight for Edinburgh and met up with Mark - a mate of mine from Singapore. He's quite the international guy - being born in Singapore, raised in Indonesia, Norway and England, living (and now working) in Aberdeen and studying in Durham. Makes my travels look decidedly boring!

Anyways, it was fantastic to meet up again after so long - especially as we used to live in the same corridor at PGP in Singapore, so we were the closest PGP had to 'roommates'.

We headed for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (a huge spinoff of the more high-brow Edinburgh International Festival) info tent and picked a show to see based on the reviews it was getting. It was always going to be a gamble, but it actually turned out to be quite good, and appropriately about travel. I won't go into rating it here, as that was partly what the show was mocking, but its called Lick and Chew: The World is Just Enough. Only about 15 people were there, and there were only 2 actors in the 1hr show, but the theatre was compact enough (likened in the show to a portaloo, but not that bad!) that it didn't feel empty.

I had so much fun just wandering around, chatting to Mark and soaking up the festival atmosphere. For people living in Edinburgh it must get frustrating having so many tourists visiting, but the Royal Mile (the main road linking the Castle with Holyrood House) was abuzz with activity. Loads of people were handing out flyers or performing skits from their show, and the atmosphere was just so pleasant. No one was angry or abrupt - everyone seemed to just be relaxed and having fun.

All too soon it was time to say bye to Mark and head off with my Auntie Evelyn to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. I succumbed to the power of eBay and bought tickets a few weeks back for a 100% markup, but it was REALLY worth it. I didn't really know what to expect, having not really ever watched it on TV before, but it definitely surpassed what limited thoughts I had of it. The highlights were the New Zealand Band (who just took the piss and started playing ballet music complete with dancing among other things) and the Top Secret Swiss Drummers who were just unbelievable. The precision and speed with which they played was breathtaking. You felt everyone in the stadium 'ooh' and 'aah' with them - it really was grand.

Tomorrow I'm heading down to Warrington to see a Liverpool FC match with my cousin Andrea, which should be AWESOME, so I'm going to head off to bed now. It's 1:30am so I guess that's acceptable, huh?!

Ciao,

Tris