6 Dec 2024
A Cosy Weekend In Edinburgh
It didn’t take long before my sister and I were plotting a cosy autumnal weekend away where we went to a lot of bookshops, sat in a lot of cafes and wandered about somewhere that had a lot of cobbled streets.
“Edinburgh?” we both asked each other simultaneously.
Cue the cutest weekend in a city we both love. We’ve both been more than once and tiredness is really kicking my arse this pregnancy so I think this may be the most chill I have ever been when planning a weekend away. We booked nothing, aside from an early table at Dishoom on Saturday night and mostly spent the weekend wandering and soaking up the atmosphere. We walked up The Royal Mile and saw the castle, visited the steps from One Day where we had a lovely moment revisiting our trauma from watching the Netflix series, and went to Victoria Street where we spent a solid amount of time browsing the cute little shops – including an obligatory visit to the Harry Potter shop – and buying mostly for ourselves, despite claiming we were Christmas shopping. It’s not hard to stumble across a charming independent café in Edinburgh so plenty of time was spent in them as well, cradling hot drinks and putting the world to rights.
Edinburgh had fully embraced Christmas and my sister kept laughing at me because every time I saw a tree or some lights, I would let out a high-pitched squeal. I loved it and came home with the yearly Christmas decoration for Gary, Alfie and myself. It was also the first weekend of the Christmas market and whilst I was less fussed about actually looking at the stalls (although we did complete our mission of finding a red car Christmas decoration for Alfie), I absolutely loved the atmosphere and the night-time views of the lights, the trees and the rides against the backdrop of the Scott Monument and the National Gallery all lit-up.
We both went on a book-buying ban in the weeks building up to the weekend so we wouldn’t feel too limited when doing out joint-favourite activity; getting lost in a bookshop. The Edinburgh Toppings is so higgledy-piggledy and the Waterstones so big that we literally did get lost in a bookshop more than once. Side note – the Waterstones café has a huge, curved window with the most perfect view of the castle. If you can go on a quiet weekday, I would highly recommend trying to get seats there should you be visiting. I was hoping to find the special anniversary edition of One Day because my original copy seems to have gone missing, and it felt like buying it in Edinburgh was fitting. But the only copy I could find was damaged and given the price, I wasn’t willing to spend the money unless it was pristine. And then two days after we got back, my sister sent me a gift-wrapped copy in the post as a surprise (cos she’s ADORABLE) and that makes it far more special.
It's a long way to Edinburgh even on a fast train (although those views through Northumberland are unbeatable) but I just find it such a magical city that it was worth the travel time. It was also such a rare treat to spend a whole weekend with my sister just us, discussing books, films, politics and the future. I know it is potluck as to whether you get along well with your siblings, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am that I drew the lucky straw with mine because she’s the best.
21 Aug 2018
What I Loved About The Edinburgh Fringe Festival
I realise that a lot of my blog content recently has been very Scotland-heavy but that’s kinda what my summer has been like. Think I not-so-secretly want to live in Scotland tbh.
After many, many visits to Edinburgh and years of repeatedly saying I must come stay for the fringe, I finally made it to Edinburgh in the month of August, ready to experience the famous Fringe Festival.
And boy did I love it.
Less than 3 weeks after flying back from Inverness, I hopped on a v early morning flight (waaay too early for a Saturday; my body didn’t know what the fuck was going on) and was in the centre of Edinburgh by 9:30 ready to knock back a coke (I don’t drink coffee) and crack on. By half 11 I was drinking a gin & tonic so we certainly were cracking on.
Lucky for me, one of my oldest friends lives in Edinburgh so I got free accommodation, freshly baked cookies and my very own festival organiser – cheers Dan. As it was my first fringe festival, I was very happy to let Dan organise my weekend and go with the flow so I arrived to a pile of tickets and no idea as to what I was going to see over the next two days.
Spoiler: a lot.
