Missives From Isolation #15: Across the Wall

I just spent a few days in Edinburgh for a little holiday. It’s far from my first visit – 3 Fringe shows and two Fringe visits are firmly etched in my memory.

But this is the first time I’ve seen Edinburgh as… just Edinburgh. The Fringe is a wonderful thing, but it’s like a city of its own. The streets are heaving, every building is festooned with banners and posters, and you can’t move for hopeful/jaded/exhausted actors handing out flyers.

Edinburgh in Fringe time is a riot. Edinburgh on its own is lovely.

[image error]I’m not sure I’d ever seen the actual floor of the Royal Mile before this photo.

There were still plenty of people, but compared to the Fringe it was nice and quiet – not the eerie silence you get when all the shows close down at the end of August, but a pleasant, peaceful quiet.

We spent three days walking around happily, bouncing from tea-shop to bookshop to nerdy cocktail bar – and it was just lovely. We didn’t get accosted by actors (and nor did we have to flyer ourselves, which is always welcome). We just got to relax.

[image error]Armchair Books off Grassmarket. Go there. Literally heaven.

Edinburgh is great. I love the Fringe, and I look forward to its return. But I feel like the city honestly needed the break from its annual month of madness. And that’s just fine.

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