TINY DANCER

I don´t know if I have mentioned that weather on that August monday was glorious. Blue skies, soft cotton clouds and I was there, queuing at some small place in the New Town to get myself inside a tiny theatre to watch a one-man show. And I had bought the tickets on a whim and I was wondering if I wasn´t going to be better off sitting on the park.

I think there was around 80 seats. It was a third floor, and the stage was full of flowing white veils. It was a sold-out performance, and once everybody sat, an svelte man dressed in pyjamas came out and launched into a mesmerizing performance. Ricardo Melendez was a dancer at the Alvin Ailey American Ballet Company, and it shows. It begins at the psychiatric hospital where Njinsky is interred due to a nervous meltdown, and it tells his story from boyhood across stardom. The sister, the protectors, the ballerinas, Diaghilev, the wife ... He played all the characters, simply by changing voices and demeanour. A bit of a hush in the audience when he shed all clothing (a few complained afterwards ... probably they hadn´t read the brochure when they booked and then felt offended). At the end there was a terrifying silence and everybody broke into applause. It has been years since I have been so touched by a play. A marvelous story.

And continuing with the dance theme, I had to be at the Festival Hall by 7 pm. "Impressing the Czar", the William Forsythe choreography was being brought back to life by the Flanders Ballet. So, I went back to the hostel, changed and run away from the irish creepy man who was telling everybody how he had been "robbed" by the scalpers (he had paid more than 100 pounds for a Tatoo ticket).

I tried to have something to eat before entering. An indian place around the corner that a friend had spoken about was full (and with people queuing in the street), so I ended in "Always Sunday" with a bowl of curried parsnip soup. Very, very good.

My seat at the Festival Hall was in the 4th row. It was way too near to the stage, and I had to force my neck in order to have a decent view. A very nice scottish lady sat at my right side, and we chatted about the festival and the different plays. She had been so lucky to have seen Nureyev back in the Seventies, and lots of great dancers.

OK, and now to the play or whatever it was ... Strange, that´s the only way of describing it. First and third act a bit confusing and difficult to follow. Wonderful, wonderful second act ( the well-known "In the middle, somewhat elevated". It stuck out as something different and separated from the total) and too energetic last act. It was fine, but I think that I have seen better Forsythe things ... and also I happen to love our very own Compañia Nacional.

It ended up fairly late, almost 10 in the night, and I had to get back to my hostel and get everything ready for the next day and the beginning of my Orkney Tour. The night was very mild, and the walk down along the North Bridge and the Balmoral hotel was lovely. Once in the hostel I found the room full with 4 young japanese girls typing furiously in their laptops (the hostel had free WiFi). Kids ... lugging equipment all over the world instead of a nice pair of sandals.

POTTER FOR BEGINNERS

When I saw that one of the plays at the Fringe Festival was "Potted Potter", I knew that I had to be there. An reduced version of the first 6 books in only one hour. It sounded like fun (although my dear siblings maintain that it is more of a "nerdy" thing. They kept calling me "friqui" all the time).

So, there I went climbing again the road into the Plaisance area. The queue was pretty bad at this point, and I still had more than half an hour to wait to get into the theatre. Lots of kids, but also grown-ups and an american group all dressed-up as the HP characters (I forgot to take a picture, so sorry about that ...). There are a few bars in the area, so you won´t go thirsty while waiting. As I was on my own, I was able to get a very decent place near one of the Quidditch loops. There were a lot of kids, true, but there were also many grown-ups as myself, both in groups and alone.

The whole thing is advertised as a parody. It is a bit of a panto and the two guys doing it ( I think they are "Blue Peter" presenters) are quite funny. It´s not, certainly, something for people who take their love of the Potter canon to extremes (the group dressed as wizards came out grumbling about it). But if you like silly jokes,you will be able to enjoy it, even if you are not really a Pottermaniac. They try to reduce the 6 books to one hour, with only two actors because one of them spent all the money they had for casting (get inside joke about all the british acting class luminaries appearing in th Potter films) in a marvellous dragon for the 4th book. In the meantime, one of the guys is supposedly reading the last book and will tell all at the end. So, the audience is divided between Gryffindor and Slytherin, the archenemies houses at Hogwarts. We got two warthogs representing the castle ( did you get the really bad joke?), we got questions about how could it be that Dumbledore, the greatests wizard of our time, went into teaching, we got a plastic dragon ( and no CGIs were used), we got an analysis of "Snape, good or evil?", we were informed that the last book was "a blood bath !!! ". There was a Quidditch game and Gryffindor score 1 goal, and although Slytherin caught the Snitch (a giant yellow bird), the actors decided to cheat and give the win to Gryffindor (first time anyone had gotten a quaffle through the hoops). Slytherin got drenched in water, for losing, and Gryffindor too, because nobody likes smug winners. Add to that an arousing rendition of "I will survive" ( with a Voldemort in red little horns ), and it was really, really good fun.

