Edinburgh

Our arrival in Edinburgh gave us a little ‘cultural whiplash’, especially as we were plonked off the bus in the middle of the city with all our luggage smack bang into the first Saturday night of the Fringe. It felt like the quintessential seething mass of humanity - people everywhere, smoking fags, talking loudly, walking every which way; big double-decker buses passing impossibly fast in the narrow streets. We must have looked like total newbies with our luggage and mouths agape, trying to match bus numbers and stops with instructions from google maps.

I’m very much not a wowser, but it was quite the sensory slap in the face coming from Japan where the social norms are verrrry different (smoking in designated zones only, no loud talking, very little rubbish, no jay-walking) and the public transport timetables line up with reality in every detail. Both Sim and I felt the difference immediately and found it quite jarring.

It wasn’t long though ‘til we were back into the looser way of being, jay-walking with the best of them, carried along by the utter chaos and joie de vivre of the festival. It felt so vibrant and earthy and celebratory and accepting. Multifarious expressions of individual creativity.

During our meagre but massive three days we:

Walked through Holyrood Park and up to Arthur’s Seat…

…then continued passed Holyrood Palace and wandered up the Royal Mile to Old Town and the throng of visitors and street performers…

Visited Camera Obscura and World of Illusions…

Squeezed a visit to Edinburgh Castle in between two festival performances…

…and marvelled at the visual feast of this city at festival time…

We also each saw another festival performance; I caught up with my friend, Nicola; Sim caught up with a work buddy and visited the National Museum of Scotland (twice) and Calton Hill and we each took Aelie to make friends at the Meadows playgrounds a couple of times. Phew!

I have to say I was plum tuckered out after all that and very much looking forward to getting away to the Isle of Skye!