August 13 - Edinburgh, UK

in a glasshouse

17 degrees, a bit windy, partly cloudy, no rain in sight – until tomorrow that is

Our first task of the day was to hit the half price booth for some tickets for tonight. We’re not married to any shows here, so when there’s one that looks half

decent we go with that. Tickets for tonight’s show were $10. Maybe we’re here earlier than

yesterday, or maybe it’s because it’s Sunday, but things aren’t nearly as busy as yesterday – not much of a line up at all.

Next we were off to the hop on, hop off bus, just around the corner. This took us around and out of Edinburgh. Taking hop on, hop off buses is always a nice chance as it exposes us to parts of the city we wouldn’t necessarily see walking, although this one we probably could walk. There’s also a commentary along the way.

We got off at the Royal Botanical Gardens and spent some time there. As with some other UK museums/attractions there was no admission, we did pay to see the Glass houses (green houses) which I guess were considered a special exhibit. The glass houses were super interesting. These contained different areas from around the world.

Lunch was at a pub, then a nap, then back out for the rest of the evening.

The first show was “Douze” – the one we got tickets for this morning. It was ‘interesting’ – quite interactive, and that’s not exactly ‘up our street’! It was a good change I guess, but hmmm, would I do it again? Don’t think so. Here's how interactive it was...the main guy TOOK A DRINK OF MY WINE!!!!! Seriously, man...hands off my wine.

After that show we checked the Fringe app and found a show starting soon, close-ish to us, so we were off. This show was in a tiny – I mean tiny, hot, stuffy, kind of stinky room…cool! Initially there were only 4 of us to see the show, in the end there were 8. This was a story telling show...2 people talking and telling jokes in various characters. This was pretty interactive also, as there were only a few of us and everyone introduced themselves at the beginning. We were the odd ones out as we weren’t from the UK. Throughout the hour long show the performers were referring to us by name – actually not weird. This was a pay-what-you-will show.

I’ve been dying to get back to the Cow Shed for some more music, so that’s what we did.

This band was more of a ‘night time band’ – by now it was about 11. We had a beer and moved on to our final show of the evening.

The last show tonight for us was a stand-up comedian. Tickets were supposed to be 5 pounds each, but by the time we got there they had moved it to a pay-what-you-will – we paid 5 total in the end. This place was the dumpiest we’ve been in I’d say. Drink prices reflected the dumpiness…6.65 for 2 (including a Strongbow, which typically

memorial to those who died in the Boer War

seems to be on the pricy side) we have paid upwards of 10 for 2 not including Strongbow – I’ll take the lack of poshness for the cheap beer – seems like it might be a student bar. Speaking of Strongbow…I’d rather drink a local cider, but that’s not always available. Sometimes it is and then I do, but not always.

'What the hell were those last 2 shows?"