It’s a small world. A very small world in fact. I bet the last thing comedian Hannah Gadsby, who grew up in Smithton, expected this morning was to be approached by a girl from Montumana. But then I didn’t expect to be catching a Tasmanian performer at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival either.
Half a day just wasn’t enough time to see Edinburgh, so this morning I caught the train up, while Amy went to work. It’s Amy’s birthday (although she’s not celebrating until after 4.30pm) and we’re off to see the comedian Lee Evans tonight so I’ll meet her and David up there later. The train takes just over an hour and drops you right in the city centre. I don’t know how big Edinburgh is population wise, but aside from when I’m near the Fringe Festival venues, there never seems to be too many people anywhere.
I retraced some of my steps from the other day, getting a better look at everything. Then I headed up to the Royal Mile to find the start of a free walking tour I wanted to do at 1pm. I found the meeting point and then headed off to have lunch. Making the most of the free wifi, I was on Facebook, having a whinge about all the people in town for the Fringe Festival when a friend mentioned that Hannah was performing. Fans of Good News Week will know who I’m talking about. She’s bloody hilarious. Any performance I’ve seen of hers on TV has always been a talking point the next day, but I’ve never had the chance to see her live. Until now…I checked the fringe website out of curiousity to find she has a show every day, including today, that starts after my walking tour and finishes about the time I need to meet Amy. So off I went to get tickets. Turns out it was a two-for-one deal so I put a post on Couchsurfing and offered up the free ticket. A girl called Kate took it straight away so now I wasn’t going alone, which is always nice.
The walking tour was with New Europe Tours, which offers tours in a lot of the major cities. It was the same deal as the others I did in Barcelona – you tip the guide at the end what you thought the tour was worth. My guide was Mark, from Manchester. He studied politics, economics and philosophy at Oxford before coming to Edinburgh to do a masters in history. He took up tour guiding as a part time job. The tour was through the old town. I was worried there may have been a bit of double up between the bus tour I did the other day, but the bus really only drove down a street or two. Mark took us into lots of places I didn’t even know where there. He also shared far too many stories about bloody executions for my liking. I am now a big fan of modern punishment methods. 
The tour took about three hours. It must take other tour guides a lot longer – Mark talked at a speed that puts me to shame. When it finished I had just enough time to grab a bite and walk to the venue for the Hannah Gadsby show. Hannah was out the front of a venue so I figured I may as well go and say hi. It would be the Australian thing to do. The show was hilarious. She’s been in Edinburgh for a few months and although most people don’t know who she is at the moment, I doubt it will stay that way for long.
Her gig was a world away from the show at the Playhouse we went to later. I’d never heard of Lee Evans, but Amy and David are big fans. It was a packed house and it didn’t take long to work out why. He was pretty good, although he had a slightly awkward manner about him that I always struggle to watch. I always feel embarrassed for them. A good way to spend my last night in Scotland though.
No comments:
Post a Comment