Back on a street Edinburgh

I regret that I booked the flight to Edinburgh right after the festival. I was in pain all of my body and not ready to carry big luggage at all. But I had to go on. John gave me a lift to airport and I arrived there an hour before the flight. But the flight to Scotland was an international flight even though the currency is same, able to go by bus and not even need a visa. When I showed my ticket, they got really in rush and tried to get me through the line. I had to pay for the excessive luggage fee 25 pounds but there is not time to argue. I run into the line of custom and took me long time to got through, went to the gate number that's written on the boarding ticket and there was not a flight. I felt shit “did I miss it?” Then I asked. The gate has been changed. There was 10 more minutes before the flight. I run and run to the gate but the gate was way too far. I was sweating and exhausted. I was the last one coming up on board. But I made it.

I was on the bus after the flight, going to Edinburgh town. It is one of the world heritage town and I was just stunned by the view of the Edinburgh. When the bus reached the middle of the town, I could see new town on the one side and the magnificent view of old town. There was a castle standing upon a hill majestically, and its surrounded by massive wall of the stone. The town was built by stones and rocks, colored in calm, gives me the impression of hundreds of history in behind.

This time I used the couch surfing for accommodation. Because of the fringe festival season, it was really hard to find one in Edinburgh but I finally found one in town. Although it was only for two days and I had to find another couch for after. Anyway, the host was Vic a girl from Lithuania. And she came to bus stop to pick me up. She showed me around the town a little bit while we are walking to her house and I was just stunned by the atmosphere of the Edinburgh town. She gave me a mattress and a blanket in her house. And she took me to a cafe and we had chat about Edinburgh and the day has gone.

Next day, Vic went out to find a job so I went out to the town by myself for an adventure. Well, this is still Scotland. The weather was cold and the sky was cloudy in grey, and rain has started as soon as I got outside. And also the color of the town which comes from mold on rocks gave me a mournful feeling in my eyes. But, Edinburgh has unique air of UK that carries my foots on road and took me into wonder the little allies and get lost enthusiastically. I visited a national museum. It was huge and got lost inside again and I spent about couple of hours easily. After couple of hours of getting lost, I finally manage to find Vic's house and we had a light dinner together. The main events for the day was the concert of “The Correspondents” in voodoo lounge. It started about 12 o'clock and it went on till the sunrise. I have gone crazy with this Electro Swing sound and dance till I die. Rarely, I met a Japanese girl in here and we had a cafe next day.

From this day, I had no place to stay in Edinburgh. I looked around the prices of some guest houses but it was about 30 to 40 pounds a day. I totally feeling not to pay for that. I decided to think about it later and I hit to the town. There was the biggest performance festival i the world “Fringe festival” was held in Edinburgh town and the street was filled up by the performers and tourist from all around the world. It was really huge festival and lively in whole the whole town. I went some comedy shows that day and had a bit of laugh. In the night, I went to “Bongo Club”. It has a theme for the night and it was “Confusion is Sex” everyone was wearing the unique clothe, fetish dress, and some gays and lesbians were wearing only under wear and some costumed into some kind of monsters then the party was really bouncing by the craziness. Luckily, I get along with the DJs and their crew and I had a really wicked night. There were some performance by the strippers, dancers and singers in the dance hall. When I scrawled through the crowd of ghosts and monsters, I found many strangers with horrific make up were dancing in the hall. There were colorful lights reflecting from the mirror ball flashing through the foggy dance floor and lighten up the beast instantaneously. The real characters created by the artificial faces, showed me the individuals truth of humanity hide behind the society. And the human klesha revealed out, scratch down by the madness. All the people there were filled up with ecstasy of realm what they want to be. The party was insanely fun and kept on going till morning. Then we went to house party after.

I woke up in the afternoon in the house which I have no idea where it is, and the house was in silence with messed up trace of the party last night. Then I met a friend from yesterdays party, found out that he is living in the house. And I asked him whether I can stay in his place for some nights. He kindly accepted my needs and told me he was going to London for a whole week for work and I can use his room till his come back. I was going to Brighton within a week so it was perfect. Whether he trusted me or he is not cautious, but he said bye and took off to London leaving all his valuable stuff with me. He met another share mate and had a chat for a minutes and he also went out to work. Well, luckily I had a room and house for entire days I stayed in Edinburgh. The day I just lay down on a couch and chilled out, recovering my mess from the party.

Nest day, it was a heavy rainy day so I just spent the day writing blog, playing guitar and drawing a pictures in the house.

With a little bit of blue sky and a nice hot tea, I started another day in Edinburgh and went out to the town to enjoy the fringe festival. I got a call from Kara that she was coming to Edinburgh so the plan for the day was decided. She came with her friends Pete and Megan and we chilled out about an hour in a park in between old town and new city, talked about the shows that we go. Thanks to the sunshine, it was really different from most of the day of Edinburgh with cloud and cold; toured the town into lively atmosphere with many performances and tourist all around, and the beautiful fun day has began. The fringe festival is the biggest performance festival in the world; the whole town is the site for the festival so it is really huge. We got lost in the town to begin with, running through the town and late for a show, refused to go in cos we were late, a 5 pound ticket was gone without used. Well, we could just laugh about it and beware for the next. We saw some shows in the after noon and we met one comedian from Australia Dave Eastgate, he said that he used to do comedy shows in Japan and after we talked, he gave me two free ticket for his show. Me and Kara decided to go together and we spent some time walking around the town till the show. The show with no expectation nor reputation turned to the best show I have seen in fringe festival. His energetic talk and performance was involved with all the audience constant laughing. After the show, we chilled out in a bar and the day has gone contently.

We again gathered up in the town next day, walked around the town and enjoyed some shows. They had to go back to Bristol next morning, they went to sleep early in the evening. I decided to go home and I called Sadiq whether he is home or not. He was in the town seeing a show. I didn't have a key so I head back to the town looked for Sadiq. Accidentally I met him in the town and he took me into a show. I sneaked into the show and I surprised. It was a gay comedy. There were gay with just an underwear dancing on the rope and pole, jumping and scrawling into the audiences and it was really gay. But the talk and show was really funny and impressive, I think it was also one of the best show I have seen in the fringe as well. Sadiq and I went to a club called Cabaret Voltaire venue and had a drum and bass concert till late.

Next couple of days also miserably rainy and cloudy. Blogging, watching anime and drinking were filled up my last days in Edinburgh and I prepare to go down to Brighton. This 9 days experience in Edinburgh has gone by like a flash to me.