Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Just had a fantastic weekend in Edinburgh. Went up for the fringe festival on Friday - 5 hours on the train! But gorgeous views over the sea at the top of the country. Sarah (friend from uni) managed to score some tickets to the tattoo show on the Friday night off a lady who couldn't make it, and had booked a year in advance to get them - nice! We had great seats and it was a show of all the pipe bands and highland dancers from around the world - including lil old New Zealand. Who were of course the best, their show was a bit contemporary and lots of fun, they even did the huka for us! Amazing! Makes you feel a wee bit homesick. (I've put some vids up for you to have a look at ). They hold it in front of the castle which makes an amazing back drop, and the weather held out for the night, there was even a full moon!
Got to see quite a few shows across the weekend, some comedy and theatre. Went to a play of a classic Scottish novel (sunset song if you oldies know it :P), and struggled to understand half of what they were saying cause the Scot's accent was so strong!! But learnt some Scot's by the end of it - kirk, bairn, fither..
Joel meet us up there on sat so got to catch up with him which was nice. The main street - the royal mile - was full of street performers and heaps of people, there were lots of great stalls with amazing jewelery (couldn't quite resist the temptation). Edinburgh is gorgeous, with all its very old buildings, hills! and green spaces! A nice change of pace to London.
Went and picked Jen up from the airport this morning - she made it in one piece. It's great to have her here, got a week planned full of fun London times :)
Off to the Notting Hill Carnival this afternoon. Will update you on our adventures :)

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

NZ Pipe band

Edinburgh Castle

Looking over the town

Massive Church

Sir Walter Scott Monument

Tattoo at the Castle

Newcastle Upon Tyne and Bristol

Had a weekend away at the beginning of July up north to Newcastle to visit Joel who is working up there. My first big train ride, which was quite exciting! It is a really pretty town which sits along the river with a whole lot of old school bridges. One of them is very flash, cost about 22million to build and it is only a pedestrian bridge! But it does a cool flip and tilts on it's hinges to let boats through. There are some really old buildings as well, the castle has been around since 1200BC and is still standing! crazy! and there are parts of the old original town wall as well dotted around the city. Joel is living out of the city towards the sea, so got to see the sea again for the first time since I got here, very exciting! You don't realise how much you miss little things like that. Went down to Durham on Friday night, which is about 40mins south of Newcastle. It's a gorgeous old wee town, with cobbled streets. Did some walking round town and saw all the little sights, was a really good weekend. And great to catch up with Joel.
Also got to catch up with Ness who was here couple of weeks ago which was cool. Nice to see someone from back home :) Educated her to my local north London and the famous brick lane curry - very good.

This last weekend went to Bristol, where they were having their Harbour Festival, and a friend's band was playing. Bristol was really lovely, the festival was packed, lots of yummy food stalls, and stages scattered about the town with performances and music. There had fireworks on the Saturday night over the river, looked very cool. On Sunday did a wee adventure out to the beach slightly south of Bristol, and found the Atlantic ocean, yay! From one of the beaches you can look across to Cardiff (Wales), which was so close, crazy that it is another country! The waterfront was typical English seaside with a Pier and carnival rides, and we even had sunshine, and I managed to burn myself. Oh dear, even in the weak English sun! haha.

Work is going well, have been extended till the end of August. So am currently looking for another job after that, but unfortunately it is slim pickings at the moment. So hopefully something will turn up soon. Upcoming events include - Edinburgh fringe festival at the end of august, possible trip to Milan in sept and a roadie/train trip around the UK with Jen. Yay! Lots of cool things to look forward to :D

Bristol

Garden Bristol Cathedral

Inside Cathedral

Bristol Cathedral

S.S Great Britain

Along the canal

Cute Houses

Thats Cardiff behind me!

Seaside

Pier

The Grand Pier

Clifton Suspension Bridge

built 1864

Looking over Bristol