With all the “OMG 20th Frank Turner Show” excitement I forgot to post about the rest of the time in Edinburgh. Even though there isn’t all that much to tell, which I haven’t shared on social media already while it was happening.
I managed to check off all the things I had planned to do and still didn’t feel like I crammed too much into these two days. Yay me!
After checking into my B&B I walked back into the city centre and scouted out Usher Hall, the venue of Saturday’s gig, on my way. I tried to take a wider berth around the whole Christmas Market in Princes Street Gardens, because it was crowded and I’m not a huge fan of these markets back here at home either, so I really didn’t need to experience them in Edinburgh.
Instead I took the bus to Stockbridge to shop at the Sheila Fleet Jewellery store. During my trip this summer I discovered her beautiful jewellery, bought a ring in Edinburgh at the end of the trip and knew I’d buy more once I’d be back in Scotland. Which happened sooner than I thought :-). The staff at the store was lovely and helpful, even when I didn’t like how the items I was interested in looked on my fingers after all or when they didn’t have an item I had set my eyes on available in my size. I bought a lovely pendant there though and had the chance to buy the swallow ring later that day at their stand in Jenner’s department store.
I had wanted to buy the ring ever since I discovered it on the website, because it so much reminds me of the swallow on one of the Frank Turner album covers, which a lot of fans use as part of a Frank related tattoo. Due to the immunosuppression I’m on to keep my MS in check, getting a tattoo isn’t really advised for me and I honestly don’t know if I’d really go through with getting a tattoo if I didn’t take these meds. Anyway, the ring will be my visible reminder of how much Frank’s music means to me and reminder that “the only thing that’s left to do is live…”
Between my two jewellery purchases I had a lovely afternoon tea at a small cafe on Frederick Street and later on strolled around on the Royal Mile which felt weird doing in the dark. Not scary or anything, but I’ve only ever been there during the summer where it stayed light quite long into the evening, so it just felt unfamiliar. I continued with my plans, which were to visit the “You Are Here” exhibition at the National Library and that was quite a treat for this geographical nerd. It was a rather small exhibition and mostly geared towards younger people in it’s educational approach. But it was interesting and very well curated, so I’m happy I had the chance to visit while it was on display. I ended the day with yummy Indian food before I went home to get an early night sleep.
I needed the sleep not just to be well rested for the gig the next evening, but also because I wanted to get up early-ish to experience the sunrise at Portobello beach. I arrived there around 8:30 which was a bit after the sunrise, but it was still so very lovely. There were only a few people out and about, joggers and dog-walkers and parents with small children. I spent a wonderful 30 minutes walking on the beach, gazing out, taking photos and I followed that up with breakfast at cafe at the promenade with a great view of the beach and ocean. Perfect.
Back in the city I went up to the Castle to finally see it without the Festival stands blocking my view. Oh and look, you can actually look down from the Esplanade into Princes Street Gardens and over Grassmarket on the other side :-). I bought a small present for my goddaughters at the Castle Shop and after that went back to my room to get some more rest before the evening.
And I wrote all about how that evening went in a previous post. So I’m just leaving you with some of my photos…
I love your ‘next best thing to a tattoo’ ring, and the pics of Portobello sunrise. I wen to Edinburgh once in January, and was shocked that standing on Princes Street the sun barely seemed to rise above the castle all day!