We Ain't Goin' to the Town.....

Edinburgh is a great city and I'm concerned that not enough people know this. Spent last week there with A.,where we had a wonderful time eating battered mars bars - share one with someone before, or in the case of those of you who will try and hog one all for yourselves, while, you die - acting on impulse and keeping a keen eye out for ghostly presences. Edinburgh strikes me as a city that decided one bleak December day in 1649, as a collective urban unit, that enough was enough and, it would evolve no further structurally. I know, I know the nude glass cages are swinging up around Leith with about as much character as Ryan Tubridy, but the inner city is a crumbling yet hauntingly inspiring monument to leaving things as they are.

And why not? Very few parts of Dublin possess as much character as the Cowgate or the Grassmarket, parts of the city where you would not be the least surprised if a trio of filthy bag ladies straight off the pages of an eighteenth century novel, two front teeth between them, began throwing rotten apples at you while cackling furiously. And the Vaults, oh the Vaults. Anyone that is perturbed by the lack of daylight must surely note the warmth of Edinburgh's bowels. We were treated to a highly evocative and immensely entertaining tour by an American whose Blackadder-esque accent very nearly had me convinced. Alas, the plains of Minnesota are as hard to disguise as an Elephant in a public square. If you choose Edinburgh, choose Mercat, for all your touring needs. Hopefully though, you won't be joined, as we were, by any English tourists whose answer to lively debate is to fart theatrically at the tour guide!

For drinks, few pubs rival the olde worlde charm of the World's End pub, situated where the world did indeed end for the poorer citizens of the old town for many generations - Edinburgh was walled, and countless poor souls never ever scaled it.

All in all, an excellent sojourn in austere, patrician Edinburgh. That said, it really is who you chart the landscape with that really counts. Thanks to A. for all the gluttony and laughter:)