Travel Update: First time at the Fringe!

As a (not so recent) graduate, I took a ‘Gap year’, making sure I rested, worked on my mental health and got experience for my C.V. through volunteering and part-time jobs. Of course, the speech I always got was:

You’re young! You need to take advantage of the fact that you don’t have any responsibilities and aren’t tied down to travel the world

Every middle-aged/old person that I’ve met

Now I respect the thought process and the backstory that comes from thought-processes like these. However, not everyone is the same and like mental health, you need to be open-minded enough to comprehend that just because we’re all young does not mean we’re going to backpack across South America (really cool of you if you have tho!)

I’m the type of person that doesn’t like ‘travelling’, which I’ve recently discovered for me is a new location and a hotel room (Sorry, not a hostel kind of gyal). I’ve learnt to accept this about myself and to understand that it’s ok. I travel but in my own way and everyone should have that freedom to do so. I feel the word ‘spontaneous’ is always thrown around when it comes to someone talking about their mental health and this just limits someone even more. ASSUMPTION FREE ZONE! If you have them – THE DOOR!

Now, I have known many people who have performed at the fringe but I honestly never felt compelled to go until…THIS SUMMER! I decided to give myself a likkle 3 day weekend away and my ‘away’ was Edinburgh.

Edinburgh is a BEAUTIFUL place and even though for me I feel a holiday needs to be sunny, I really did enjoy myself. Getting the train up, I learnt that Edinburgh is an amazing place for solo travellers. I did go to see my friend perform and meet them there but walking to and from my hotel, I felt very safe (which I feel is something everyone is concerned about when solo travelling). It just seemed that everyone was so concerned with the festivities, that they paid you no mind (or I wasn’t anyone’s type – either way both a plus for me!!).

Jokes aside I felt I would share my short experience of Edinburgh fringe and hopefully will have more travel experiences to share in the future.