Day 2, Aug 11 (Saturday)

Slept off some jet lag. I Love that Scottish breakfast! 1st class train ride from Central Station in Glasgow to Waverly Station in Edinburgh. We had a lovely conversation with a mother and her teen daughter on the train. We walked from Waverly Station to MacKenzie Guest House. It was nice, and when we checked in, Danny, the owner seemed very nice, too.

Waverly Station.  They know the art of moving people!

boo is pretty good at looking really confused,
 but I had to step in, as the master of dumb, and get someone to help us out.

waiting to find out that the pay toilets are at Waverly.
We learned where the free toilets were after a very short time.

When navigating Edinburgh on foot, one needs to think a little differently than in the US.  That sign, "Gayfield Place Lane" indicates this is a "lane" connected streets.

This was close to a daily sight for us.  It's "Assembly" which is one of the larger venues.  The grass really is that green.

Another shot of a close.  It's hard to read, but there is a sign right above the "tunnel" at the top of the stairs.  That's the street sign.  You need to think in 3 dimensions to efficiently navigate Old Town in this city.

We saw these love birds at the top of the stairs shown in the picture above.

 We walked the Royal Mile, got absolutely INUNDATED with flyers! The crowds are a bit much for us, though. Stopped for dinner at The Richmond Café, which was a strong mediocre. Washed hands, the suds came out gray! Eeew! (the ladies next to us did NOT wash their hands… )

Tried Magners cider, not bad, but much like the food, it’s a bit flavorless. This was made up for by the place not being super crowded. We bought tickets for Mary King’s Close for tomorrow.

I love that Barry Loves Everyone.

A break in the crowd!

This is "Hard Trick" a busker from New York.  We called him that because every time before he would do a trick with his acrylic ball he would say, "hard trick hard trick" to impress the audience.  Some of them were hard tricks.

He saw me taking pictures so I told him I would give him a pound (GBP) if he posed.

Went back The Mile and saw two shows.

“The C Bomb” – a show about a young sexually liberated woman that is told she had Chlamydia was fun. She decides to throw a party (the day after her 21st birthday party) where she invites all her partners from the past 2 weeks (about a half dozen) plus her roommate. There was a lot of silly inappropriate humor, so of course we enjoyed it. The producer and cast were pitching their show pretty hard; they hand out flyers and try to talk to basically anybody that will listen on the street to get an audience. This one was big – the show was sold out at about 50-70 people in a small black box theater. Since we paid to be there (as opposed to “free” shows) we didn’t tip much when they passed the hat.

Support services were not available.
 These  kids had to come up with their own set.

The second show was “Modern Horror Stories” which was a series of skits that told some kind of horrific story that always involved someone dying, usually horribly. Like “The C Bomb” this one was a cast of 6-8 young people, mostly in their 20’s to early 30’s. It was also good for some good laughs, and we particularly enjoyed the fortune teller section where a tarot card reader gives a guy what is basically the worst possible fortune that leads to his death. The “spirit” was very funny as he gave the teller the vision and described how screwed the poor victim was. We will likely build on this idea for the medicine show.

Barry Loves Me.

Spent the rest of the time walking around fringe and Old town. It was very interesting; lots and lots of

great people watching. The whole place is crowded like the Minnesota State Fair. Finally got back to the MacKenzie Guest House at 11:20 PM. 24,000 plus steps today





Some more from the streets of Edinburgh.

This is a statue for Greyfriar's Bobby, the cute little dog.  Rubbing the statue nose started only a few years ago because a tour told people it was for luck.  Apparently the nose has been replaced at least once already.

Harry Potter themed places and stuff is everywhere.  This guy, walking and staring at his phone, was also a portent of a common theme to come.  More on that later.

Use of pylons (cones) on monuments is a bit of a local thing.