Living in Aberdeen Part 7

Despite the title name, this week's blog will focus on my recent daytrip to the city of Edinburgh during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world's largest arts festival.

Aberdeen-->Edinburgh

It was an early start on Saturday with our train leaving Aberdeen just past 7am. There were scheduled train strikes planned on the day, but luckily ScotRail was operating as usual. There were a fair few people waiting for the train to Edinburgh, as expected due to Fringe. I had reserved a seat on train, however when it pulled into the station, my friends and I noticed that none of the seats had a 'reserved' card on them, and so it ended up being a bit of a free for all with the other passengers, with people sitting where there was space. Not an issue though, as the four of us managed to get seats with a table.

As the train rolled out of the station on time, and started on the 2 and a half hour journey in a southerly direction, I realised that I hadn't seen any of the Scottish countryside and area around Aberdeen much, as my main mode of transport between Aberdeen and London had been flying up till now. Once we were out of the vicinity of the city, the views did not disappoint (some nice pictures to follow later!). The train route followed the Scottish coast down to Stonehaven, the first of a few stops on route. It then pulled further inland and continued its journey through fields, with some wind farms visible in the distance. We passed the town of Montrose, and when we reached Dundee and crossed the Tay Rail Bridge you could see the lights on the runway of Dundee Airport parallel to the bank of the River Tay. As a civil engineering university student, I was impressed by the Tay Rail Bridge, but I was promised by my mates that better bridges were to come (and they were right!). Leuchars was another stop, before making the final leg of our journey to Edinburgh. This bit was pretty cool, the train crossed the Forth Bridge, with the Forth Road Bridge and Queensferry Crossing very close by too. Back in the lecture hall I've had talks where the iconic picture of the three bridges was shown to us, so it was quite amazing actually now being there in person travelling across one! The train then pulled into Edinburgh Waverley Station (which is located in central Edinburgh), and that concluded the first part of the day.

Walking Tour & The Royal Mile

Edinburgh Station itself was nicely done, in particular one of the waiting rooms which had a historical design with a glass arch to let the sunny weather in. There were plenty of places to grab a drink and a bite to eat if needed. After exiting onto street level, we headed up an alleyway which would lead us to the Royal Mile. These narrow stairways would frequently show up as we walked around Edinburgh during the day, almost giving it a maze-like feel at times.

The Royal Mile runs through the middle of Edinburgh's old Town, connecting Edinburgh Castle (which is actually built on volcanic rock!), with the Palace of Holyroodhouse (when I first heard someone say this I thought they meant 'Hollywood'). We had signed up for a free walking tour that would take us along Royal Mile, and give us a flavour of the history of the city. It was a bit of an information overload, but some of the things I remember are:

• A 'Scots mile' is 200 yard longer than an English mile
• The last public hanging took place in 1954 in Edinburgh (fairly recently if you ask me!), and in the past those accused of witchcraft were often trialled.
• The city is actually on two levels, with the unusual topography and history of the city meaning that structures, roads and buildings have been built on top of each other, hiding entire parts of the city to the public.

The walking tour lasted about 2 hours, at which point we were all quite hungry. Due to the large number of visitors that the city gets during this time each year, pubs, restaurants and bars were pretty packed. We grabbed some food from Byron, where I ordered the V-Rex with some sweet potato fries (all plant based, and I would highly recommend!). The sit down for a bit was much needed after being on our feet the whole morning.

Fringe

The great thing about Fringe is that there is sooo much on all the time, regardless of what day or time you go. I remember trying to decide what show I should go to watch, and just for the day we were going there were over 100 pages of events lined up! Luckily the choice was narrowed down for me as my flatmate's friends were performing in one of the comedy shows, so we went to watch that. A lot of shows at the Fringe are free, so you can watch all sorts at no cost, with so many genres and themes to pick from. A lot of the buildings in the city centre will actually be hosting shows, so there's venues all around you. People often come up to you when you're walking around promoting a whole range of events, so the choice is vast!

Arthur's Seat

After the show, which was thoroughly entertaining, I decided to head off and climb Arthur's Seat, located in Holyrood Park, a 640 acre Royal Park adjacent to the Palace. Within the park lies it's highest point, Arthur's Seat, an ancient volcano that sits 251m above sea level. The weather was pretty warm and sunny, and I just had regular trainers on which made some bits of the ascent a bit slippery! But on the whole it is a pleasant and comfortable hike to the top, with amazing views across the city. When I got to the top, a fog was blowing in from the coast, which covered half the city in this blanket of clouds, which was quite a view. The fog then got a bit too close for my liking and started covering the path down so I decided to make a move then.

ConsiderIt

All this exercise got me thinking about food, and so I visited a vegan dessert place that was recommended to me by my friend called ConsiderIt. They did all sorts, but what I was interested in was the fresh donuts that were baked daily. I got there mid-afternoon, and saw that there was a queue going out of it! That's when you know it's a good place to get some food. I ordered a jam filled donut with an iced latte and was not disappointed! Both the donut and coffee were really tasty, and was nice to see that the vegan options for our favourite desserts were on-par, if not better, than the original!

Street Performances on the Royal Mile

I headed back to the Royal Mile, which by late afternoon was packed with visitors and street performers. There was all sorts going on, from magicians to musicians set up along the street. A lot of it had been pedestrianised too. One performance that stood out was from Matthew Pretty, better known as The Bucket Boy. I've actually seen this guy on YouTube 4-5 years ago getting loads on views, so it was crazy to see him perform in person! He essentially creates a drum kit out of buckets, coins and frying pans, and puts on a show. I met back up with my friends and we walked around taking in the sights until it was time to head back to the station to catch the train to Aberdeen.

Edinburgh-->Aberdeen

With our train leaving from Edinburgh at 7:30pm, we got some amazing sunset views of nature, bridges and the countryside. That's when the tiredness of the day began to hit me, no wonder seeing as I had been on my feet the whole day! We got into Aberdeen just before 10pm, so it was straight back to the flat and to bed for me.

All in all, Edinburgh was a great city to visit. I'd defo go again, and wonder what it's like in more 'normal' conditions when Fringe isn't on. There was a whole load of things that I didn't get round to doing, so another trip may be needed! That's all for this weeks' blog, as always thanks for reading!

PS: Is there something that you'd like me to find out about or explore in Aberdeen in particular? Feel free to send me any suggestions,  to get in touch click here :)