Why Dublin?

Edinburgh Fringe Festival... so amazing! AzA and I arrived at the airport on the Sunday evening of the 16th August and felt immediately like we were back in Cairns! There was no passport check, and no queue for our bag.. we simply walked straight out of the airport 10 mins after touching down. It was so rural! Danyane and Tim came to pick us up in the campervan they had hired and we all made our way into the city centre of Edinburgh.

We walked around getting a million flyers from people trying to get us to come to their shows but we all just felt like a few drinks at a local pub. We found a great little place called World's End which was pulling pints of ale, so we settled in there for most of the evening. Afterwards we found a weird outdoor festival-built bar which had a really cool vibe. So we proceeded to get even more drunk until it felt like time to get some sleep.

The next day we went for a trundle around Edinburgh with Oor Tours, a Musical Walking Tour. It turned out to be quite good and we saw some lovely back alley areas that you wouldn't know existed otherwise. We of course went for more beers at a bar we passed on the tour before making our way to Ginger and Black... our first show of the Festival. It was quite amusing, not nearly as amusing as our next show Porn -The Musical. I've never laughed so hard at sexual suggestion - there wasn't even any nudity!

After drinking even more, we made our way back to the hotel... and slept.

The next day we headed off in the camper to Loch Ness. We stayed in a great caravan park which was right on the Loch. It had a bar and a restaraunt of sorts which is where we met Bernie. Bernie is about 88 and has seen Nessie 'many times' and claims she lives under Urquhart Castle. He also gave us a free packet of cigarettes and came to see us off the next morning. Thanks Bernie, you were awesome. We believe we saw Nessie ourselves while drunkely (again) sitting by the Loch that evening.

Then we headed off to 'World's End', John O'Groats. It left a little to be desired as the last time anyone had done any upkeep must have been in the early 80's. The Hotel on the tip of the cliff had fallen so badly into disrepair that it had a safety fence erected around it to prevent anyone entering... it was quite sad to see the postcards of it in its heyday where it was whitewashed and a tourist attraction!

After this we headed to our hostel for the evening at Carbisdale Castle. Yes, a real castle, which is now a hostel. It was a magical place... We made some lamb chops for dinner in the kitchen and settled in for some good old drinking. After trying to play English Trivial Pursuit mixed in with German Trivial Pursuit, we turned in.

We headed back through Inverness the next day and stopped at the tourist centre for Loch Ness.... boring.... as all tourist centre's are! Then we headed off to Fort William for some Scottish Games. Not boring! The Caber Toss is where big, burly men lift entire tree trunks in their hands and throw them as straight and far as they can. There was also some Car Pulling of a V8 with the handbrake on and other hilarious feats of strength. We finished the night with a Caleigh, of sorts, and some more drinking.

Liverpool was the last stop before back to Dublin as the camper had to be returned. Danyane and I shopped the town while boys took the camper. We definitely got the better end of the deal as they took 4.5hours to get it done. We saw 'The Cavern' where the Beatles used to play and it apparently looks just the same now as it did then.

Back in Dublin I am wondering - why am I living here when there's so much more out there? I'd swap it for Edinburgh any day!