I’ve Found My New Paris
I must confess I never had a strong desire to visit Scotland despite hailing from the Ferguson Clan ( through my maternal grandfather) and it took me 70 years to get here. We arrived in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital by train from Brighton mostly to attend the Fringe Festival and the Royal Military Tattoo. It took me less than a day to fall in love with what I’m now calling My Gaelic Paris.
It’s the history, the architecture , the labyrinth of medieval streets, the food and drink, the culture, the green spaces, the walkability- especially if you like hills and all within a population of about 500,000 . It definitely has that joie de vivre ( or aoibhneas beatha if you want to say it in Scottish, but really nobody does).
The city skyline is defined by Edinburgh Castle that looms high from its craggy perch atop an ancient volcano. It dates back to the 11th century although over the centuries most parts were destroyed in battle and rebuilt. It was here that on the Saturday night we attended the “ Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo”, a display celebrating the British Military, Scottish heritage, international culture with a backdrop of a sound and light show. And fireworks. But no horses, I thought there’d be horses. And although I hadn’t given it much thought, I thought it would be indoors but it’s not. Which is fine, better actually but just so you know, a Scottish Saturday night in August is about 12 degrees and drizzling. The show was excellent although I’d have been content just watching and listening to men and women ( since 1977) in kilts play the pipes and drums. It’s become a bit more of a variety show over the last 25 years. And the word tattoo ( not related to tattoos on the skin) comes from the 17th century Dutch phrase “ doe den tap toe” to turn off the ( beer) taps. Get these soldiers home to bed!
Certainly the highlight of our time in Edinburgh was the Fringe Festival. It takes place every August for about three weeks in conjunction with the Edinburgh International Festival which debuted in 1947 to advance European culture after the end of WWII. Eight theatre companies turned up uninvited and performed around the “ fringe” of the official festival. From its minimalist start it’s grown to be the largest and most celebrated arts festival in the world. This year there were over 3764 different shows hailing from 58 different countries with more than 51,000 performances at 262 different venues including theatres, concert halls, bars, parks, churches, buses, shipping containers, and the list goes on. Comedy, theatre, musicals, opera, cabaret, dance. Performances for children and performances that might make you blush. Anyone gets a stage and everyone gets a seat is the festival’s credo. Some shows get no audiences and some go on to be blockbusters, Six the Musical which just spent many months in Toronto premiered at the Fringe.
How to choose four shows that will appeal to all the Bulls. Not an easy task but I think we did it. First up, Silent Disco. With your own set of wireless headphones you dance( and sing) your way through the streets of Edinburgh for 60 minutes. Of course no one watching can hear the music so you just look like a bunch of goofballs. Leave your inhibitions at the door!
Next up Yuck! an Australian feminist circus, a five woman troupe of acrobatic performers showcasing a ( gentle) and hilarious critique of casualised sexism found in everyday life. Parodying hyper-masculinity and social attitudes with a dose of self-deprecation through acrobatics, choreography, physical theatre and aerial silk work. When the topic of menstruation came up, Matt found himself wrapped in red ribbons. The joys of sitting front row Centre!
Friday night and it’s off to Colin Cloud: Consequences, described as “secrets unravelled, impossible outcomes predicted and reality itself will be manipulated “ . He is described as a mentalist, a modern Sherlock Holmes. But really the show is 60 minutes of “ how the f*** did he do that?”. Both Sophie and Mia were part of the show. Sophie, after catching a hat thrown in the audience was asked to think of a word that she’d been thinking of that day. She didn’t have to tell anyone or write it down but Colin wrote a word on a small blackboard and put it off to the side of the stage. Later in the show he retrieved the blackboard, asked Sophie her word which was “rain” and immediately flipped over the board to reveal the word rain. Later in the show a young boy in the audience was asked not to pick a card from the deck but pick a number and card suit ( he picked seven and spades) . When the boy shone a flashlight on Mia, she was asked to pick a number between 1 and 52 she picked 19. As Colin started to turn cards over from the deck, you guessed it, the 19th card was the seven of spades. And those weren’t the most spectacular “ tricks” .
Our final Fringe event was a production of Avenue Q a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors presented in a parody format of Sesame Street but dealing with more mature subject matter such as racism, homosexuality and pornography. It first premiered off Broadway in 2003. ( Robert Lopez who co-wrote the music and lyrics also co-wrote the music and lyrics for The Book of Mormon and the Disney movies Frozen and Coco both of which won Oscars for best song). But the Bulls did not have any co-starring or cameo roles in this production.
This production was presented at St. Stephen’s Church in New Town Edinburgh, so called because it only dates back to the 18th century. The biggest surprise for me was finding out that my friend Janet’s great-great- great grandfather William Henry Playfair (1790-1857) had designed this church as well as many other important buildings in Edinburgh including the National Gallery of Scotland - his statue stands outside- the Royal Scottish Academy, University of Edinburgh ( the Bulls are now talking about Sophie spending a term studying there and I would volunteer to be her chaperone, I’m sure she’d love that!) , Royal College of Surgeons and many others. The things you didn’t know about your friends!
Food is certainly one of our pleasures when we’re travelling and we are big fans of Phil Rosenthal ( the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond) and his Netflix show Somebody Feed Phil, each episode following Phil through the cuisine of the city he is visiting. So far Phil has taken us around the world in 41 episodes. We visited four of Phil’s choices in Edinburgh: Oink for pulled pork sandwiches - haggis optional; I J Mellis famous for its Scotch eggs - Mia and Sophie had pork with apple and Natalie and I a bit more adventurous with a little haggis and blood pudding in the pork coating enveloping our eggs; Mary’s Milk Bar for ice cream. For our splurge dinner we went to The Fishmarket overlooking Edinburgh’s harbour and ordered champagne, oysters, smoked salmon, langoustines, lobster, calamari and fish and chips and watched the sun set over the Firth of Forth.
The younger Bulls are not enamoured of traditional museums so it’s always a bit of a challenge to get them interested in something educational, historical, engaging and fun. We took a tour of Mary King’s Close, led by a “resident” of the close from the 17th century. Closes are the steep, narrow and winding alleys that run off the Royal Mile, the main street of old Edinburgh running from Holyrood Palace to Edinburgh Castle. They are named after professions that practised in the closes or prominent merchants who lived and worked there. It was very rare for a close to be named after a woman. In the 1600s there was little sanitation so houses were built vertically, up to 14 stories. Not surprising the wealthy lived on the top floors and the poorest people at the bottom, living in their own filth, seemingly underground with no daylight. They were very crowded and dangerous places. No wonder that the plague spread rapidly in the mid 1600s killing most of the lower level residents. The first ghost stories from the close date back to this period. Check out the story of the Tartan Barbie!
And so we left Edinburgh informed and entertained ( and with full bellies).
