The frenzy begins

Well in a matter of just a 24 hour period Edinburgh is starting to get packed... (must be opening weekend?) street performers and flyer hander outers are everywhere! After rehearsal I took some time to myself to wander about- went down Victoria street, right underneath our venue, and found this incredible gallery with trinkets by local artists and I'm obsessed. Imagine the urban outfitters apartment section but 100 times cooler, European, and artisan crafted. Needless to say I spent a lot of money and I'm sure I'll be back to spend more... To compromise I got a cheap-o dinner but was still enjoyable! I met up with the group to go on a ghost tour in the city's underground vaults... Definitely creepy, and I even got photo evidence of paranormal activity, or so the guide agreed and claimed it was an orb- decide for yourself. (maybe it was just margaret checking in on me) after the tour I was the lone ranger to go out and begin my fringe frenzy- I stumbled upon a girl handing out free tickets to "Kiss Me and You Will See How Important I Am"- a new Irish physical theatre piece. It was interesting, all about young adults and their issues. It was neat to go see something though and I'm looking forward to seeing much much more!!

Quite a busy day outside the USA

After our brief rehearsal in the morning, a group of us headed up to Edinburgh Castle, and found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the most beautiful landscape. Looking out from the castles walls we could see the entirety of the city- and then some! The ocean, the mountains, the buildings- as we were reminded this morning by Joe- " we are doing something we love somewhere that's absolutely breathtaking." and that's the only way to describe it- breath taking. After touring the castle we went down to Princes street and found the gardens, which were again, breathtaking. The girls challenged ourselves to a roll down the hill, which after my collision with a tree, I instantly regretted. There were far too many shops to choose from, and we fell in love with a European forever 21 style store that we decided we better just make a day of some other time. We found a hotel with a great deal on dinner- and my toffee apple crisp with custard was one of the greatest things I've ever smelled, let alone taste. (though I did cash in for some Cadbury later) to kill time we checked out tron- a bar/club within an old church, and got to watch a bit of the Olympics. Then we went to ted's scrubs band show to support fellow SU Drama alumns, and met Graham, our new friend and fringe expert. After the show we got to meet and talk to the guys, and hopefully they'll be able to catch one of our dress rehearsals! Rachel and I dared to take a rickshaw ride home to help out a Scot trying to make money for his trip to America in a few weeks- and after a day of walking our feet were happy with the decision!

It's beginning to look a lot like Scotland...

The views are stunning. Every direction you turn it's just one gorgeous building after the next. I felt like Belle today looking out the window of our rehearsal space with the castle and cobblestone outside. After rehearsal we, as promised, hit up the elephant room with our new friend Emily, where we got to draw elephants that were hung on the wall, feel that much closer to JK Rowling, and sip on some hot chocolate with baileys ;) then we went on a free walking tour with our crazy guide Justin, who showed us the funny secrets of Scotland- such as the peeing horse statue (made of copper- so the rain wore a hole in the soldiers copper head, the statue filled up with water, and the only way they could keep it from falling over due to its weight was to cut a hole in the horses junk to let the water out). We even got to spit on the heart of midlothian for good luck! Thankfully the rain held off until the night time (which made for a freezing walk home) but I'm now back in my room warm and cozy ready to get some sleep before a 7 am wake up call!

Rehearsal

After checking out the sweet continental breakfast at the dorm- which even had vegetarian sausage (and if anyone from camp is reading this, they tasted kind of like egg rolls), it was off to rehearsal we went! We stumbled upon the elephant room, where JK Rowling wrote Harry potter (conveniently on his birthday) so naturally we plan on grabbing some Harry potter birthday coffee on our way home. Rehearsal so far is going great- we changed the entire show, but for the better, and everyone is working very hard! Our theatre is very small, hopefully it will be easier to fill- we've already started passing out flyers to waiters!

birthdays, burgers, beers, and rainbows...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN! 

on our walk over to dinner we were lucky enough to spot a rainbow over Arthur's Seat, which was hard to capture on film, but was quite a magnificent sight! 

we checked out Southern for dinner- I had a delicious mushroom/eggplant veggie burger, we all tried our first Scottish beer (some "organic blonde," which was really quite tasty) and even went in for the "kitchen sink" dessert, which was compiled of each dessert off the menu. 

it was a lovely first evening in Edinburgh- but now it's off to bed to beat the jet lag!

ain't lost- just wandering

as i write this post the Scottish army is marching past my bedroom window playing the drums... just to set the mood.

so today we had one simple task: find fringe venue 40, the quaker meeting house, where we will be rehearsing/performing. this simple task turned into hours upon hours of walking and as the title of this post suggests, not getting lost- but instead just wandering... (and getting lost, but who's counting?)

we stumbled upon the cutest little cafe- metropole- where we grabbed a bite to eat (and hot pink tea in my case) and i am officially suffering my first crush (not  gonna lie, these accents make me swoon in a second.)

we found our way to the royal mile- filled with shops and stands and AWESOME architecture, and we even found the fringe information stand and watched previews of other shows outside. the trek to our actual venue was a bit confusing (mimicked by the confusing weather... it literally pours down rain for 2 minutes, and then will be sunny and beautiful the next 5, rinse and repeat.) but we found it finally, and saw our spot in their own venue guide for the fringe. on the way back home we stopped at a bunch of little vintage thrift stores, and i'm sure we will be making our way back there very soon- the deals are just too good to pass up!

looking forward to starting rehearsals tomorrow (granted we can get back to our space) and getting down to work!

oh, and PS- laptop is up and running, for those who were concerned (aka, me)

We are here, we are here, we are here!

Well, after hours of flying we have finally touched down in Edinburgh and arrived at Pollock Hall, where I have moved into my lovely single room! The campus here at the University is stunning- and I have an awesome view of Arthur's Seat, a giant hill, from my bedroom window. The shower proved to be today's biggest challenge so far- it seemed I could only get high powered cold water, or a leaky faucet of hot water. Also, my laptop won't start up and so I'm a bit worried about that (thank goodness for smartphones or this blog would be donezo) but alas I am here in (sunny- momentarily) Scotland! They weren't kidding about bi-polar weather, we arrived to a nice breezy partly sunny airport, lugged our bags to our room in rain, and now it's hot and sunny again! Hoping it stays nice like this for the rest of the day, we're going to explore a bit and find a good restaurant near by for Brian's birthday dinner! It's refreshing to beat the Maryland heat for a bit... And note to mom- I successfully rolled my two giant bags while carrying a super heavy backpack with no complaints ;)

Til next time!