Saturday morning, we had to move out of our apartment by 10:00. My sister was expected to arrive in the heard of Edinburgh around 11:00, and couldn't check into our new place until 1:00, without being able to move in fully until 3:00. So we went back to our new friends, the Hilton, and asked if they'd be willing to let us check our bags for a few hours. They were.
Then we sat back or wandered around, and waited for my sister. When she was on the tram, she sent an e-mail, and my mother texted my father and I. Then my mother went to the tram to wait for Elishabet. When my father and I arrived back at the Hilton, there was no one there. I figured mom was probably out by the tram stop, and mentioned that to dad. He agreed, and went out to look for her. I was going to wait inside just in case Elishabet somehow missed them, but my father motioned me out, because he could see them. So we went out, and happy reunions were had all around.
We checked the remaining bags (my sister's checked and carry-on and my mother's backpack) and headed out. The book festival was going on, so we went off to that. We didn't attend anything there, just looked around. They had a nice bookstore and places to sit. Quite lovely.
After that, we were hungry, so we went out to find lunch. There was an Indian restaurant with a good lunch deal, and we'd agreed to that, and even what we were ordering there. But when we tried to order tap water, we were informed that it wasn't an option, because the rest of the meal was such a bargain. We walked out on the food, order unplaced.
We settled on a far more traditional Scottish restaurant. Elishabet wanted chili over chips, And, for no good reason, I wanted to try the haggis, neeps, and tatties. You could not get more Scottish than that. I ordered an appetizer portion, though. And other people had food I could eat. I was prepared.
The haggis was not just not bad. It was tasty.
Less surprisingly, the tatties were also delicious. (When in doubt, it's hard to go wrong with potatoes. The neeps weren't much good, but when the haggis is edible the rest matters a lot less.
After we ate, my father and I beelined towards the apartment while my sister and mother followed us at a more leisurely pace. We arranged to meet at 1:30 at a nearby Starbucks. The apartment turned out to be completely ready for us, though it only had two sets of keys. Our landlord found a third set, and said she'd see what she could do about getting us four sets. But it was ready for us to move into.
White I stood in the main line to get tickets, the rest of my family met up at the apartment, and my father showed them the apartment. Then my sister took a bath and my parents walked to the Hilton to get a taxi with the luggage back. Meanwhile I was learning about how the people behind me in line didn't think that serious plays belonged at the Fringe and how one of them hated Gilbert and Sullivan. (It was an understandable hate. He'd had a chemistry direct put on three musical, then become principal of the school he transferred into [?] and put on the exact same 3 Gilbert and Sullivan musicals.) Half an hour after entering it, I was finally free to leave, tickets in hand.
Texts didn't work, so my parents needed to bring most of the suitcases up to the apartment alone. Then my father and sister dashed off to see Eurobeats, a musical that was showing for the last time that Saturday. My mother and I enjoyed the apartment for a bit, then went out for shopping. She found a grocery store and stayed there. I found a grocery store, left, noticed a restaurant that I remembered as being right next to a bookstore, looked across the street, and found the bookstore. I stayed there for a bit, then headed down the street to another bookstore. Then for good measure I stopped in another grocery store before heading back. I didn't buy anything at any of those places.
Back at the apartment, my mother prepared dinner. My father and sister had enjoyed their show greatly, and they'd made it there in time. (They'd left with under 10 minutes to find the venue, buy tickets, and be seated before the show began.) Shortly after dinner, Elishabet called it a very long day and went to bed. Then my father and I went out to see No Name.
No Name was a show written for and performed by my college, which was in Edinburgh for unrelated reasons. I'd watched it when it had been performed there, but my parents, having just gotten back from Portugal, weren't able to sit through an evening show. Having just arrived in Edinburgh (more or less) my mother wasn't willing to sit through an evening show, but my father was. So off we went.
While we were trying to find the venue, we found the entire cast, sitting around outside. I took a flier (they didn't have fliers when I first saw the show) and the actor who handed it to me informed me that tickets were free if I said the code word (the name of the writer of the show.) A bit late for that. We listened to them sing, then followed them down the alley to our venue, trying not to trip the ladies in giant, puffy dresses. (My father suggested I sing Carthage's fight song. I couldn't remember the melody or more than five consecutive words, which posed a problem to that plan.)
It was interesting to see the show reworked for the Fringe. It was shorter, which mostly just meant cutting out musical interludes. Where entire songs had been in the original, there were two or three bars played. The set was less elaborate, by which I mean “two benches and maybe a chair occasionally,” though the costumes were every bit as complex and space-consuming. The tech crew was smaller, so sometimes the actresses in their huge cumbersome dresses would be the ones moving the chair on stage. The performance was equally good, though. We were sitting on the left side, but I think the cast had done a good job of adjusting to their more surrounding audience, and I didn't feel like I was missing much from not being in front of them.
It was a lot of fun to see a show I'd already watched, but in a completely different location. Still, I was ready to seriously watch some new plays.