My next play was in an hour. I had bought a ticket for "Nijinsky´s last dance" on a whim that morning, and I had to walk down and up to the New Town, and find the Assembly place where it was being represented. It wasn´t far away, but it was a bit of walk, and I had to forget about sitting down for a coffee on my way. A frappucino at Starbucks had to be, while I was humming "I will survive".

EDINBURGH PICTURES

Here you a link to my picasaweb account and you can see some of the pictures I took during my stay in Edinburgh.

http://picasaweb.google.com/covaderegil/EdinburghAugust2007

I am in the process of labelling them with names and descriptions, but you can have an idea of what to expect up there.

FROM EUROTRASH TO CARLTON HILL

My first encounter with the Fringe was going to be an australian extravaganza based on our very own Eurovision festival.

I had returned to the hostel after my Blue meal in order to get ready, and I met a "creepy" irish guy staying in the lounge room. I don´t know if you have previously experienced something like that, but it was like a blast from the past. He was certainly older than everybody around, and he looked as if he had had a few beers already. He kept asking every single girl around where they were from, and upon hearing the country he was deciding that " Spain means Barcelona, Italy means Roma, Australia means Sidney", he was asking how was life there, improvising songs and asking if you would invite him to stay at your place. I had forgotten that I didn´t like the song "A pair of brown eyes", not at all. What I did find interesting was the fact that the couple of americans in the hostel found him nice and lovely and oh so sweet, while the rest of the people were absolutely terrified. So, I think that almost everybody exhaled a huge breath when he was sent towards the Military Tatoo, after having been convinced by one australian guy that all the shows were fully booked out.

Anyway, off I went to climb the Edinburgh hills towards the Plaisance Grand, where the Eurobear was being held every night. There was a long queue, and there was also a bar outside where you could buy beers and mixed drinks to get into the auditorium. There was a group of girls giving out stickers so you would know the country you belonged to, and you could buy "clappers" and little flags to wave around. I ended up belonging to Sweden (bad omens after all these years). The spectacle was hilarious. It was supposedly hosted in "sunny Sarajevo", with two presenters and 10 countries competing fulfilling all the expected quirks. So, we got a boy band from Russia, a Björk lookalike from Iceland, a ridiculous Bono from Ireland (I should shut up, because there was such an amount of irish people in the audience, that he won) ... I should say that the "faux" post-industrial rock german group was pretty good, and I would have liked to hear more of them. It was great fun, specially when the voting arrived ( Royaume Uni, deux points ). Most of the people were able to join in and send SMS.

Monday came with bright blue skies. While I was sitting in the lounge having my breakfast, I discovered that the irish guy had indeed gone to the Tatoo and had been fleeced by an scalper. He paid something like 100 pounds for a ticket. Way too much for me.

I first went to the Fringe Half-Price booth. I had hoped to get tickets for "Teenage Kicks", the play based on John Peel´s life, but mondays was their day off. I sat down at one of the computers there, and looked for things going on during the afternoon. I found that "Njinsky´s last dance" was on that day, and I got one of the last tickets. The computer tent installed there is very handy when you want to check what´s going on and buy your last minute tickets. Then you just walk up to the counter with your credit card and they give you the tickets.

And then I began to walk around town. First up to Carlton Hill. The day was amazing, with blue skies and scattered clouds, and the views were resplendent all around. One of the things that I noticed during my stay in Edinburgh is that nature is very, very near to the town. The hills are just there, so bare of trees and so full of heather that you cannot really believe it when coming from a congested big city.

I continued my meandering through town, and I went looking for the new and polemic Scottish Parliament. I don´t really understand all the fuss. A very interesting building, but I couldn´t see how it was disturbing the town architecture around it (I saw far worse things). I specially liked the windows.

Nearby I grabbed a roasted pepper and salami roll (very, very good and freshly made in front of me), and headed back up to the Pleasance for my dosis of "Potted Potter".

Ps. I lied. Quidditch in the next instalment.

EDINBURGH

It was a long time since I didn´t know what to expect of a place. And Edinburgh managed to do it.

I had seen some pictures before ( Carlton Hill, Princes Street Gardens, the Walter Scott monument, air views of the Castle with the Tatoo going on ... ), I had studied diligently the city map, I had heard tales of friends going  there (mostly because of work ... the Solectron product transfer was quite busy), but I really didn´t know what I was going  to find.

