Festive Edinburgh

It was fitting that while I spent August working on my dissertation, a task that had been looming over me since September, the city of Edinburgh spent the month engulfed by the festival, an event which had also loomed since my arrival almost one year ago. When Edinburghers refer to "the" festival, they actually mean the variety of festivals which overlap during the month - all centered around the original Edinburgh International Festival (a classical arts fest, including orchestras, ballets, theatre, etc.). The Fringe is the biggest, lasting this year from the 5th to the 31st, but there is also a Book Festival, an Art Festival, and many more smaller fests.

This year, there was also a pre-festival event at the end of July - a Gathering of the Clans held in Edinburgh as part of the 2009 Homecoming celebrations (2009 being Robbie Burns's 250th birthday). Basically, I got the impression that the whole Homecoming thing is just a tourism marketing strategy to get North Americans to come to Scotland (an interest in family history/tracing your roots seems to be considered somewhat of a strange North American preoccupation by the Brits). That being said, it was kind of neat to watch the Clan Parade up the Royal Mile - mainly because I really love pipe bands and parades:

That's St Giles Cathedral in the background.

Lots of Canadians representing - even my neighbour from Guelph. We cheered at the flags.

I don't know that I have ever seen so many kilts at once.

It was also kind of cool to see my family clans (both are traced back to my maternal grandmother's grandmothers):

The McNaughtons.

And the McTavishes.

My love of pipe bands and parading was more than satisfied by the Military Tattoo. The Tattoo also happens throughout August, on the Castle esplanade (which serves as the Castle parking lot for most of the year). It's a really impressive production - they have bands from all over the world, and they do all sorts of neat light projections on the castle. We went for a preview night (and therefore half price tickets) at the beginning of the month.

The Chinese band.

The best performers of the night couldn't really be captured on film - not from where we were sitting, at least. Called the Swiss Top Secret Drum Corps, this band did all sorts of ridiculous tricks with their drumsticks, including lighting them on fire at one point. The video below is from 2006, but it gives you an idea of how awesome they were:

Since we went on a preview night, there were photographers running around snapping pics. This made for some funny moments: either photogs getting trapped inside marching patterns, or being charged at by marchers. In the photo below, some performers from Tonga are jabbing at them with spears.

And of course, it wouldn't really be an Edinburgh celebration without fireworks. The evening ended very patriotically (as you can see by the picture), with the massed bands playing Auld Lang Syne and (one of my faves) Scotland the Brave.


The fireworks to end all fireworks will take place next Sunday, on the last night of the International Festival. Apparently they're set to music and will last around half an hour. Luckily for me, I have a friend with a flat on Rose Street (in the New Town), with a rooftop patio that has an excellent view of the castle!

Despite being locked up in the library for most of the month, I have done some other festivalling, too. Last weekend we spent a day going to free Fringe comedy shows - getting mostly what you would expect from free comedy shows, although some were decent. At least if you didn't pay anything and the show is bad, you don't feel that you've been ripped off. There are also lots of new bars and patios that have sprung up around the city to support the population influx, so it's been neat to check those out. The only downsides are the crowds, whose leisurely wandering in the city centre makes it difficult to get anywhere, and the show promoters, who are trying to shove flyers in your hand at every step. That being said, it is neat to think that thousands of people from all over the world come to Edinburgh for the festival, and I get to act like a local!

A student no more

As of last Friday, I am a free woman - I handed in my 15,000 word Masters dissertation!

Definitely a relief, as it had been hanging over me for so long. But also strange that it's all over so quickly... and that (pending my results) I will soon have a Masters degree (!!). Weird also to be ending in August - this will be the first September (since I was 4) that I will not be heading back to school.

For anyone who actually cares, I wrote about two novels (Saturday by Ian McEwan, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Basically, I was talking about 9/11, trauma, and the role of narrative in the grieving process. Following in the footsteps of Dissertation Haiku, I'll try and provide a poetic summary, because, as the writers of the blog explain:

"Dissertations are long and boring. By contrast, everybody likes haiku. So why not write your dissertation as a haiku?"

So, here goes:

Images no help
For understanding terror
Use stories instead

Not especially amusing but... 9/11 isn't such an amusing topic (another reason I'm happy not to be reading about it everyday).

