peas with honey

Edinburgh 8/12/03

Well, I had a fun day yesterday despite my initial misgivings about the people I live with. I went to the grocery store (which was like a super walmart or something) and had a great time. I bought a box of this Bart Simpson cereal called EAT MY SHORTS. The cereal is shaped as little pairs of shorts!! They love the Simpsons here and you can buy sparkling water and snacks with Simpsons characters on them. It's really weird. They also have this natural flavored sparkling water with no added sugar (for diabetics) that is really good. I had some peach water that was amazing.

After the grocery trip I went into the city center with one of the comics. We went to the Edinburgh Book Festival and had a look around first. It was really cool, Susan Sontag was there and I saw a guy with an extremely long neck (part giraffe). Afterwards we walked in the park surrounding the castle where there was a band stand and a floral clock that had won all sorts of prizes at the Chelsea flower show. I struck up a conversation with this really charming Scottish fellow (wearing a tartan beret no less) who told me
about the floral clock and explained that he'd been in the Scottish army (they have one?) during world war II and had guarded the castle.

Edinburgh is very hilly. I read last night that it is built on seven hills (just like Rome). Anyway, there is an extra large hill called Castle Rock which, you guessed it, has the castle on it. The castle totally looked like a medieval castle (I'm going to visit it today) from the outside and there are sheer cliffs on three sides of it. It looks like it was the perfect fortification in its day. There is a road between the castle and the royal palace (called Holyrood) which is on higher ground so, naturally, its called the High Road.

We walked on the High Road where there are a lot of tourist shops and where the official Fringe Festival offices are. There are also a ton of street performers there who were really good. (I can't wait to go by myself when I can watch them as long as I like without feeling like I'm holding someone up
and where I can go into all of the shops and check stuff out.)

The people here are really friendly and I've struck up conversations almost everywhere I've been. The other comics think I'm sort of weird for that but who cares. These people are really helpful and nice and their accents are funny (I'm starting to understand more and more and I'm getting really good with my impersonations).

I went to the show again and it wasn't that good last night. One of the comics insulted the audience and it was all over after that. What an idiot. I met these three performers who do a show in an adjacent venue at the same time and I'm going to try to see it tonight. They have a flea circus!!! It
sounds so fun! I really want to see the flea being shot out of a canon. heh heh.

Edinburgh 8/11/03

I'm in Edinburgh and another comic told me about the local library where I could sign up for free internet access. So...here I am!! I'm not performing until Wednesday because there are still other comics here who are part of the show for the first two weeks. So, why am I here right now? I'm not really sure. It does give me time to explore and run around town and figure out where everything is. They had a tremendous heat wave here last week but its drizzling and cool this morning (I'm happy because there is no such thing as air conditioning here).

It really reminds me of germany here but, unlike germany, I can't understand a thing these people are saying and they are not as clean as the germans. It also is hard to find a cup of coffee here, only tea (with milk). (By the way, the fake Scottish accent I was doing to you guys on the phone before I
left actually wasn't too far off the mark - I think I need to yell a little more though.) Like London, there are a lot of pubs here. Unlike London, it isn't cool to be English. Apparently a good way to get your ass kicked is to wear a MADE IN ENGLAND sign on your back. I went to a posh cafe for dinner yesterday and had italian food because scottish food is horrendous. By the way, I don't know where the quote marks are on this keyboard so I can't use that tool to exhibit sarcasm.

I miss you guys already because I know what we would be doing if we were together. It looks like I'm on my own for most of this because, while some of the comics seem cool, they are all basically interested in hanging around the house all day and sleeping and staying out all night drinking and meeting people to have sex with. I've never really been into that (maybe that's why I'm single) and I've got stuff to see!!! I'm also a little older than a lot of these people.

Take care and I'll probably send another update tomorrow. This might be a good morning routine (there's a bakery near here).