Day 2 at the Fringe - and home

The day started for me at the A-Haven Hotel not too early, not too late, after such a late night before. Breakfast included freshly made haggis, black pudding, and sausage and a really freshly laid fried egg - possibly the best breakfast that I've ever had.

 

Afterwards the owner, David, chatted - he is a very good host and the whole atmosphere is more of staying with someone you know than an impersonal B&B.

I took the bus from just over the road from the guest house into town where I first watched a man whose performance ended with him leapfrogging over audience participants, starting off with a kneeling child & working up to an adult. Then I stopped and watched another, this time someone who juggled fire sticks while on a unicycle on a slack-rope. He also had audience participants and it made me very glad that I'm not a) young & pretty or b) a strong man.

Before I left on this trip I'd booked a ticket for this afternoon's performance of  Exterminating Angel - an Improvisation. In a nutshell it was about a dinner party where no-one was able to leave. Dark.

When I came out I had about 4 hours before I needed to be at the next place, and decided that an open- topped city tour bus  would be a great way to see the city and rest my tired feet. I stayed on the bus rather than get off and see all the different places because a) there was only one more bus after the one I caught and b) I enjoyed just sitting! I can do serious tourism next time I visit the city.

I got off the bus part way up the Royal Mile and found a Turkish cafe bar where I sat on the covered outdoor terrace by the street where I had a felafel meal with coffee and watched the world go by, with a background of a piper playing a fairly limited repertoire. It set the scene but was nice when it finished!

When I thought that perhaps I'd been sitting people watching for quite long enough (is that possible?) I headed over to see if I could get at return for Nina Conti's show - I've seen her on television and on YouTube and really, really wanted to see her show but it was a sell-out.  Even though they don't handle returns I let the box office know that I was on the look-out for a return, and then placed myself so I might notice people waving unwanted tickets - oh I was desperate! After about 15 minutes one of the box office staff came out & said he'd got a return that I could have! When I joined the queue I noticed Miriam Margolyes waiting at the front of the queue.  Piff The Magic Dragon walked past too, with a cute dog. Of course, they had been performing, but generally there is quite a wide range of people to watch.

Monk opened Nina's show, and she introduced us to some new characters as well as Gran - I'll leave you to discover all those for yourself. The show is absolutely brilliant, and has some quite dark sides to it, darker than I'd realised. But that's right up my street.

The show finished early enough to slowly make my way through the confusing streets of the castle side of the city to Waverley station, and I was able to wait in the First Class lounge (a perk for Caledonian Sleeper passengers at Edinburgh) & have complementary refreshments (tea & pretzels) before boarding for the start of my journey home. It wasn't as civilised an experience as the journey to Glasgow (grumpy steward & sheet too small for the mattress so I was sleeping on the plastic) but compensated for by the fact that once again I had a cabin to myself.

And so now I am back home again, having stopped off at Juli's for a chat & coffee between train and bus.

It's been a packed week, and has confirmed that a Scottish holiday by rail is definitely a good option. I wonder which Caledonian Sleeper destination I'll choose next time!