The Journey Home

To say I was not looking forward to the trip home would be an understatement. Not only was I having way too good a time to want to leave just yet, but I was facing a very long journey - or, technically, three journeys: Edinburgh to London, London to Dubai and Dubai to Adelaide; a short journey (about an hour and a half), a medium journey (seven hours) and a really goddamn long one (thirteen hours).

To add to the unpleasantness, the day would be starting very early: I had to get up at 5.30am in order to catch the tram from town to the airport - or, at least, I thought I did; turns out I didn't need to be there quite that early, which was a bit annoying since I probably could have used the extra time for (much-needed) sleep. But because the website was unhelpful and the phone number failing to connect, I didn't know for sure when I need to be there, I'd decided I'd better err on the side of caution and get there early. So, I got up, trudged up the hill to the tram stop, and waited for it to appear; eventually, it did.

An all-too brief stay in Edinburgh

Because I didn't do a great deal while in Edinburgh beyond run back and forth between Fringe venues (and the occasional pub) - and I'm going to do a separate post about the shows I saw, so there really isn't all that much to write about, other than to list what I saw and describe the things that I took photos of. Unfortunately, most of them I didn't have the opportunity to actually go inside (or close enough to them to read any signs) to find out what they were, so for a lot of them your guess is as good as mine.

While I don't regret going to Edinburgh during the Fringe, the reality is that it meant I didn't see very much of the city – I got into fringesanity mode, which basically means 'see as many shows as you possibly can'; I ended up going to sixteen in three and a half days. And while that was heaps of fun, I did make the decision that, when I get the chance to come back, it won't be during the Fringe – that way I'll get to go and do all the normal tourist-y things, of which there are many.

The Beginning of the End: Edinburgh

The final driving leg of my journey was the trip from Carlisle to Edinburgh, which was the final destination on my journey; I'd be here for four nights during the legendary Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is very similar in most ways to Adelaide's, only on a far larger scale. It actually was the chance to go to this which began my thinking about travelling all those years ago.

The Misty Moors, the Lake District and Hadrian's Wall

I once again wanted to take the scenic route to see some of the countryside, so after leaving York I wrestled with the TomTom - as I've probably mentioned before, it really doesn't like going anywhere that isn't the quickest route; eventually I gave up trying to manipulate the options and just went with plugging in individual town names that would take me to Carlisle - and set off.

Somewhere along the way I decided it'd be a good idea to record some narration - I wanted to capture what I was feeling at the time, but it wasn't practical (or, a lot of the time, possible) to stop and type notes into my phone.

I don't actually know how I'd go about posting the audio file itself - and it's probably not the best idea anyway; I tend to be a) rambling and b) sweary, particularly when there are cyclists about, or when the TomTom wanted to take me places I didn't want to go.