fringetastic

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival has long been on my bucket list and after 3 days of fringe-filled fun, it completely surpassed all expectations.  Selecting shows from the immense month long schedule was a task in itself which I tackled over several Sunday afternoons, prior to our trip, reading through the voluminous hard copy program which the organisers helpfully post to Australia.  The first show we attended, Cambridge Footlights, was somewhat of a sketch-comedy performance with similarities to Tripod. The four male students from Cambridge University (whom we later discovered were not even drama students) had the audience in stitches for most of the 45 minute performance as they segwayed through a series of skits with cartoon like movements and facial expressions.  The quality of the acting and level of talent displayed in this performance filled us with very positive feelings about the upcoming shows.

The Fringe organisers have done an excellent job of setting up areas to fill in the time between performances, whether it be indulging in some tasty cuisine (far better than your average festival fare), reading reviews of previous shows or simply sitting in one of the many outdoor beer gardens to people watch.  Edinburgh is not known for its fabulous weather but even the intermittent (and sometimes consistent) showers do not dampen the high spirits of the festival punters, everyone simply has a poncho or umbrella at the ready to deal with the downpours.       

Next up was one of my favourite comedians, Craig Hill, in his stand up comedy show Blown by a Fan. I truly don´t think I´ve ever laughed so hard in my life.  His ascerbic wit and amazing ability to pick out a humorous element in any unsuspecting audience member he sets his sights on made us very thankful we had not chosen a seat in the front three rows! His show had a very Scottish theme and fortunately having spent the previous week in country Scotland, I was equipped with enough knowledge about the different regions to laugh along with all the locals.  I will never tire of seeing this highly energetic and incredibly camp man bounce around the stage in his leather kilt and will be snapping up tickets the next time he visits down under.

We broke up our Edinburgh experience with a trip to Glasgow on Saturday to see the Celtic vs Dundee soccer game.  Jean still has some connections in Scotland and managed to score us all a seat in a corporate box with all the trimmings which was a real treat!  Dave came excruciatingly close to winning a few bets but noone was able to pick the thrashing win of 5-1 to Celtic. It was an incredible experience to see the passion the Scots have for Celtic and for soccer generally.  This was our last family event for the holiday and our last catch up with Cameron and Jimmy for sometime.  I realise now that when your family is spread across two sides of the globe, as Dave´s is, times like these are incredibly special.  We will treasure the memories from this holiday for a long time and hope we are able to return the hosting favour to the Armstrongs at some point in the future!

The train trip from Edinburgh to Glasgow takes under an hour which allowed us to make it back to Edinburgh for the evening in time to enjoy some further Fringe delights. A visit to the New Town was a very different experience to the maze of cobbled laneways and plethora of festival goers in the Old Town.  On recommendation of a bartender Dave befriended the previous evening, we made a trip to Bramble, one of Edinburgh´s best cocktail bars. For Brisbane readers, this is Edinburgh´s version of Bowery with even tastier cocktails! If you ever find yourself there, I can highly recommend the Jam and Tonic for a tastebud sensation.

After a couple of drizzly grey days, we awoke on Sunday to a beautiful clear blue sky and decided it was a perfect opportunity to take in Edinburgh Castle. After battling through the lengthy queue, I realised just how lucky I was to experience it on such a glorious day as the views from the top were simply breathtaking. As any traveller well knows, sightseeing can work up a pretty decent hunger, so after our very historic morning, we ventured back into the Old Town to hunt down the much antcipated "hog roll" from an aptly named store, Oink on Victoria Street.  I don´t think any description could do this delicious pulled pork sandwish justice so I will be sure to post photos on facebook shortly. Thanks for the tip Anna Marsden!!

On our last night in Edinburgh, we took in two shows, Alvin and Sputnik and Fiona O´Loughlin´s stand up comedy show.  The first was a heartfelt tale of the puppet Alvin, who after losing his wife, embarks on a mission to save the world. It was performed by one man aided by a projector screen, computer imagery and amazing hand puppetry.  The audience was enamoured with Alvin and the incredible skill displayed by the performer, which unquestionably deserved (and received) a lengthy standing ovation.  This was without a doubt the pick of the shows. Fiona is another comedian who I have enjoyed on Australian television over the years and it was great to see an Aussie succeeding on the international comedy stage. She definitely delivered on laughs though the show was somewhat bittersweet as it was based around her recent battle with alcoholism and the impact this has had on her career and her family.  From all accounts, she is on the road to recovery and still able to draw in the punters so I hope that continues for her.

Our three days on Edinburgh provided us with many laughs, rich history, a life-changing pulled pork sandwich and a definite desire to return for a longer stay in the future. I would love to spend two weeks there in a self contained apartment with a group of friends so if I can tempt anyone to join Dave and I in that plan in a few years time, do let me know!

Amazingly, our Easy Jet flight from Edinburgh to Madrid went off without a hitch (after seeing so many horror stories on that reality tv show I had my doubts!). We landed in Madrid last Monday and have been immensely enjoying our Spanish experience ever since. Despite being out of our comfort zone, we are managing to string together some pigeon Spanish and successfully order meals, board public transport and navigate our way around some very illogically mapped out streets! I will leave the tales of Espana for another day as we have a trip to Valencia beach planned this afternoon.  These gloriously long hot days mean that even when you wake up at midday, there is still about 10 hours of sunlight to enjoy...it´s a tough life this holiday business :))

xxx