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schneefink) wrote2024-09-10 09:31 pm
schneefink) wrote2024-09-10 09:31 pm
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Scotland, part 2
Part two of my Scotland vacation: traveling around!
First stop: Edinburgh, during the time of the Edinburgh Fringe, which I was very excited for. I met up with LB on Tuesday morning (his luggage had also not arrived with him but fortunately was delivered to our hotel in the evening.) We took the train to Edinburgh, and in the first fifteen minutes after leaving the train station I think we came across five bagpipe players. Very Scottish!
We walked around a bit and did a bus tour through the city first. As expected, it was full of people, street music and artists, flyers everywhere… Fortunately we had already decided not to visit the castle because it was fully booked anyway. It's a fun city, many old buildings with tiny towers on the corners and small side streets, very hilly, and I really like the way the shops on the ground floor are usually visually distinct and sometimes very colorful from the flats(?) above.
Then: the Edinburgh Fringe! We only went to two shows on Tuesday because we were both tired, a musical comedy that was a lot of fun, and a stand-up comedy with three people, one of whom (Ann Vaida) was fantastic (the other two were boring and since they went on first we almost left.)
The next day we had more time and energy. We picked the things we went to pretty spontaneously, according to time/location/etc.
Some things were not that great (a comedy "game show", a a circus/comedy), some were fun but not special (a musical sing-along (I was hoping for more songs that were originally from musicals and not later included in musicals like e.g. ABBA or Tina Turner), a poetry event), some were a lot of fun (an improv theater show from the "Free Fringe" program that was fun (tiny room, eight people in the audience and six on stage playing a fictional sitcom finale), and a live TTRPG one-shot with players who had no idea about the game – "I summon my private plane!" - and an audience with the power to cast spells.)
And one absolute highlight: A Jaffa Cake Musical. That was a recommendation from the Worldcon panel about the Fringe and while that panel was not otherwise very informative, that rec made it completely worth it. "Time to decide once and for all... cake or biscuit? Inspired by the 1991 tribunal which determined the true identity of a Jaffa Cake, multi-award winning Gigglemug Theatre [….] present a brand-new family-friendly musical comedy that takes the biscuit (or cake...?)." It was so funny, and well done, and the music was great and the stage and choreography, and I really hope at least the soundtrack will eventually be available online. Some of my favorite numbers were "Fork, fork, fork" and "Chocolate-covered nightmare." #TeamBiscuit
Overall the Fringe was a very cool experience and I'm glad I could visit. (If one goes there specifically for the festival I think it could become both very tiring and very expensive very quickly.)
The next day we took the train up to Mallaig, on a beauiful train ride. The main attraction is the Hogwarts Express bridge apparently but we barely saw it because everybody else was standing up to look outside the window. We had lunch in the small town of Mallaig and went for a walk, then we took the train and then the bus to Glencoe, where we checked into a very nice hostel, and went on another walk there around a lake, at the perfect time to get a fantastic sunlight angle. (We picked the hostel because we were late booking accommodation and it was by far the cheapest option in the area, and it was very nice as far as hostels go, but I do prefer having our own room. Two others in my room snored.)
The next day we took the bus and then train to Kyle of Lochalsh (the only time during the trip when I felt freezing was waiting there at the train station) and then the train to Inverness. Another fantastic train ride with a great view. I was disappointed we saw more normal cows than highland "coos" (as they are apparently called which is very cute), but we also saw a wheat field with actual ocean-like waves which looked great.
The next day in Inverness I tripped over my own feet while running to catch a bus and scraped up my hands and knees and chin, that was very annoying and I was very glad that I was not traveling on my own. But we did the town bus tour and then we went on a boat trip on Loch Ness to Urqhart castle. In the evening we took the train to Aberdeen.
We didn't get to see very much of Aberdeen, we just walked around Saturday evening and Sunday morning, but what I saw of the city I liked a lot. We also visited the Maritime Museum and especially the parts about the north sea oil and gas platforms were very interesting.
Our flight back was several hours late but at least our luggage wasn't left behind this time.
General thoughts about Scotland:
We got very lucky with the weather. It barely rained, and when it did, only for a very short time. One time it started raining when we checked into the hostel and stopped by the time we finished putting down our stuff and wanted to go for a walk. When I say "rain" I don't count the very frequent drizzle, that didn't even feel like rain, more like, hm, slightly more wet air.
I was surprised by the opening hours. From what I saw, many things, from attractions to shops, open what I would consider late (9, even 10am) and close early (usually 5pm.) With the exception of grocery stores, which are conveniently open very late.
I'm glad we decided on train rides instead of renting a car, because like this it was a time to relax which we could really use. The train connections were fine even though they cut some trains this summer because of a driver shortage.
