We missed NZ a little so we went to Edinburgh for the long weekend - Edinburgh during the fringe festival is a little like Wellington during sevens. There were people everywhere in costumes, the main street was closed off and there were even a few people more drunk than you would expect in the middle of the day. We stayed in an awesome hostel with loads of character and an amazing breakfast included. We found a great pub to watch the All Blacks lose to Australia then walked around town to see the craziness and make some purchases - a warmer jacket! We joined a 3 hour walking tour which covered a lot of the city, had dinner in the birthplace of Harry Potter (The Elephant House) and checked out a couple of comedy shows. The next day we decided some more walking was in order and climbed Arthur's Seat, a 2hour walk up a big hill looking out to the port and all across the city made an hour longer due to our hostel being on the other side of town. This helped us feel like we were in Wellington with strong wind gusts (ala Mt Kaukau) and an island in the middle of the harbour (ala Matiu-Somes Island).

With some more comedy shows to see and a fair amount of rain to enjoy we spent a bit of time tasting different beers in pubs, eating haggis, sausages and sweet treats in great restaurants. We finished off the trip with a walk around the Edinburgh castle which is a great castle with amazing views over the city and a well placed café with delicious food.

A final walk down the Royal Mile where we tried to sell shows to the people trying to sell shows to us - they didn't buy it for a second and a walk up Carlton Hill for a different perspective and cool photos on a partly completed pantheon.

Despite a pretty cold weekend we think that we will have to go back in the winter time to check out the cobbled streets and castle all covered in snow.