Summit County Citizens Voice

By Garrett Palm

I got a haircut today. The barber was not pleased with the festival and the crowds it brings. I did not fear for how my hair would turn out because he seemed like a nice enough man, but he did have a temper. His biggest complaint is trying to drive around the city while masses of people stroll along the already crowded sidewalks and pour over into the streets completely unaware of  car traffic.

Edinburgh is a beautiful and exhausting city to wander. Short cuts lead to stairs, to deep ravines full of hidden shops and then … more stairs back up. This is wonderful if you’re exploring, but exhausting if you have to be someplace quickly.

I have never been on a business trip and I always wanted to travel for work. It is amazing running around and focusing on my job in such a beautiful locale. It feels adult. I am way past the age where I can marvel at something making me feel like I am an adult and I have nothing to say to that.

One of my biggest shocks when I pass out flyers for our show is how many people ask me what is going on around them. High street is full of actors selling their shows, many of them in character and costumes. There are beat-up tooth fairies chained and led like dogs, women playing dead in a pool, desaturated noir characters, and the usual assortment of mimes, clowns and musicians. How anyone got a hotel room in Edinburgh during one of the largest festivals in the world is beyond me.

It is these people and the lost gawkers my barber curses at while driving as his “wee boy” tells him to calm down. By the way, in the UK, they call bangs “the fringe.” Just a heads up.

• Edinburgh – to tram, or not to tram, that is the question