I’m on a train! I’m headed for London, which is very exciting and I can see the ocean which makes me very, very happy! The ocean is Lara’s favourite :D Apparently I'm in Somewhere-on-Tweed. It's pretty! And I cannot express how pleased I am to be leaving Edinburgh.
Now that I think about it, Edinburgh or where ever I happened to go after Vienna, was always going to suffer from a case of the Not-Viennas. I really wanted to love it, but I just didn't. That isn't to say I hated it, with the exception of the TERRIBLE hotel I was staying in. Dear Lord, never again. It was called the Herald House Hotel, but I have another, more colourful name for it which rhymes with (Don't look, Mommy!) Schmidthouse. I couldn't shower, the thingy was so small (though I gave it a go!). Ridiculous. And I think there was mould on the ceiling. But as I didn't know the festival was on when I booked, I didn't know to try to book accommodation in advance. Ah well.
The town itself is beautiful. My tours were incredibly enjoyable as was the visit to the castle. I will NEVER, and I say EVER return to Edinburgh during August again, however. The festival was impressive (I got chewed on by a zombie!), but there were people everywhere and they were all around me and shoving flyers in my face (Eventually I yelled 'JUST LEAVE ME ALONE' to one because I waved him away and he persisted by saying "oh, you'll love it" and then felt bad because he looked horrified...) and ARGH I couldn't take it. It was hard to find a place to eat or sit because of all the people. Never again. Though I did see the lovely Wes Snelling!! It was strange to run in to someone from Melbourne, even though I knew he would be there. I don't think an arts festival would be complete without the Wes. He yelled "LARA MOSES" and blew me a kiss because I was on a tour and therefore couldn't stop to chat :D
I walked down the Royal Mile from the Castle to Holyrood Palace and abbey (OMG Mary Stuart) but by the time I got there I couldn't be arsed to go in. So I took two photos through the gate and then sat outside and had Devonshire tea and figured the world could go screw itself! The scones were wonderful though, and I found a bus which took me to the Edinburgh dungeon which was GREAT fun! And then I found a pub and tried haggis, despite saying I wouldn't. It was actually good, though I wouldn't go out of my way to have it again. THEN I needed to find a place to hang until my next tour so I found a place advertising desserts and asked for the dessert menu only to be told 'this is a restaurant, get out'. Ooookay! Bastards. So I went to Starbucks, TAKE THAT! I guess they were worried I would take a table away from them where they could be selling a dinner, but it was 8:30 PM AND several people heard as they were coming in and they turned and walked away. MUAHAHHAHAH Jerks. I am not riffraff, and I don't think I look like it... So weird and RUDE.
The second tour was creepy and I can't imagine ever spending more than 20 minutes in the Blair Street vaults. Doors opened and closed (there really was no one there, we were STANDING RIGHT THERE) and we heard shuffling and screams. And I got locked in when I was on my way out all by myself, but I REALLY don't want to talk about THAT. So freaking scary... Then I returned to my hotel by walking uphill at night, by myself, because I couldn't find a taxi. TOO MANY PEOPLE. Oh and then this morning, my suitcase BROKE. So I taped it with crappy tape I bought from random-cheap-shop-owner-man, and the tape doesn't stick and it looks ridiculous and just maybe I want to scream but in a few hours I'll be in London, so what can you do, right? (STUPID SUITCASE, I HATE YOU AND YOUR STUPID FAULTY ZIPPER) I guess this means "I think I want to buy a new suitcase in the US" just became "I have to buy a new suitcase in the US if not before..."
All in all, I know the experience was not the place, so I won't hold it against Edinburgh, which really is an amazing city full of mostly friendly people. I do want to come back when the festival isn't on sometime. I think the owner of the Mexican restaurant said it best though, when I was trying not to sob into my mariachi burger. "You're not really here, are you?" I replied, "no, I'm in Vienna". It really wasn't all bad by any stretch of the imagination, I'm just grumpy from being woken up at 6 am by the Scottish workmen rebuilding the next door building and yelling. The hotel had NO sound proofing OR air conditioning OR fans to drown out sound...yeah. The hotel did a lot to taint what could have been a lovely experience. I still remain glad I went because it was worth it to see the old town AND to go down in the vaults even if it was scary!!
Oh and I bought a teddy bear with a kilt, and I am totally in love with him. His name is Quinn (despite Quinn not being Scottish. His Uncle/adoptive daddy is) and I want to buy an Irish bear in Dublin now, to name Flynn, (despite Dublin not being in Northern Ireland where Flynn is from) so they can be fuzzy gay teddy bear lovers.
Wow, there are a lot of sheep. (I am obviously no longer by the ocean...) Bring on London and Clare and Lisa and Jess and a NICE hotel. *deep breath* I'll upload photos when I'm not on a train ;)
Oh, and I didn't see Dylan (he lives in Edinburgh), but I'd like to think it wasn't because I didn't try... :D I'm going to go back to listening to Amanda Palmer and writing because that makes me happy.
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