Edinburgh - Fringe Festival and more...

One of the best times to come to Edinburgh, or the worst if you hate crowds, it's during the famous Fringe Festival, usually in August.

We arrived with Kylie, my aussy friend living in Glasgow on a Friday night, just in time for our first Udderbelly show.

I had found a room for both in Airbnb.com which seems the way to go, mainly as there isn't much availability in the city during this time - all of August.

Yep, it's summer, but dream on if your are expecting walking around with a summer dress and flip flops on. This is Great Britain! It's never summer.

'Only about two weeks of summer here' said a taxi driver with a destintive scottish, friendly accent. Abnd the weather, usually just a few degrees lower than London is sunny, windy and rainy all in a matter of minutes, every hour. So yeah, pack the basic umbrella and jacket.

As for the city, it should host a nice sign just at the entrance saying: "Welcome to Harry Potter's village". Most of it's buildings look like Hogwarth, and the city has that muggles vs wizards sentiment, which made my imagination run most of the time thinking instead of seagulls, I was seeing people in brooms flying on top of the Edinburgh Castle. Of course there's ghosts! It's Harry Potter lads! So yes, you can definitely take one of the odd ghost tours, which I had a chance to try ten years ago (not in this lovely opportunity).

Back to the Festival. The Fringe it's all around the city. There's not just one venue but 187 with one show every hour. You do the math, please, as I am too tired to count. There's comedy, cabaret, theatre, musicals, dance...in every pub, cafe, school, university, and any random space to put up a few chairs and fit a bloke in the middle. It's very exhausing, specially for someone as indecisive as me. One walks down the Royal Mile, George Street and Cowgate and get's stacked with a hundred flyers every minute. "Don't make eye contact with any of the flyer tossers if you want to avoid being buried in them" which most of the time are the actors of the shows in their one comedy shows.

Oh, and on top of the Fringe, the Book Festival and military show at the castle, also bring thousands of tourists to town. So please, do book in advance. That's my First tip for you.

Second Tip: Ask for recommendations on what to see and again, book way ahead (two months in advance) as everything good gets sold fast. If you don't know anyone who's been there read reviews, and do not trust the reviews on the flyers or the app. Read reviews ahead.

Third Tip: avoid free shows. We saw three and I must say, I'd never seen so pitiful comedy in my life. And most of them had great reviews on the Fringe App I downloaded in my phone. But maybe I was unlucky, and of the thousand free things, I maybe saw the worst.

Fourth Tip: Download the Fringe app. It tells you where venues are located which I found very useful.

All in all, a bit of a stressfull weekend because of all the pre booking, but very entertaining experience. So of course I recommend it. Plus I love Edinburgh. 

Shows I've seen and my review

PAID SHOWS

-You Once Said Yes*****

-The boy with tape on his Face: More Tape****

-The Horne Selection***

FREE SHOWS

-Jody Kamalli*

-Desperately Seeking the Exit (by an american performer named Marino)**

I rated from 1 star to 5 stars. One is bad, very bad. mmmmh.

And if I have gotten tickets I would have gone seen Doctor Brown who I saw in London and thought was brilliant. But did not book in advance for this and of course he was sold out.

Enjoy!