Overall it was a great vacation, I had a fantastic time.
First stop: Edinburgh, during the time of the Edinburgh Fringe, which I was very excited for. I met up with LB on Tuesday morning (his luggage had also not arrived with him but fortunately was delivered to our hotel in the evening.) We took the train to Edinburgh, and in the first fifteen minutes after leaving the train station I think we came across five bagpipe players. Very Scottish!
We walked around a bit and did a bus tour through the city first. As expected, it was full of people, street music and artists, flyers everywhere… Fortunately we had already decided not to visit the castle because it was fully booked anyway. It's a fun city, many old buildings with tiny towers on the corners and small side streets, very hilly, and I really like the way the shops on the ground floor are usually visually distinct and sometimes very colorful from the flats(?) above.
Then: the Edinburgh Fringe! We only went to two shows on Tuesday because we were both tired, a musical comedy that was a lot of fun, and a stand-up comedy with three people, one of whom (Ann Vaida) was fantastic (the other two were boring and since they went on first we almost left.)
The next day we had more time and energy. We picked the things we went to pretty spontaneously, according to time/location/etc.
Some things were not that great (a comedy "game show", a a circus/comedy), some were fun but not special (a musical sing-along (I was hoping for more songs that were originally from musicals and not later included in musicals like e.g. ABBA or Tina Turner), a poetry event), some were a lot of fun (an improv theater show from the "Free Fringe" program that was fun (tiny room, eight people in the audience and six on stage playing a fictional sitcom finale), and a live TTRPG one-shot with players who had no idea about the game – "I summon my private plane!" - and an audience with the power to cast spells.)
And one absolute highlight: A Jaffa Cake Musical. That was a recommendation from the Worldcon panel about the Fringe and while that panel was not otherwise very informative, that rec made it completely worth it. "Time to decide once and for all... cake or biscuit? Inspired by the 1991 tribunal which determined the true identity of a Jaffa Cake, multi-award winning Gigglemug Theatre [….] present a brand-new family-friendly musical comedy that takes the biscuit (or cake...?)." It was so funny, and well done, and the music was great and the stage and choreography, and I really hope at least the soundtrack will eventually be available online. Some of my favorite numbers were "Fork, fork, fork" and "Chocolate-covered nightmare." #TeamBiscuit
Overall the Fringe was a very cool experience and I'm glad I could visit. (If one goes there specifically for the festival I think it could become both very tiring and very expensive very quickly.)
The next day we took the train up to Mallaig, on a beauiful train ride. The main attraction is the Hogwarts Express bridge apparently but we barely saw it because everybody else was standing up to look outside the window. We had lunch in the small town of Mallaig and went for a walk, then we took the train and then the bus to Glencoe, where we checked into a very nice hostel, and went on another walk there around a lake, at the perfect time to get a fantastic sunlight angle. (We picked the hostel because we were late booking accommodation and it was by far the cheapest option in the area, and it was very nice as far as hostels go, but I do prefer having our own room. Two others in my room snored.)
The next day we took the bus and then train to Kyle of Lochalsh (the only time during the trip when I felt freezing was waiting there at the train station) and then the train to Inverness. Another fantastic train ride with a great view. I was disappointed we saw more normal cows than highland "coos" (as they are apparently called which is very cute), but we also saw a wheat field with actual ocean-like waves which looked great.
The next day in Inverness I tripped over my own feet while running to catch a bus and scraped up my hands and knees and chin, that was very annoying and I was very glad that I was not traveling on my own. But we did the town bus tour and then we went on a boat trip on Loch Ness to Urqhart castle. In the evening we took the train to Aberdeen.
We didn't get to see very much of Aberdeen, we just walked around Saturday evening and Sunday morning, but what I saw of the city I liked a lot. We also visited the Maritime Museum and especially the parts about the north sea oil and gas platforms were very interesting.
Our flight back was several hours late but at least our luggage wasn't left behind this time.
General thoughts about Scotland:
We got very lucky with the weather. It barely rained, and when it did, only for a very short time. One time it started raining when we checked into the hostel and stopped by the time we finished putting down our stuff and wanted to go for a walk. When I say "rain" I don't count the very frequent drizzle, that didn't even feel like rain, more like, hm, slightly more wet air.
I was surprised by the opening hours. From what I saw, many things, from attractions to shops, open what I would consider late (9, even 10am) and close early (usually 5pm.) With the exception of grocery stores, which are conveniently open very late.
I'm glad we decided on train rides instead of renting a car, because like this it was a time to relax which we could really use. The train connections were fine even though they cut some trains this summer because of a driver shortage.
Overall it was a great vacation, I had a fantastic time.