Dear Readers,
It’s absolutely crazy to think that it’s been over 9 months since I was in the UK. It feels like it was only a month ago, but when I look back on where I’ve been, I guess 9 months makes sense. …Not that I wasn’t still surprised when I counted the months since August 2023.
Travelling to Edinburgh, Scotland
Part 4 of the travel adventure began with a super early train trip to Edinburgh. I woke up at 3:30am to get to London Kings Cross Station for our train that was leaving at 6am. Zzzzz…
Jenny and I met at the station, but quickly separated once we arrived in Edinburgh as she was working remotely. What a boss…4am wake up, 10am arrival in Edinburgh then immediately off to WeWork. Meanwhile, I wandered off to explore Edinburgh.
(WeWork: I didn’t know this was a thing before travelling, but some people who work remotely have a subscription to places like WeWork where you can get beautiful office space around the world. You arrive in a city and boom! Desk space, private offices and meeting rooms. Beautiful design and cool concept.)
Besides Edinburgh being an absolutely beautiful place filled with incredibly kind people, you might be wondering why Antonia, Jenny and I decided to venture North to Edinburgh. It was because of…The Fringe Festival!
Now, I won’t lie, I had no idea what this was prior to them saying we should go. I was simply in Vancouver planning out my first couple months and they said that it’s a large festival and Antonia wanted to visit something called the Military Tattoo. …I thought this meant people in the military showed off their tattoos.
…I never claimed to be worldly.
The Fringe Festival:
The Fringe is the largest arts and cultural festival in the world and when I say largest…I truly mean largest. It’s a festival full of performers including complete amateurs to bigger names . They participate in the festival for 25 days during the month of August and everywhere you look there’s a different performance on the street or in a café. Anyone can put on a show provided they have a venue and prices vary from free to $$$. There’s everything from comedy to magicians to silent discos (pictures to come) and full scale musicals. Everything is fair game and according to the Wikipedia page, in 2019, there were 3841 different shows. I can’t really fathom what that number means so let me explain.
Think of walking down one block in your city and having two 12 year olds playing bagpipes and a guitar, other people balancing on stilts, some breathing fire and others forming human pyramids…then multiply that by 25 blocks. Oh and imagine all cafes, libraries and other venues also having performances at the exact same time. For example, I looked up the shows available on August 1st/24 and there were only 1165 different performances.
Choosing a Show:
We definitely saw a bunch of them, but honestly there was so much going on (sometimes to the point of stimulation overload) that I can only recall little bits and details. It was also a little challenging to pick because there were just SO many options. We ended up choosing our shows by looking at free performances and those that we saw on the street that looked interesting.
What I also found fascinating was that not only were these amateur comedians absolutely hilarious, but the venues were super cool. The locations were often in the back rooms of bars/cafes with the venue consisting of folding chairs and a stage with a makeshift curtain. Nothing fancy, but full of great entertainment.
My Favourite…The Silent Disco:
Ever heard of a silent disco before? If you haven’t, you are definitely not alone. I had no idea that such a concept even existed until we saw a group of people “participating” in one of the shows on the street. Imagine a group of 20 or so people wearing headphones all listening to the same music, free dancing or doing the same choreography and singing out-loud…but you can’t hear the song. It was so entertaining to watch/hear as a pedestrian and so energizing to participate in as a member. It felt so fun to be completely goofy in public along with other people who also wanted to dance and sing. Unfortunately, I don’t have many photos because I mostly took videos and I’m not able to upload videos using this website (..that I know of?)
Also…we were lead by a guy in a bright 70s spandex suit. Can it get better than that?
The Military Tattoo:
The place where those in the military show off their tattoos…nope. What is it? Only one of the BEST shows of music and synchronicity that I’ve EVER seen. Armed forces from different countries gather together to put on an incredible performance showcasing bagpipes, drummers, singing, dancing and outstanding coordination. I thought it was only something done at the Fringe Festival, but Google told me that Tattoos happen all over the world. At first, I was a little taken aback by the cost of the show as we paid close to £100 (~170CAD) per ticket, but honestly, it was worth every penny.
(If you want to see it though, note that you don’t have to pay that much for a ticket. We were a little late to purchasing tickets (2 months prior) so we had to buy the nicer seats, but there are some for £35. Pros and cons…our seats were more expensive, but we were able to see the full depth of the performance with the backdrop of the castle whereas the cheaper seats are lower down, but you can see the performance close up).
…I couldn’t help, but wonder what happens if someone gets sick. …Like what if someone has diarrhea and can’t perform? (Google didn’t know either)
The Highland Games:
Aside from going to the Fringe Festival, one of Jenny’s travel tips is to look up the local festivals so we ended up watching the Highland Games in a local town. I really enjoyed watching 4 year olds competing in Highland dance, men in kilts doing shotput, others drumming and my personal favourite the…bagpipe competitions.
Ending Thoughts:
Well that pretty much wraps up our time in Edinburgh. The Military Tattoo and Fringe Festival were definitely not to be missed; though I will note that it can be stimulation overload at times so if when I go back, I’ll definitely take some more days outside of the festival to go explore the town and local life. Perhaps on the way back home??
Next Stop:
During the next part of the travel adventure, I headed back to London with Jenny (Antonia stayed to visit Scotland) then I headed off to…Italy and Slovenia!! A little bit of beach camping, volleyball and a 6am classical music concert on the beach? Yes.
To be release on May 23rd/24.
Cheers!
Tracy
World of Wandering Minds 