Edinburgh
Early September 2018
If you’ve not been, Edinburgh is magical. There is no other way to say it. Although it has become
quite touristy since I was here last, there is an unmistakable majesty about the place – with
Edinburgh Castle sitting proudly above all things.
We came to Edinburgh specifically to see Garbage (Amy’s favourite band), and to collect our British Residency Permits. Fortunately, this happened to work around her brother, Sam’s, schedule. After meeting at Haymarket Station, we all caught up at a nearby pub, Thomson’s, for a pint, before moving on to a no frills dinner at The Foxy Fiddler. We then headed on to the Jolly Botanist where we all indulged in some gin. As an aside, gin has seriously taken off within the UK – every bar seems to have a wide variety of boutique gin – it makes a delightful change from the usual options of lager, lager, ale, and imported lager.
The following morning, we split up; I headed to the Scottish National Gallery to see a Rembrandt
exhibition, and Amy and Sam went to see Rip It Up, a Scottish music exhibition at the National Museum. I quite like Rembrandt and having just been to Amsterdam, I was interested to see more. The National Gallery went in an interesting direction by focusing on the effect of Rembrandt had on contemporary British art. The gallery had a nice collection of originals, homages, known forgeries, sketches, and drafts. Some of the forgeries were straight-up funny, due to how far off the mark they were. Unfortunately, I had to rush through since I was short on time. Oh well!
We met back up in town for lunch. Amy, not eating pork as she does, had the British lunch special
(sandwich, a drink and crisps) from Pret A Manger - a tradition I'm still not comfortable with. Instead, Sam and I went to Oink and got a pulled pork roll, with apple sauce and trimmings. We spent the rest of our afternoon shopping and just wandering around the charming streets.
Making our way to the Festival Theatre (by way of Deacon Brodies pub), we then sat down to enjoy an evening of absolute garbage. This was the first concert of the tour and the 20 year anniversary of album 2.0, so Shirley and Co. gave it their all – lots of passion, patter, and tight performances. Unfortunately, there were some technical issues towards the end of the show, which seemed to really get under Shirley’s skin. Nonetheless, it was a great concert.
Short but sweet, our time in Edinburgh came to an end. Together, we walked back to Haymarket
station to go our separate ways – Amy and I to Glasgow, Sam to Huddersfield.
Next stop Glasgow. Edinburgh – we’ll be back soon.
JC
“And though I would rather die elsewhere, yet in my heart of hearts I long to be buried among good Scots clods. I will say it fairly, it grows on me with every year: there are no stars as lovely as Edinburgh street-lamps. When I forget thee, Auld Reekie, may my right hand forget its cunning.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
Comments