The first thing I saw on leaving Edinburgh train station was a bearded man wearing a kilt, playing bagpipes, with a sign around his neck saying “Welcome to Scotland”. Clearly, these Scots had a great sense of humour.
Actually, what I liked most about Scotland was that the people were still Scottish. For instance, you see different guys on the street randomly wearing kilts, and not just punks either. Haggis isn’t something you have to go to great lengths to find – people actually eat the stuff (and it’s tastier than it sounds). And the accent – well, I had no idea what half of them were saying a lot of the time, but I liked it. The people are much friendlier than Trainspotting led me to believe, with no Begby’s threatening to glass me. Instead, they were generally quite friendly.
The festival was great fun. There was a real atmosphere around the main performance areas, with tons of buskers, actors promoting their shows, musicians playing kerbside gigs, and other random events. Although you’d probably get sick of it all going on for a month if you lived there, for four days it was brilliant. I managed to catch about eight shows plus a couple of music gigs, with most of what I saw being pretty decent, and the music excellent. I caught up with some people I knew from college and had too many late nights, although never as late as the Irish people I shared my dorm with, who seemed particularly fond of getting back at 5.30 in the morning and shagging quietly in the corner.
Other than the festival, just exploring Edinburgh was pretty cool. Climbed Arthur’s seat, basically a big cliff on the edge of town. Toured the castle. Got lost in the wee hours of the morning. All good. It’s a much, much more attractive town than London, they’ve managed to maintain a great deal of their older buildings and refrained from building too many newer monstrosities. Aside from the new parliament building, which looks like a bad rip-off of Federation Square, without the square, and somehow cost the Scots a billion pounds.
Some photos are up here.
