HUGE INFATABLE UPSIDE DOWN PURPLE COW
Buses have always been a friend of mine. I don’t drive, have always used public transport and did three months through the United States on Greyhounds. Though since in Europe it’s all been about cheap plane fares so I was glad to be hopping a Megabus journey from London across the border and into bonny Scotland. As it stood I hadn’t yet discovered any of Great Britain so Edinburgh was to be my first UK adventure, which happened to coincide with the opening of the Edinburgh Festival. I also had a friend from Sydney working on the ticketing side of things and she’d been there only a month, had never travelled and was feeling a little homesick, so I thought I’d go and cheer her up.
Once again I was running late (seems its not only planes, must test the theory with trains…) so scrapped all my good intentions of buying cheap and healthy snacks from the supermarket and promptly boarded the bus. Lady luck was not on my side as there were no window seats left. This may seem of little importance but I need a window seat! Plane, train, bus, car – I like to survey, take photo’s and discover the world around me. Coupled with the fact that most of the people around me seemed to be sniffing and coughing this wasn’t the best start to my trip. Putting my woes behind me I eventually got to sleep, woken only by the jolt of my head rolling off the headrest and the two boys behind me laughing at me hysterically.
England’s countryside was well worth staying awake for, especially as we ventured off the M’s and through the back of the Lakes District before hitting the border. It was raining but that just seemed to make the landscape more lush and vibrant. Once into Scotland it didn’t stop there. At one point I was convinced the driver had taken a back road as the path we took was one lane, narrow and had the occasional tractor slowing the way. The landscape was quintessential: rolling green hills, cows and sheep, tiny villages of five or ten stone houses and sweet looking pubs – I had arrived in Scotland. Though I’d read my guidebooks and studied maps I had no idea how small Edinburgh was until I got there. Over the next two days I was to see so many shows and walk so far I now know the city by heart.
My friend Abbey had arrived there only a month before to work the festival and then travel. Of course working in ticketing came with perks, so as soon as the bus stopped I was into the bath room (which cost me 20p!), changed, and ready to see the Friel play she had acquired tickets to. Set in the small ornate Kings Theatre ‘The Faith Healer’ was the story of a man who touted faith to his countrymen but slowly lost his own. The narrative – performed by the faith healer and his devoted wife whom he referred to as ‘mistress’ – was simply set, well acted and presented the folly’s that come from a life on the road perpetuating and profiting from a myth, and losing faith in one’s self as well as others. A fine opener to my weekend of culture that was to be my trip to Edinburgh.
Abbey and I had worked at a bar in Sydney together and it just so happened a fellow ‘Metro-ite’ was also in town. After a cool brisk walk through the twilight we met our friend Danny at Monster Mash, a small diner serving up local grub such as snags, all kinds of mash, tatties, haggis and even veggie haggis. I opted for the latter with tatties and mash and it tasted unreal – homely, warm and stodgy. I don’t think I’d ever be game enough to try the real thing but the veggie haggis did it for me. With full bellies we rolled ourselves over to the Udderbelly, Channel 4’s take on the well-known comedy club Underbelly taking the form of a huge inflatable upside down purple cow. We lucked out on tickets for the show but soaked up the Friday night festival atmosphere in their courtyard bar, then moseyed on over to the real Underbelly to try our luck there.
Edinburgh is such a small town it was hard to believe all this excitement could be contained within its cobbled streets and ancient buildings. They say good things come in small packages and the city is a testament to that. We walked almost everywhere, never taking more than 20 minutes and the stroll to the Underbelly was an exciting preview of the personality the city takes on during festival time. People were happy, relaxed, drinking in the beer and the atmosphere. Once at the comedy club we sunk down the masses of steps through the bars and straight to the box office… no joy. Danny had done the festival before and assured us the Midnight to 3am stand up show ‘Spank’ was not to be missed, plus Will Anderson was on that night. Disappointed and disillusioned we took a drink from the bar and head into the alley for a smoke. Being the festival guru Danny decided to have one last try for tickets just as doors were closing… and we were in! We took our seats in the underground box space serving as a venue, and what followed was a fantastic array of stand up.
They ranged from London to Australia to Newcastle, featured an excellent country music parody named Willy Dickson, and a lovely boy from Amsterdam who wasn’t the funniest but was by no means the worst and just kept digging his hole. His parting words of ‘You know what? I don’t even care about you people anyway!’ didn’t really help either. The appearance of one of my favourite comedians, Will Anderson, was worth every penny and he owned the room as usual. All in all an awesome finale to my first festival-packed night in Scotland.
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