The most recent time I can remember feeling that way was during the sailing towards Santorini. I couldn´t stop looking around all those small isles and sensing its newness, and my couple of days wandering (and sometimes running) around Edinburgh brought me a very similar feeling.

So, I left you after my visit to the Naked Portrait exhibition. I went to pick up the already booked tickets ( EUROBEAT and POTTED POTTER at the Fringe, and IMPRESSING THE CZAR at the Festival), and I walked up towards the Royal Mile. It really was "walk up" ! The difference between the hill where the Castle is located and the New Town is palpable. Middle Age against georgian architecture, but all of it in a dark grey stone that shone under the fine rain.

It doesn´t matter how much you have read about the Festivals there, nothing prepares you to the amount of people and the street performers and the general buzz permeating the whole place. The city is alive and even under the rain, there is a spark (and it helps against the too-many tacky souvenir shops and the omnipresent piper with its "Danny Boy" music ... I used to love that song, not any more).

I walked along the Royal Mile and decided against having lunch (I had too many things to do and see). So, following a recommendation from a friend, I walked down to "Blue" ( Atrium´s little brother ) and I booked a table for an early pre-show dinner. It was a bit expensive, but it was lovely. I had wild smoked salmon and then loin of pork with stewed pears. I must admit that I overindulged with the glass of Billecart-Salmon Rosé (but what´s a girl got to do when she sees it in the wine list?). I had had it before with smoked salmon, and I knew that it was exactly the drink to go with it.

Next time : show reviews or how I managed to sit in Gryffindor and win the Quidditch match.

ON MY WAY TO EDINBURGH

I left Madrid on the afternoon of the 18th of August. It was hot, and I was wearing jeans, polar fleece and mountain walking shoes. And not a single cloud in the sky. So I was hot and cranky, and listening to the taxi driver intending on meeting upon my return to Madrid (I wondered if he had ever looked at himself in the mirror, but he wasn´t an Adonis) wasn´t helping.

It did help that there wasn´t almost a queue to check the luggage, but when I was ordered by security to take out the shoes ... specially given that a whole group of "borrokas" had been allowed to get through with the heavy boots on ... And then there wasn´t a single ATM in the T1, and there were works, and the cafeteria at our gate was closed down. We boarded on time, but had to wait because 5 passengers hadn´t arrived and they had to take out their luggage.

I had paid for "Speedy Boarding", and it was nice to be able to board in the first group.

The flight was uneventful, and the luggage came out pretty quick.

I took the Gatwick Express into Victoria, and then headed out to my place for the night, Cartref House. I was soaking wet by the time I arrived there, and it is nearby. I had a flight to Edinburgh at 10:00, so I decided that I wanted someplace near Victoria and not too expensive. It was a recommendation from an american "web acquaintance". I should have known than one of those misty-eyed americans recommends you a place because it is quaint ... unless you know them pretty well, it means small rooms, nosy neighbours in the breakfast room and bathroom down the hall. My room was en-suite, but it was absolutely tiny, the bed was way too soft (what´s with anglos and soft beds?, I want a hard one), and the bathroom was really small and carpeted. Anyway, it wasn´t too expensive, but I don´t think I would recommend it for a long stay. I hope my american friends will understand me, because I know they have been victims of the same kind of well-meaning recommendation.

On Sunday morning I headed out to LGW for my flight to Edinburgh. The only memorable things are the awfully bad capuccino I was served, and the amazingly glamorous Tom Ford sunglasses I didn´t buy. Ah, and landing in Edinburgh looking upon the Firth of Forth.

Getting the bus into town was easy, and in less than half an hour I was dragging my suitcase across Princes Street and down Dublin Str towards my hostel for those two nights.

It wasn´t difficult to find, but by then I had realized that Edinburgh has been built upon hills ... and I was going to end up quite tired by the end of my stay.

The hostel was a small place, very easy-going, similar to the independent hostels I remembered from Ireland. I was in a small room with 8 bunk-beds (female-only), there was a lounge with a computer and where breakfast was available in the morning. It was in the basement of a georgian house, just around the corner from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

I left the suitcase, and headed out to the gallery ( "The Naked Portrait" exhibition was on ), and afterwards I went to pick up my tickets and get trapped by the amazing and incredible thing that are the Edinburgh Festival and the Fringe. There were moments when I almost couldn´t breath. It was so absolutely exhilarating ...

Back in Spain

I know I promised a more or less daily blog, but I was counting on an easy internet access ... and it wasn´t so ...

Nevertheless, I have kept a sort of a diary, and I intend on updating this blog during the next couple of weeks.

Bye, Cova