Mcfear's Worldwide Adventures: WTF HAVE I DONE???????? :S

well aside from leaving it nearly 2 weeks from the last post, i have actually done quite a bit.

after the last real post which was written in a slightly panic induced state of mind, i posted up stating that i had bought tickets to Edinburgh, Scotland.

well i have since caught that train to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh for me is a pretty awesome place, aside from anywhere else in scotland really, how many places can you walk down the street and pass some guy walking along in a kilt and not having a care in the world, and further more to everyone else walking by its normal.

Where else in the world can you walk down the street and hear bagpipes playing, or see a castle in the middle of the city.

(the castle thing probably a few places)

and finally, where else have i been employed within the UK and actually liked it.

thats the big one for me.
i have a job that i like and i work with some pretty awesome people (and we stock bundy rum in 2/3 of our pubs :D at 2.40 a drink, so much cheaper over here)

So.

Within Edinburgh i have still had some bad times, but the good far outweigh the bad. so lets start with them

I have had the best weather in Edinburgh since arriving in the UK. no shit, everyone says this summers been really weird weatherwise which is more then likely true, but for Edinburgh its cool cause it means instead of rain 24/7 its only rain 20/5 haha.

The people, they're all so helpful and nice.
and the accent. i love the scottish accent, although there have been a few things where i have had to jokingly ask for them to dial down the accent a few times haha.

Work, the owner of the bar has 3 bars/pubs around the city, im working at 2 of them currently which is awesome. One is a regular old boys pub, so every afternoon the locals come pouring in and are just great fun and helpful.

the other place is in the city center and is a cocktail bar which is brilliant except i dont really know how to make cocktails yet. Its a lot busier then the first one which is cool but i quite like the quieter one as its got more of a personal feel to it.

a few of the bads though so far has really been isolated to 2 things.

The edinburgh festival and flathunting.

now these 2 are actually linked. normally flathuntings not so hard to do in Edinburgh, however arriving less then 2 weeks before the Edinburgh Festival makes it so as everyone who has a spare room usually ends up renting it out to festival go-ers for princely sums of up to 500+ pounds a week.

so trying to find a flat or sharehouse for more like 300 a month has proved to be damn near impossible at times, especially when the backpackers hostels are also in on the gig and go from 100 to 230 pounds a week for a dorm room.

230 pounds a week for a 14 bed dorm, its extortion its insane its highway robbery.
but for the 5 weeks of festival, the city goes from around 450,000 people to over 900,000 so i suppose the supply and demand dictates the price goes up quite a large sum, its just a pain in the ass for people like me looking to stay for over the 5 weeks of festival.

i did however find a place.

moved in yesterday after nearly losing it with the landlord but all seems to be good now. the only thing im a bit niggly with is that its a 12 month lease.
so although i have no qualms about staying in edinburgh for 12 months, especially with the amount of work i have available to me, is that if something came up and i had to or wanted to leave then i either have to pay out the remainder of my lease or keep paying it off and use it as a storage or something.
i dunno really,

the good thing about this flat though.

its got a lock on the front door and on my room door (sharehouse), the busses from here are close and go straight past work (1 bus to the cocktail bar 2 busses to the old boys one) and its also cheap.

like, CHEAP. ~220 pounds a month all inclusive.

Didnt have any sheets or duvet or anything though so picked them up today and now am set for well 12 months i spose.

My Room

Still My Room

I have also done last Tuesday (24th July 2012)a few of the tours around Edinburgh.
Both run by the Sandemans group who did a excellent tour. One was the Free day walking tour which was about 3-4hours long walking around the city learning about some of the history and the other was Tuesday night doing the ghost tour which was awesome.

Edinburgh has a really bloody history, from burning and drowning witches to drawing and quartering living people for treason and murder.

heres some pics for those that are living on the edge of their seat through me.......