I had a fantastic time in Edinburgh, and I just wanted to get down a few of the super random things, awesome or just weird, that happened there so I don't forget!
1. During the festival in August the population of the city triples, and with that increase in people comes the increase in homeless people sitting out on the streets begging. Well, I don't know if they actually increase, but it seems like it anyway. One day I was walking along the main shopping street, Princes Street, on the way to work at about 9am. It's a long straight street and today there were guys sitting every 50m instead of the usual 200m or so. I'd been getting used to seeing a lot of these guys in Edinburgh having a dog with them (compared to London where dogs weren't common).
(Also, as a side note, the homeless people in Edinburgh are generally friendlier than London - when you say 'sorry, not today' they say 'thank you, have a good day anyway' - which made for a nice change from London.)
Anyway, walking down the street this day was the first time that I'd seen a homeless person have a cat with them - a fully grown cat, just sitting on a cushion beside him. But the most random thing was that the next guy along from him had gone one better and had a kitten! A little ginger kitten curled up on his lap. I felt bad enough for the cats knowing that they'd just get put in their cat carriers as soon as they wanted to walk around for a bit, but it was worse knowing that both of these guys were just playing on the crowd to get more change - I'd seen both of these guys in the same place all the time before August, both without any animals in sight.
2. Also during the festival, I was very lucky to get to see my favourite author, Terry Pratchett, at a special question and answer night! This was random as it had been announced that he was coming to Edinburgh the previous day; I happened to have the night off; and I got in for half price! There was a buy one get one free deal on some of the tickets and someone posted on the Facebook page that they had one spare. There was also another interesting guy there who was the producer or writer for Blackadder and the UK show QI, and wrote with Douglas Adams (author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), amongst many other things, but he unfortunately got a bit overshadowed by the adoring Pratchett fans. It was so cool to be there though - the place was packed out but I got a good seat near the side of the stage.
3. Shapeshifter came to Edinburgh for a gig in April - on the night that the lovely Shanelle and Andy arrived for their week long stay with me! I was already considering myself lucky enough to have them visiting - but I found out a week before hand that the band were playing so we went along and had a great night out! Edinburgh was a strange place for them to be playing as most bands would have headed to Glasgow if they were coming to Scotland at all. No one knows them there and there were probably only 200 people at the gig - maybe they felt like a break from having massive sell out gigs? We were dancing right up at the stage all night and getting selfies with the lead singer P Diggs - so awesome.
4. Another music related one - there is a band called the Red Hot Chilli Pipers that are pretty big here - they are a rock band with bagpipes and they are the band that is always on at full volume in the tourist shops. Kate and I went to see them when they played a FREE show as part of an Edinburgh World Fair Trade Day event. Great music, bagpipes, guys in kilts, in front of the beautiful Edinburgh Castle...Amazing!!
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