Orange County

If you have ever wondered where all the ginga people are or where they come from, let me answer that question for you – Scotland. It was a case of spot the brunette on our recent trip to Edinburgh. Not only that but the city was heaving with the grey brigade taking in the Edinburgh Tattoo. Our group of 4 (including our old flatmates Tim and Rhi) were the unique ones with our dark locks and low average age.

Apart from having to fight our way through the crowds of grey and orange, our 3 day trip to Edinburgh was a beauty. After some quality competitive card action on the train ride up, we arrived to a lovely sunny day. We trudged along Princess St with our bags to our apartment and then it was straight back out for a spot of sightseeing.

Edinburgh is a lively place on weekends at the best of times, to keep things interesting we turned up to coincide with the opening of the Fringe Festival and the Edinburgh Tattoo so it was extra crowded and buzzing with activity. It would have been wrong to not go to any fringe events so we picked stand up comedy. Cant say it was the best stand up I have been to but it still got a couple of laughs out of us. We ended the evening eating deep fried haggis and chips on the street, all of us deciding it was very nice but extremely rich, you can only really eat a small amount.

The following day we decided that we should head out to a whiskey distillery to see how it is all done, especially considering it is one of the things Scotland is renowned for. According to the tourist agency it was a half hour bus ride out…over an hour later we were still on the bus driving out to the middle of nowhere! They probably do that so you are excited about whiskey and are keen to glug the stuff back because you are so annoyed about the long bus ride. Regardless it was most interesting and Chris was happy that we all passed on our unwanted drams of the peat flavoured evil in a glass.

The old town of Edinburgh is very picturesque and the Royal Mile leading up to the castle is a great place to waste an afternoon which is what we did! Most of that time was taken up in shops trying to trace our ancestry and discover if our families had a history of warring against each other. That and trying on Scottish clothing on the sly in the shops and laughing a bit too loudly. We did climb up the monument at the beginning of Princess St to take is some stunning views, word of warning though, if you are a large man (as is Tim) the top can get a bit tight on the old stairs! Probably not a great idea if you have spent more than a few days in Edinburgh eating chips and haggis every night…

They say that the old town is haunted so we planned a ghost tour for the evening to see if we could be frightened. To set the ball rolling we had a few nerve calming drinks and dinner at the apartment, including a round or 2 with the cards playing “circle of death” (which ended up in a lot of laughs and 2 broken chairs).

Off to the ghost tour we marched all full of apprehension…but it turns out the only scary thing about it was the price! A bit disappointing and I have to say we don’t normally fall for the tourist traps but we were well fooled by this one.

It has to be said that Edinburgh is a great city to spend your days wandering around taking in the magical sight of the castle perched on the cragged hill, the old cobbled streets and the countless stores selling tartan products. Fortunately the weather didn’t live up to the Scottish tradition of being rainy and gloomy 24-7 and in fact (although there was some rain) mostly we were bathed in sunshine. We will be back to Scotland for sure…perhaps a bit of Loch Ness spotting next time though.