Hilarity Ensues

In support of Katie Bradley, a fellow PhD'er, Christoph, Kathleen and I headed to Edinburgh on Wednesday afternoon to attend the world famous Fringe Festival. The Fringe is a month long city-wide theatre and creative arts festival. Katie was producing a production of Gilbert & Sullivan's immortal musical The Pirates of Penzance which we were going to see come hell, high water (quite possible with the rain) or medieval road closures (also possible when combining the festival with the ancient layout of Edinburgh).

Our resident Scot Kathleen drove but that did not ensure a smooth trip into the city. Let's just say that I now truly understand the meaning of the word circuitous. We had to be on one road that went OVER a major portion of the city but festival road closures kept sending us on roads either parallel to or UNDER the road we wanted to be on. I finally suggested Kathleen take the next left and we'd deal with where ever it led.... It led to a set of stone stairs. But, hey, the left hadn't included a 'dead end' sign so we drove toward the steps which revealed a smallish street curving to the left, right and up toward a street that eventually connected to the street we wanted! Hooooo rah!

Believe it or not (Kirsten Allen take note) we found a place to park on a side street one block from our theatre. We parked in front of an Indian Restaurant where Kirsten Allen had taken me to dinner when I visited Scotland in 2009. There is, in this hint of irony, the sense that I might just be getting to know this country a bit better than I thought.

The show was fantastic! The cast didn't have a weak voice among them and not a single slow moment. The theatre small and personable which made actor's reactions readable and the play even more enjoyable! I'd go again - except for the hilarity that ensued.

Turns out I am directionally challenged - or so says Kathleen. I beg to differ and have yet to be proven wrong with an actual map. You see with the restaurant, the Royal Mile (down the center of town), Edinburgh Castle, Waverly Train station and our theatre I had enough points of reference to orient my mental map of the city and I WILL SWEAR with my dying breath that Kathleen drove SOUTH through the city and then EAST around the Castle before heading WEST again - past Castle Hill (on our left) and the Firth of Forth [or the Forth of Firth - I can never remember] (on our right). Once past all that, and over several roads I KNOW we drove into town on (going exactly the same direction as when we came in mind you!). We finally headed NORTH over the A92 bridge back toward Fife and home.

I SWEAR ON A STACK OF KING JAMES VERSION BIBLES THAT THAT IS THE WAY WE WENT - however, I must admit, that my observations and Kathleen's explanations sounded very much like Laurel attempting to give Hardy driving directions based on their 'Who's on First' routine - even Christoph, our resident German thought so. In the end, I laughed so hard that I lost at least five miles of the journey to tears in my eyes and lack of oxygen! Kathleen has had to take a day off to recover. I plan to head to the bookstore tomorrow and buy myself a concise Edinburgh street map for my next foray SOUTH to the capital... Edinburgh is still SOUTH of here and Dundee NORTH - as far as I can recall.

Then again - it's not an adventure if everything goes according to plan!