After my visits to Kelly and Josh in London, it was their turn to visit me in Edinburgh. They chose August, which also happens to be the month of festivals - not kidding: Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Comedy Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh Mela Festival. Seriously if you want to see 'a few things' head to Edinburgh in August!!! Kel and Josh went hard - two or three shows per day for the long weekend they were here, plus the street performers and drinks at festival venues. I'd already put in a good show over the month leading up to their visit on the last weekend, so didn't keep up with the pace. But we did see Jimoen together and a few other comedians, and an awesome dance production by the Scottish Dance theatre - which we nearly didn't make. That was thanks to the glass of wine we had at the book festival tent that turned into the bottle of wine, thanks to a co-worker from my waitressing days! But it wasn't all drinks and partying.
This is us waiting out the front of the ticket tent while Josh books us in for the wrong night. (Rather funny and it really didn't matter, but we'd just taken ages to read the yellow pages sized gig guide and decide between the 3, sometimes 4 or us what we all wanted to see and when to fit it in with our other plans.) It was a bit overwhelming! For example below is one of the boards at one of the many venues - that's all the listings of different shows just for that afternoon and night at this venue. Crazy!
We did venture out to my local park - Arthur's Seat that has a great view over the city, and is just steep enough to make you feel like you've done a bit of exercise. On our way there.
Us sitting at the top of the seat / in the seat / on the seat (not sure how to phrase that one).
And the royal park - that little bump in the middle of the picture is Arthur's Seat. The only reason it looks so small is because this photo was taken from a long way away. Honest.
And another day we went to Cramon Island (once an important defence point in WWII and possibly Roman times) - and only accessible at low tide. Looking across to the island.
Josh walking the last few metres to the island. We're not sure what those concrete structures are for but guessed it was something to do with building and/or supplying the fortifications on the island.
The different tide marks on this very windy island. We walked around it and explored the bunkers.
And found berry bushes without having to worry about where the nearest bear could be.
And finally Kel and me went walking in the water which wasn't as freezing cold as we expected.
On the way home we visited an excavation site of Antonine Wall (Hadrian's Wall equivalent in Scottish territory). The walls were built by the Romans to protect them from the raiding Pictish of the north. Unfortuntely we were about 2 years to early to see much more than the top of the fortification being dug around. We got to read all about it on the signs that were hanging on the fencing around the excavations site!
And on the last day we did a walking tour of Edinburgh. All the important historical stuff about hangings, window taxes, the castle............. and the cafe JK Rowling wrote her Harry Poters in (that's what Kel is pointing at).
And Greyfriars Kirkyard (church yard ie graveyard) with it's massive grave buildings and prison cells without roofs that the convenanters? were kept in in winter. Very cruel. If you look closely at the photo below you'll see the tombstones are joined to the houses on the edge of the cemetery.
And finally Greyfriars Bobby, the dog that visited its master's grave every day for 14 years!
What a busy four days.
After my visits to Kelly and Josh in London, it was their turn to visit me in Edinburgh. They chose August, which also happens to be the month of festivals - not kidding: Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival, Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Comedy Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh Mela Festival. Seriously if you want to see 'a few things' head to Edinburgh in August!!! Kel and Josh went hard - two or three shows per day for the long weekend they were here, plus the street performers and drinks at festival venues. I'd already put in a good show over the month leading up to their visit on the last weekend, so didn't keep up with the pace. But we did see Jimoen together and a few other comedians, and an awesome dance production by the Scottish Dance theatre - which we nearly didn't make. That was thanks to the glass of wine we had at the book festival tent that turned into the bottle of wine, thanks to a co-worker from my waitressing days! But it wasn't all drinks and partying.
This is us waiting out the front of the ticket tent while Josh books us in for the wrong night. (Rather funny and it really didn't matter, but we'd just taken ages to read the yellow pages sized gig guide and decide between the 3, sometimes 4 or us what we all wanted to see and when to fit it in with our other plans.) It was a bit overwhelming! For example below is one of the boards at one of the many venues - that's all the listings of different shows just for that afternoon and night at this venue. Crazy!
We did venture out to my local park - Arthur's Seat that has a great view over the city, and is just steep enough to make you feel like you've done a bit of exercise. On our way there.
Us sitting at the top of the seat / in the seat / on the seat (not sure how to phrase that one).
And the royal park - that little bump in the middle of the picture is Arthur's Seat. The only reason it looks so small is because this photo was taken from a long way away. Honest.
And another day we went to Cramon Island (once an important defence point in WWII and possibly Roman times) - and only accessible at low tide. Looking across to the island.
Josh walking the last few metres to the island. We're not sure what those concrete structures are for but guessed it was something to do with building and/or supplying the fortifications on the island.
The different tide marks on this very windy island. We walked around it and explored the bunkers.
And found berry bushes without having to worry about where the nearest bear could be.
And finally Kel and me went walking in the water which wasn't as freezing cold as we expected.
On the way home we visited an excavation site of Antonine Wall (Hadrian's Wall equivalent in Scottish territory). The walls were built by the Romans to protect them from the raiding Pictish of the north. Unfortuntely we were about 2 years to early to see much more than the top of the fortification being dug around. We got to read all about it on the signs that were hanging on the fencing around the excavations site!
And on the last day we did a walking tour of Edinburgh. All the important historical stuff about hangings, window taxes, the castle............. and the cafe JK Rowling wrote her Harry Poters in (that's what Kel is pointing at).
And Greyfriars Kirkyard (church yard ie graveyard) with it's massive grave buildings and prison cells without roofs that the convenanters? were kept in in winter. Very cruel. If you look closely at the photo below you'll see the tombstones are joined to the houses on the edge of the cemetery.
And finally Greyfriars Bobby, the dog that visited its master's grave every day for 14 years!
What a busy four days.
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