As you’ll know if you read What I saw at EdFringe 2018, I went to Edinburgh last weekend. I saw thirteen shows in three days, which is probably more than I saw in six days last year, and this is the post about the weekend in general.
I flew up on the 8.35am flight from Southampton. I always reserve my seat in advance because I feel much more comfortable sitting safely by a window near the back but as an experiment, I thought I’d save the money and see what I was randomly allocated, since it’s only a short flight. And it was..fine. I was randomly allocated 16C which was a few seats from the back and my neighbour was a sweet-looking Chinese girl who didn’t speak much English and wasn’t at all emetophobe-scary.
I took the tram into the city centre because it’s so much more exotic and so much more fun than the bus. Handy hint – if you’re waiting six people deep for the ticket machines right by the track, turn round. There’s another set, much less used, against the bank behind the office. And don’t get on the tram that’s about to leave, wait and then get on the empty one that’s just arrived.
I picked up my tickets from the Underbelly. It’s one of my favourite venues; it’s a vertical warren of small bunker-like rooms on about six floors, stretching from the Cowgate valley up to George IV Bridge. I think it may be part of the Central Library or the National Library of Scotland, both of which are directly above up on the bridge, but no one I’ve ever asked seems very certain. Google Maps looks like the bottom entrance is a dead-end alley from September to July. Anyway, it’s interesting and atmospheric and any creepiness is offset by the purple bovine theme. Also, my student room is less than two minutes away and I feel vaguely territorial about it, which is why I opted to have my tickets printed on their card and not someone else’s.
Actually, I spent most of the weekend at the Pleasance Courtyard. That’s partly because that’s where most of the shows I’d pre-booked were, by total accident, and partly because that’s where flyers and boards caught my eye. Six of my thirteen shows were at the Pleasance Courtyard and a seventh was at the Pleasance Dome, over at Bristo Square. I’ve never been there before. I thought it was a huge domed theatre place but it’s not, it’s more small rooms clustered around a courtyard, only this one’s under a big dome.
I survived Friday and Saturday on supermarket food, like a real person, but on Sunday I went to the Holyrood Coffee Shop, where I ate several times last year. It’s a tiny cafe on the corner of Cowgate and Pleasance, where you can get rolls and toasties and simple meals and eat them either sitting in the window or squished in the little table by the door. I like it there, which is why I’m recommending it now, but the cheese in my toastie was so rubbery this year that I couldn’t chew it.
I wish I had more to tell you but all I did was go to shows. I slept most of Saturday afternoon because an early flight meant a very early morning on Friday and my room was so noisy that I don’t think I slept at all Friday night. No trips to the pub in the evening this year – I had ticketed entertainment until 23:55 and 00:40 on the two nights. I took a jumper with me and walking home after those shows was the first time I’ve needed to put one on since I got back from Iceland at the beginning of July. I tried being cute – I was wearing a yellow and white stripy t-shirt which tied at the back with a yellow ribbon and my jumper is a bumblebee-yellow cropped sweatshirt with black stripes down the sleeves. I’ve never before felt the need to be cute – but that’s another story.
One thing that does need to be noted is the app. I replaced a very not-brilliant HTC with an iPhone SE last October – the HTC had burned from the inside, fusing the charger to the port, for no apparent reason and good riddance, it had never worked very well, even when it could safely charge by itself. Last year, the EdFringe app just didn’t work – wouldn’t even open. You have no idea what a difference it makes that it works perfectly on my iPhone. I can book tickets on a whim! I can see what’s on! Oh, sure, I had the brochure last year but all you can really do with that is play “open it randomly and stick a pin in it” to choose shows. With the app I can see what’s on at a particular time or place or both, I can pin things to my planner to see what fits where, it’ll lead me straight to the venue when I’m lost in the city and most of the bigger venues provide free wifi to help this process along. If there’s only one thing you need at the Fringe, it’s the app.
Of course I wish I’d had time for more. I wish I could have seen Laura Lexx, Lauren Pattison, Jo Caulfield, Larry Dean, Jim Tavaré and a dozen others. I wish I’d seen more of Edinburgh. I almost wish I’d had time to climb Arthur’s Seat. Wish I’d walked along the Royal Mile more than the once it took to get from the tram to Cowgate. Next year, when Tom and Baz are up again, I’ll stay longer and I’ll do all that. With a working phone.
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