Haggis, Highlanders and Hairy Coos

Edinburgh - Post trip - 8-10th August 2009

Alright, so Edinburgh during the festival is insane. Absolutely crazy. People just walking everywhere, and the Royal Mile is jam packed with buskers and street performers and groups doing bits out of their shows. I cannot compare it to anything else I've ever seen. It was just mental. On the day after our tour ended we just strolled up and down the Mile and were handed enough flyers and leaflets for shows that would have destroyed a small rainforest. We went in to book onto a tour for the Real Mary King's Close, and were yelled at by a rather rude and impatient American, (I must say, since we've been travelling, I don't think I've found any Yanks to be pleasant. They're all obnoxious and completely selfish) any who, he cut in front of us in the line so when it was the next person was called to be served I walked past him and started talking with the guy, this is when the American started having a rant at me.

After booking a time for early the next morning to do the underground tour, Dan and I soaked up the atmosphere. Two acts that completely caught my attention were some buskers playing Queen's of the Stone Age - No one knows on Ukulele's. Mad. And the other group were doing some promos for their show. They were a group of about 10 boys all in their early twenties; they were called Out of the Blue. They were an acapella group that sung pop songs in a humorous manner. Really entertaining, and if we could've spared the fiver we would've gone and seen them. By mid afternoon Dan and I could walk no further, so we headed back to the hostel for an afternoon of R & R. Microwaveable dinners not only saved us from having to go out, but also a saved a few pennies.

The next morning we thought we'd better do something proper with our day, instead of spending it sitting around the hostel. We had to be out and about, we had tickets to shows. We grabbed some breakfast and headed back up to the Royal Mile to go see the Real Mary Kings Close. This place was cool. Basically it is the old laneways and streets of Edinburgh that got covered over in the 1700's, so they could build a new building on top of them at street level to the Royal Mile. Lots of people believe that they were covered in because of the plague, but they would be wrong. Its pretty amazing to see these buildings and streets, perfectly preserved underneath the current day buildings.

After that tour we had time for a quick bite before heading off to our next engagement. We had a little extra time to spare so we popped into a local pub, just in time to catch the Aussies finish off the Poms in the 4th test. I also discovered my new most favourite drink in the whole world. I have become quite the cider fan since living over here, but they can get a little boring after a while; Apple, pear and the occasional berry. I was excited to see a 'toffee apple' flavour and eagerly bought it from the weird barman. It was friggin awesome. Apple cider with bits of cinnamon and other good tastes - Highly recommended.

Anyway after the awesome cider we walked across the road to the Stand Comedy House. We had tickets to the 3.20 show of a guy called Jason Cook. We had booked these tickets solely on the recommendation from a guy at the hostel we were staying - neither Dan nor I had ever heard of him. We were definitely not disappointed. I laughed so hard for most of it, I was continually wiping the tears away. Side-splitting - 5 stars.

We left the comedy show and made the walk back to the hostel, as I needed to get changed before heading out for the evening. We also took the time to watch a few Neighbours episodes we'd missed through the week. Before long we were heading off again to grab some dinner. We found a cheap little pub and struck up a great conversation with the older English couple sitting next to us. They had some great little tips and tales for us. Old people are so wise. We made the trek up the thousands of stairs to the Assembly rooms where we were going to see Adam Hills. The queue of over (in my guess) 600 people was around the block and completely insane and we were a little worried as it was not reserved seating. We found a staff member at the front of the queue who told us the big one was actually for Jason Byrne - phew, sigh of relief. However, they also told us that Adam Hills was on at the Assembly Music Hall, which was down the stairs, pretty much across from where we had dinner. I suppose we probably should've read the tickets before climbing the hill. On finding the correct venue, we were also greeted with another 'round the corner queue', in which we ended up ¾ of the way back. We'd resigned to the fact that we were only going to end up with ordinary seats, because of our stupid mistake earlier. To our surprise as we were walking in and people were trying to find seats together, I spotted two, right in the front row. I assumed all the people that came in with us thought that they would be taken, but they weren't so we plonked ourselves down in some of the best seats in the places. Adam Hills was excellent. We loved it. But neither Dan nor I could decide which comedian we'd seen that day was better. All in all it was a win for comedy. We made our way back to the hostel and into bed. It was difficult to get to sleep with a group of Brazilian drummers playing directly outside the window, and the fireworks from the tattoo sounded like Edinburgh had come under attack. iPods are the best for hostels.

So that leaves us with today, Monday. We got up and sorted our bags out for our flight to Dublin later in the afternoon. Ryanair with their stupid 15kg limit made it very difficult for us to sort our s*** out, but at least we could do it in the hostel rather than the airport terminal - Thanks Cheryl for the scales, they saved our lives (and bank balances) today. We had to buy another, bigger bag, for carry on, so I could put my small backpack and handbag in it together, as Ryanair are really strict on the 1 bag carryon rule. We left our bags at the hostel then revisited a pub for breakfast. We didn't really know how else to fill the 3 hours so we decided to take it easy and relax in the beautiful gardens. We sat for 2 hours and I wrote the blog, while Dan played the DS. It was a great way to spend the morning. We had to pick up our bags from the hostel by 2, but our flight wasn't until 5, we so thought we'd head off to the airport early and kill time out there. Boy are we glad we did that, because we stood in lines for the 2 hours before catching the plane. Queues for bag drops, security, and boarding. Urghh. The flight only too about 30 minutes, yet we spent so long standing around. It didn't seem worth it. Then there was the queue at the passport control after we arrived in Dublin. The queue for EU passport holders was massive, but us lucky Non-EU folk, just waltzed straight through. And that brings me to here - laying in a quite nice hostel in Dublin.

I do realize that I get a little carried away in writing these, but I just can't seem to cut things down - sorry if I bore you. It has just occurred to me this document, where I write before posting it online, is about 100 words shy of 50,000. Not a shabby effort.

Love you and miss you all lots xoxox

P.S. We're blowing the cash pretty quickly, so if anyone would like to donate some funds to us, it would be greatly appreciated!!!! ☺

And photos will be tomorrow nights job - or maybe the night after….