Fringe Worthy [An Edinburgh Blog]
1: the quiet before the storm
I have a few tricks for finding my way around unfamiliar locations, the most effective is where I ask a stranger for directions, they give some instructions and I will follow at least the first few. After a short distance I will ask again and so on until I am told I’m literally right there. This means that I end up asking a lot of people for directions in a very short amount of time and so I would just like to take this opportunity to say, Edinburgh has a lot of tourists.
I come from London so I know what I’m talking about, but when I try to ask about a hundred people for directions in one day and more than half of them reply that they aren’t from round here, in a range of German, Dutch, French, English and American accents then I feel justified in saying, there are a lot of tourists here. Even when I picked out the palest red haired person in the crowd, they were Irish.
And this is a week before the festival starts, I can’t imagine what it will be like next Wednesday.
As well as tourists Edinburgh appears to have a surfeit of bagpipes and cobbles.
The streets are paved with cobbles, so are the pavements and the walk ways, the squares and the courtyards. Hey Market, the Grass Market and the Lawn Market are all large fields of cobbles. It’s the cobbles that give an almost uniquely Edinburgh vibe to the streets, but they don’t help my depth perception.
The bag pipes, on the other hand, can act as audible land marks, from the one near where I’m staying that plays only Scotland the brave and something that sounds improvised, to the piper on Princes street who favours the mournful air of a feline funeral, to the shop that plays recorded rock pipes, most recently a bag pipe cover of Starlight by Muse.
But for all the waling pipes, the uneven cobbles and fellow lost tourists, there is an illogical part of me that really is falling in love with this city. It has character, life and generosity. Even if someone doesn’t know where the place I’m looking for is, they will look it up, or look around for someone else who might know. Shop and bar staff are quick to help and willing to stop and chat, or leave me at the counter while they grab b the two things I need and bring them to me.
Then there’s how small it is, [often a complaint but in this case it’s good], I can find my way across a strange city, navigating by the good will of those I meet, and still make the journey in under half an hour.
I started the trip by sitting with 2 Americans and a family of scots on the train, two tables across the aisle that turned in to an uproar of back stories and must see points of interest in Scotland. [My recommendations were the where I’m performing and fried mars bars.]
Since then I have been sat at tables with a number of interesting strangers because table space in pubs is too valuable to have one to yourself. These have included Linda from Oklahoma [an Oklahoman apparently] who gave state approval to the Oklahoma sexual joke I had been working on earlier that day.
Apart from sitting in pubs [only for the free Wi-Fi] I have been roaming the city, locating the venues at which I will perform and, just as importantly, the cafes and bars near them.
So this is just a short blog post, I hope to be giving more frequent updates as the fringe unfolds and I continue this learning curve larger than the Arc De Triomphe.
So until next time
Good bye