We decided Scotland because in all fairness, we couldn't afford London, therefor we picked the second most expensive city in the UK. Had we no budgetary sense, Edinburgh wouldn't be blessed with our stumbling avoidance of speeding lothian buses.
We interwebbed our way into knowledge where history and the landscape of D&D played a significantly nerdy role in choosing Scotland. The highlands and its unadulterated avoidance of consonants made for a unique blend of oxymoron's, that of foreign English culture and that I, wanted to ride a fucking dragon.
The choice for Edinburgh as opposed to lets say, any other British colonial setting was partly due to our naivety of the British Isle. We didn't have a lot of friends, so we didn't have a lot of informed options.
Somehow we felt a larger city would be of benefit, considering work as a need and not an option meant we favored greater odds in larger populations to help in our begging of menial payed tasks. So a larger city rather than geological preference set the tone for Edinburgh.
You may ask, what about Glasgow? Well, simply put, the wife & I were blessed by A&E Programing some 9 months ago with a documentary on the roaming violent gangs of Glasgow. You may think, 'But you've placed your assumptions on the fine content that is A&E, what if you were wrong?'. If we were wrong, we were a 1 hour choo choo ride away from another major city. 1 hour. This is something Canadian cities have no concept of, like that one girlfriend you had some years back and her definition of monogamy. no clue.
If we were right and still moved there, well then a good old fashioned Glaswegian beating certainly wouldn't have stirred in me the words, 'well at least i was right'. I'm not a sadist by nature you see. I kid, I kid. I like a little biting.
Now you say, 'but chopchop, Glasgow has a great music scene', and you would be right. But there's a fucking castle here.
Our arrival to Edinburgh was marred with the kind of fatigue that affords us the title of properly wonky. We hadn't slept in 29 hrs, the schedule was as follows:
Wake up at 10:00|EST
DEP OTT JUL28 1300
ARR WAS 1630|EST
DEP WAS 18:30
ARR LON 0720|GMT JUL29(0220|EST) - (16.5 hrs)
DEP LON 1300 ARR EDI 1730GMT - (28.5 hrs)
Sleep at 2200|GMT - (33 hrs)
I'm sure others have done worse/ more, but this was still a minor script with 5 time zones, 2 days, 3 countries and 29 hrs later.
Edinburgh's first impression on me was that of a city rushing to get, I don't know where the fuck, but doing it quickly. What baffled me is that the city only has 500k within its limits, albeit within 100.00 sq mi (259 km2)[1]. By comparison, Saskatoon is half the area 144 km2 (55.6 sq mi) and half the population at 202,340.[2]
If you've ever been to Saskatoon you know it isn't the hustle and bustle kind, so why does Edinburgh follow the rule of New York? I would venture to say its the same reason there is no right of way for pedestrians, good 'ol fashioned 'just cause'.
There is that and the fact that we came at the beginning of Edinburgh's festival season. Three weeks of tourists, Scottish tourists, English tourists, Scandinavian tourists. They come with stars in their eyes, wanting to see the greatest in low costs theater and share in the maddening walk that is the tourist lurch. Walk..Slow down a littl..STOP! Walk..Slow down a lit.. STOP!
It is also compulsory to stare up at nothing in particular and everything simultaneously. Very important etiquette.
Now this leaves us in a peculiar place as we, ourselves, are foreigners. Are we as bad as tourists? Depends on if stealing your higher end jobs like cleaning love stained sheets or pulling pints in sultry pubs for minimum wage gets your facism on.
Nonetheless we have arrived and the stories will continue..
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