Hello from Edinburgh! We . had a couple of very steamy days in London, then hopped on a train bound for Scotland. We are here to immerse ourselves in the craziness that is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and enjoy this magical city.

We had a couple more days in London to take care of a few things and see one more show. The weather definitely took a turn for the extra warm and most places in the UK don’t have air conditioning. But we managed to sleep ok anyway. The play, Stereophonic, was really interesting—the story of a band in the 70s trying to record their second album before things go seriously south. It’s not a musical but it is filled with music. We enjoyed all of our theater experiences that we had during our stay in London. But it was time to leave London behind. Off we went to Euston station to take the train to Scotland.

The month of August in Edinburgh is absolutely nuts, with multiple festivals going on at the same time as well as the big spectacle of a show at the castle (the military tattoo), which is probably cool, but not really our thing. There are a million visitors here this month. We focus mostly on the Fringe, which is the world’s biggest arts festival and boasts something like 4000 shows on the program. We spent two weeks here in 2019 and it was our first time to the festival. We had so much fun and learned a lot about how to pace ourselves and find what we enjoy the most. We didn’t keep a very accurate record then, but we estimate that we saw something like 70 shows. This time, it probably won’t be that many, but we are still pretty busy. The Fringe has been great so far. Here are some of the highlights so far:

• Our very first show was Tony-Award winner Laura Benanti’s one-woman show called “Nobody Cares”. It was 10/10.
• Lots of comedy—Irish, Scottish, American, Australian, English, Canadian, and some assorted Europeans. Most have been quite good.
• Author, mathematician, and first-class nerd Matt Parker. His show was called “Getting Triggy With It”.
• A History of Punk with Andrew O’Neill. It turns out, we know very little about punk music and we felt bad because we ended up sitting in the front row. It was still an interesting show.
• A crazy sketch comedy duo called Finlay and Joe who were working their guts out in a boiling hot room. It was funny and creative and fun.
• An amazing musical about musicals.

Nathan learned that the central library has a couple of pianos that he can use, so that’s nice for him to do some practicing. We walk about a half hour to the Royal Mile every day to see all the streetperformers (musicians, jugglers, dancers, acrobats) and to find our way to the shows we have planned for the day. There are always people out on the street handing out flyers to advertise their shows (they call it “flyering”), so you end up with a stack of paper every day. The crowds can be draining sometimes, especially if you are trying to get somewhere on time, but it’s mostly fun! There are plenty of spots to sit outside and have a drink or a bite to eat and most people are just excited to be part of the energy. The shows take place all over town, pretty much wherever they can find space. Sometimes they seat hundreds of people and sometimes it’s a dozen. Here are examples of venues:

• Lecture halls or gym space at the university
• Office space with chairs set up inside
• “Caves” underneath the old buildings in the middle of town
• Back rooms and basements at a bar or pub
• Tents, yurts, and shipping containers in a public square 

In addition to sitting and watching people perform, we just enjoy being in this gorgeous city. The architecture is so beautiful and there is so much history here. The weather this week has been uncharacteristically warm and sunny and we are enjoying it while it lasts. There are also some great places to eat. Every time we visit Edinburgh, we love it a little bit more. More to come!