Donde Esta La Biblioteca? Otra Vez

Our tenth day in Europe was one hell of a day. Norrie cooked us a hearty breakfast and as the Spanish would say, “salimos rodando,” “we rolled out” onto the misty Royal Mile in our matching rain jackets. We walked around the area and eventually found ourselves in the Edinburgh equivalent of a Book People perusing the interesting UK selection of books. We left Blackwell Books thinking that day was going to be the typical kind of day where you don’t brush up against, and make direct eye contact with, one of the biggest movie stars of your generation. We were wrong.

You know that kind of glance you give people as you walk past them on a crowded sidewalk? That instant of pure investigation, as if you were checking to make sure they weren’t someone you knew. Just as Lauren and I came upon a congested segment of the sidewalk with both lanes of people squeezing around a long bus stop line, we both found ourselves chest to chest with Tom Hanks. For the first millisecond that my eyes met his they were empathetically suggesting “Oh geez – crowds suck, right random dude I don’t know?” The unspoken message very quickly changed to “OH MY GOD YOU’RE TOM HANKS!” I would’ve had no way of knowing what my face looked like if Lauren hadn’t turned around with the same shocking expression bursting from her skin. We both were completely floored.

Back on the Royal Mile, the street was lined with miniature stages exhibiting live music and plays presented by mostly amateurs, but a few entertaining acts in between. It was still raining, so we decided to pass the time with a stop at Elephant House, better known as the café (brace yourself, Natalie) where J.K. Rowling began writing Harry Potter!

In association with the International Fringe Festival, we had purchased tickets for The Bacchae, a play featuring Alan Cumming (imdb him) as Dionysus. Before the play, we headed to Norrie’s vegetarian restaurant recommendation, David Bann, where we feasted on vegan delights at a good price despite the upscale ambiance.

A cab dropped us off in front of a theater crowded with old people. Finding our seats felt like being lost in Del Boca Vista. Our fears concerning the entertainment factor were quickly disbanded when, during the first few seconds, Alan Cumming (Dionysus) is lowered down, up-side down and bare ass. From then on it was nothing but brilliant Greek tragedy; angry lovers, murderous rampages, corrupt gods, and decapitated heads.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 11:09 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.