|
|
|
|
Articles
|
|
|
Articles |
In Edinburgh for the FringeAccommodation, Travel and FoodDateline: 21st July, 2002 Are you a Fringe virgin? Will you be going to the Fringe this year for the first time? Yes? Well, welcome to our first-timers' guide to the Edinburgh Fringe, the world's biggest arts festival. Accommodation Let's be brutally honest: if you haven't booked your accommodation by now, you're going to have to go a long, long way out of town if you want to stay for more than a night or two, particularly if you don't want to rough it in a backpackers hostel. Of course, it might be possible to get the odd night in the centre of the city, but you'll probably have to swap digs frequently. Try the message board at the official Fringe site: you may get lucky! How to Get There Being Scotland's capital city, Edinburgh is well-served by road, rail and air, and so is easily accessible from the UK and abroad. Regular buses (and, of course, taxis) run from the airport into the city centre. If you come by car, do check that your accommodation has parking space. If it hasn't, you could be in for a lot of grief unless you are well out of town. Travel by rail is the easiest. Waverley Station is right in the centre and buses are pretty close by. There are loads of taxis, too, but you could spend a long time waiting in a queue! Personally I always get the train, even though I live two hours away by car. Travel in Edinburgh Do not, for goodness' sake, expect to travel around the various venues by car. I did it once, many years ago, and spent more time moving the car from parking meter to parking meter than I did watching shows - and even more time trying to find a free meter! Buses are frequent and run throughout the day and night. They are also reasonably priced but do have the correct fare ready: they do not give change and many drivers have taken master's degrees in being rude to tourists - don't give them yet more ammunition! Taxis are common and fairly reasonably priced. Edinburgh taxi drivers are usually chatty and friendly, but be warned that for much of the day traffic in Edinburgh is extremely slow-moving and you'll spend more time stopped at traffic lights or in jams than you do moving - but the meter continues to tick. I once sat for fifteen minutes in a taxi trying to turn into Lothian Road on the way down from Morningside. More went on the meter at those lights than for the rest of the journey put together. Walking is easy, unless you are going to one fo the far-flung venues. Edinburgh is hilly and walking up the Royal Mile or the Mound can be a bit exhausting at the end of a hard day's theatre-going. Plan your venues as carefully as you plan your shows. Try, for instance, to stay in the Old Town and Southside one day and the New Town on another. If you do travel by taxi, traffic bottlenecks are Lothian Road and Princes Street, and remember that High Street is closed to traffic for most of the day, so detours (which add to the cost) are necessary. Food From posh and expensive to cheap and cheerful, Edinburgh has a vast range of eating places. There are Chinese, Thai, Indian, French and Italian almost everywhere you look, plus a sprinkling of even more exotic cuisines. Vegetarians are reasonably catered for. Restaurants stay open late: I've sat down to a full evening meal at just short of midnight and I've seen people still thronging restauarants and cafes at two in the morning. Most venues have some sort of food available, from snacks to full meals. The Pleasance has a number of eating places, offering everything from a hot dog to a full meal, whilst the Assembly always has an interesting selection, the style of which changes every year. You'll also find some interesting Eastern European food (and drinks!) in the bar at the Hill Street Theatre. There are lots of pubs offering good food - Rose Street (just behind Princes Street) is particularly well-served. Princes Street itself is emphatically not a place for eating, unless you like burgers of the Burger King/Macdonalds variety or you are willing (and able!) to pay the high prices the hotels charge. However, not far off the west end of Princes Street, just up Lothian Road, round the corner from the Traverse and opposite the Lyceum, is the Jasmine, in my humble estimation the best Chinese restaurant in Edinburgh. It's one fault is that it is always packed. A word of advice: stay away from the High Street, not because the food is poor or even too expensive, but because the street is always crowded and the restaurants full. Nicholson Street is a good place to eat: the Ayutthya (a small but excellent Thai restaurant) and Suruchi (a fine Indian restaurant with live music and a menu written in "braid Scots") are both there. It is also home to Pie Maker which, once tried, you will keep returning to time after time. Calling it a pie shop is like calling War and Peace a short story! It is perfectly situated for those seeing shows at C (in Chambers Street) and Venue 123 (in Infirmary Street). Staying in the snack vein, look out for the two crêpes kiosks in front of the Usher Hall in Lothian Road and in the Grassmarket: their banana and chocolate crêpes are out of this world! But what of the theatre? I hear you ask. That's what the Fringe is all about. Cut to the chase, Lathan! OK: that's the next page. Articles Indices: |
|
|