Now what, you ask? My job search has yet to pan out so far, so I am still applying to various jobs, and hopefully going to do temp work in the meantime. Tomorrow, however, I'll be heading to Oban on the west coast, where my friends have rented a cottage for the week (I am joining them two days late since I had to work). Should be relaxing, and as long as we don't get torrential downpours the whole time, we're hoping to do some island hopping (Mull and Iona, for example). Then back to Edinburgh for one last weekend of the Fringe Festival! (More on the August festivals to come)

From the New Yorker Book Bench: Haggis Noblius

I've found a way to frantically finish my dissertation AND update my blog - for your reading pleasure, a post from The Book Bench, the New Yorker's book blog:

"From the Daily Mail, a wee bit o’ drama over the “great chieftain o the puddin’-race”—Robert Burns’s name for the dish made from mutton stomach, mutton liver, mutton heart, mutton tongue, suet, onions, and oats. That’s right: people are fighting over haggis! Specifically, over who invented what has long been thought of as a quintessentially Scottish delicacy. The food historian Catherine Brown has claimed that the first printed reference to haggis is in a 1615 book called “The English Hus-Wife.” The first Scottish reference dates to 1747. But Scots are crying foul, claiming that haggis is a Scottish invention introduced to England. One Edinburghian haggis-maker summed up his feelings: “I didn’t hear of Shakespeare writing a poem about haggis.”

The true feelings of the people can be found, as always, in the comments.

From English readers:

• The Haggis (haggi noblius) was introduced to Britain in A.D. 123 by the Emperor Hadrian to control the heather and gorse on the Scots side of his wall, thus denying the barbarian Picts and Scots any cover for attack and ambush. History records that there were few, if any, successful incursions across the wall after the introduction of the haggis. In A.D. 171 the Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, is believed to have said about the haggis, “Truly the knobbliest Roman of then all”.


• As an Englishman I say let the Scots keep it. It’s a horrible, horrible dish and they’re welcome to it!

From Scottish readers:

• It’s not that nice to be honest … But we scots are the only ones who really actually know what it is and really the only ones who eat it. Therefore it is ours.


• Who cares, it is not very nice. Now Scotch pies, they are delicious if made properly.

(Photograph: Walking Haggis, by Spodzone.)"

Click here to see the original post.

Maybe something's wrong with me but... I quite like haggis! Not as something to eat everyday, mind you, but every once in awhile, when it's chilly and dark outside. Maybe it would lose it's charm outside of Scotland.

Gotta love that photo, though. Makes me think of the rather amusing tall tale of the wild haggis, which claims that a haggis is actually a woodland creature. The best part is that, according to a 2003 survey, 1/3 of US visitors to Scotland actually believe that a haggis is a real animal. Sadly, no - just mangled bits and pieces of a real animal. My sister bought a stuffed toy 'haggis' on her visit here - wish I had a picture to post (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, if you're reading this, mum).

Now I'm wondering if I've already blogged about the wild haggis in my Burns Day post. Dissertation-induced mental-mushing strikes again - which means it's back to editing for me...

Exploring the Royal Mile's Closes

Took a walk down the Royal Mile this evening and brought my camera with me. There are so many closes - that's what they call the alleyways which branch off from the Mile - that I feel like I'm always discovering ones that I've never been down before. Some have restaurants, pubs and shops, while others are crumbling and graffiti covered. Either way, they're one of the reasons I love Edinburgh so much - this city has so many layers.

Wardrop's Court dragon.

David Hume statue on the Mile.

My section of the Mile, the Lawnmarket.

The Balmoral Hotel.

The Walter Scott Monument and a tour group.

Typical close.

Gift shop tartan scarves.

Former Bishop's lodgings - note the matching window grate pattern.

Tucked away church garden.

It reads: "Heave away chaps, I'm no' dead yet."

John Knox's house.

Calton cemetery silhouette.

Halfway House pub, tucked (appropriately) halfway down a close.

Scott Monument again, sans tour group.

Writers' Museum.

Gladstone's Land, a restored 17th Century tenement.

My window looks out over this court - Dr Johnson and Boswell stayed here before heading out to the Hebrides.