The Festival Vibe … without the long-drop toilets
Realise it sounds kinda wanky to bang on about ‘the vibe’ but yeah, I loved the vibe, the feels; whatever you want to call it. It was that festival feelin’; happy, sunshiny, expecting the unexpected, plenty of weird and wonderful things going on, the smell of street food…. But all without the faff that comes with camping. I was clean, there were no long-drop toilets and I could sleep in a double bed. Win.
The Food
Sweet jesus, the food. THE FOOD. I will never not love the way street/festival food has developed over the past few years; it’s a flippin’ dream. You couldn’t move without finding an incredible-sounding food truck and we ate about 6 times a day. Halloumi fries, crème brulees, banana & peanut butter crepes, dumplings and cheesy aioli chips were just some of the highlights. Get in ma belly.
The Shows
The main event of course. I had made a couple of random requests based on some sparring research but otherwise Dan was in charge of the schedule. We managed to squeeze in 8 shows in 48 hours and each one was completely different; I felt like we saw such a wide variety. And that's not including the shows that were just happening in the street. A guy making up raps based on what people had in their pockets. A guy playing the most beautiful violin solo. Hundreds of people in costumes. I loved being surrounded by all the creativity.We were in the audience for the BBC new-comedy award semi-finals, had our minds blown at an Ethiopian circus (how the hell are they so flexible?!) and loooved Margaret Thatcher: Queen of Soho (80s drag cabaret: Maggie gets lost in Soho and accidently becomes a cabaret superstar – so funny).
There were some slightly smaller productions which I enjoyed just as much as the bigger shows. These ones made me nostalgic for all my years at a drama group and actually felt the more creative. We saw a musical called 89 Nights – about a young woman living in New York for the length of her tourist visa. There was 9/11 was a conspiracy; a one-woman show about your beliefs fundamentally differing from your partners, and Anya Anastasia: The Executioners which was a musical/comedy performance about attacking the technology aspects of the modern world.
Baby Wants Candy was probably my favourite – a completely improvised comedy musical based on a title the audience shout out at the beginning. Ours was ‘Haggis, neeps and titties’ – it was hilarious. The same company also did Voldemort and the Teenage Hogwarts Musical Parody which was also snort-your-drink funny. Favourite line; Dumbledore: ‘well, I’m just going to go and stick my dick in the sorting hat’.
And on that note… See ya next year Edinburgh!
26 Mar 2017
A Weekend In Edinburgh
I’m typing this at Edinburgh airport with one eye on the queue to my departure gate. I cba to stand in the queue so I’m sitting in the uncomfortable airport chairs with plans to join at the last minute. I’m really not fussed at being the last person on the plane. My flight it delayed and the EasyJet staff are delaying it further but insisting people combine their luggage. I know there’s a one-item-of-hand-luggage only guys but does it really matter if her tiny cross-body bag isn’t in her main bag. BOTH BAGS ARE GOING ON THE PLANE EITHER WAY.
This shouldn’t annoy me as much as it does but I can’t control it. This is why I’m not a fan of flying and I feel it’s probably best if G just sedates me for our entire flight to New York *insert eye roll emoji*.
I may be a tad tired and irritable.
Anyway, my weekend in Edinburgh.
I love Scotland (do you really need to leave the UK guys?), and I particularly love Edinburgh. So I was pretty darn smug when one of my best friends decided to go to university here. His choice was defs influenced by my holiday desires I’m sure. I think this is my 6th visit to the city, and my 4th trip visiting my friend so hats off to him for still finding new things to do and new adventures for us to go on.
This time round I was introduced to the National Museum of Scotland and Cramond Island, ate a huuuuuge slice of cake at a food market and drank cocktails in the dreamiest of underground bars (the door was a bookcase; just sayin’).
I also wandered around the Royal Mile clutching a peppermint tea like the hip happening person I am, got a sneaky peak at JK Rowling’s house and got photobombed by a random Scottish guy who looked way too pleased with himself.
Some photos:
Hey there!
