Athens of the North (Edinburgh in General)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Edinburgh in General
Date:	27/08/04 (864 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Friendly people and great entertainment, Easy to get around, Nice buildings, I liked them

Disadvantages: Crowded during the summer

Scotland’s capital Edinburgh has long been associated with the arts; every summer, millions of overeducated fans of performing arts and stand up comedy spend more money than they conceivably afford on hour-long shows and . I think that’s the case anyway, but it’s possible that I’m just confusing everyone in a big city with just me.

Athens has been described as the Athens of the North, but there are several differences. Firstly, the highland breeze is a lot different from the hot Mediterranean climate (and thus better in my view), and the architecture is less white. Iced Earth have also never played a two-day set there and released the show as a live album. The artistic and cultural background of Edimburgh is certainly enough to rival Athena’s city though, and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, is Greek after all.


TRAVEL


Edinburgh’s city centre is incredible easy to navigate. Seriously, even if you’ve printed off a street plan from the internet and circled areas where your venues probably are, you won’t need it. Buses and taxis are constantly available all day and night, while the traffic is never really an issue as you only ever need to cross the road once.

Heading south from Waverley railway station leads to the Royal Mile and North/South Bridge roads, all housing the entertainment, libraries and artistic places, as well as far too many hotels tucked away in streets to feasibly comprehend, while heading in the other direction reveals the large shopping section of the town and Princes Street Gardens which are probably nice.


ARCHITECTURE


Edinburgh’s skyline is impressive from any angle, with plenty of busts, statues, funky lighting at night (I love lights me) and my personal favourite form of architecture, spiky towers. My personal favourite of these was the Scott Monument on Princes Street (thanks to proxam for identifying it). Throughout the night there was also plenty of building work being done on more modern and equally huge buildings in the city centre, so Edinburgh is still something of a work in progress. Not surprising considering the Hob Nob quality of the walls in the Underbelly venue.


ENTERTAINMENT


My experience of entertainment at Edinburgh is primarily that of the comedy venues, and there are some sodding good ones. From the relatively low-key comedy bars such as the Stand to the converted cinema of the Pod Deco, the courtyard-based arena of the Pleasance or the pretty cool Smirnoff Underbelly, the city centre is arranged so that there’s plenty of time to travel between the venues amidst the one-hour shows. None of the big TV-stand up names would be caught performing throughout the month in these kind of arenas, although fans of Billy Connolly, Lee Evans and Peter Kay aren’t exactly stuck for DVD releases and national tours, but many of the remaining excellent comedians can be found up there every year, along with a stream of quite poor imitators.

Being a large city also entitles Edinburgh to much more impressive and much better facilities and entertainment than the humble towns I grew up in that were fairly rubbish.


ACCOMMODATION


Hotels are going to be expensive in any place with a three star plus rating on Dooyoo, and the larger ones in the centre of Edimburgh are predictably extortionate. The advice I was given a few months ago was to naively and quite dangerously avoid thinking about financial issues while I was up there, but next year I’ll have a student loan to support me, and that’s what they’re for, right?

The hotel I stayed in cost £120 for the night, but it at least kept me off the streets. I was on the streets the second night. I only needed a place to rest my head, but the large bed did somehow allow me a very vivid dream that I’m not going to go into, but that was worth every penny.


PEOPLE


I suppose the Glasgow stereotype is drunk Scotsmen bawling, puking and asking Jimmie to “stitch that,” but the international nature of Edinburgh’s summer meant that I didn’t see much of this kind of thing. Only a bit, and it was quite funny. The people I did encounter were all very friendly, despite their obvious inner frustration at all the arty types coming up and taking over their city in the summer, and the Scottish accent is great anyway. Much better than having an indistinct accent that doesn’t really suggest you are from anywhere, but that still requires concentration to stop dropping ‘t’s on the ends of words. I love the Scottish, even though there are apparently no Scottish women according to one comic I saw. Strange as it seems, that did make me think for a few moments before dismissing it as a silly joke, but I get his point.


THE FRINGE


Dooyoo has a category for the festival, but I really wanted to talk about Edinburgh in general as it is a great place that I will definitely be visiting again. Nevertheless, I was only up there because of the legendary antics of London comedians.

Richard Herring and Stewart Lee were the primary reason I went up to the festival, and their respective shows were completely worth it. Although nothing else I saw came close in terms of enjoyment and brilliance, the Fringe month is dominated by theatrical, artistic, musical and humorous acts to provide something for everyone. Everyone with at least a few hundred pounds to spare for travel, accommodation and entertainment over a few days.


WEATHER


Actually, while I was there the weather was very favourable. Scotland may be associated with strong winds, fresh-faced people breathing that wind in and then getting rained on, but when I went it was pretty much the same as the rest of England. Not too hot, but quite sunny, although this was in August obviously. I don’t think Edinburgh’s actually in Scotland at all; that’s just a ploy to sell the beanie baby rip-offs of Nessie to everyone for £5.99 a time. I know, I’m not buying my brother one of them now.

Next August I might just rent a flat there for a month. It is good, you should go.

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