Hey! from Liam

Hello!

I'm Liam, a junior musical theatre major at SU, and I was born and raised in Syracuse, New York. This summer I've been working, and saving up for Scotland, and getting ready to make the big trip! I'm stopping in New York for a few days before we leave, and seeing a few shows and some friends.

I've been doing a little bit of research on Edinburgh, and the things we should and should not do in Scotland and whatnot. Where the best pubs and restaurants are, and what to see and do while we're there. :)

Here's the top 5 from my other blog "never the expected":

5. Apparently pub crawls down Rose Street are serious fun. Or so says the nice British Man at Borders in the mall who used to play at The Fringe. Edinburgh seems to be a fairly small city. So it's going to be rather easy to explore, I think.
4. The Museums are kick ass. So, I'm going!
3. Apparently everyone wants you to try haggis. ...After a few beers, who knows what I'll do... More on that next month.
2. Touring Edinburgh Castle
1.5. ALL THE OTHER SHOWS AT THE FRINGE. (I'm also going to try and check out some shows in New York that are at 59E59 also going to Edinburgh that are previewing as part of their "East to Edinburgh!" series. I'm excited to see them in New York and again in Edinburgh to see how they change and adapt to their new surroundings.
1. Climbing to the top of Arthur's Seat with a few beers and watching a sunset or a sunrise with a bunch of friends. Arthur's seat is an extinct volcano in the city that has the most incredible views. I can't wait to climb it. :)

Some websites I also found for finding some great stuff in Edinburgh are:
Edinburgh Pubs
This is a listing of all of the pubs in Edinburgh by category.
Edinburgh's Best Restaurants
Pretty Self Explanatory. :) These are the more upper end restaurants, I'm still looking for the more reasonable student-like restaurants, but, I'm sure I'll have much more to tell you once I'm there.

click the picture to enlarge

PS. This is a map from 1870 of Edinburgh which actually has the building we'll be performing in (which was erected in 1850!!) I've highlighted our building with a red square.
(You can find the website I found this map here, where you can also find a larger version. No red square around the theare, though.)

click the picture to enlarge

Here's a map of 2010 Edinburgh with the building also highlighted in red.

So, as we progress and pack, fly off and explore I'll be keeping you updated on all the things that I find on my part of the journey. :D

Stay tuned!