Edinburgh… Back for More!

I was only supposed to be back in Edinburgh for the night before heading to Glasgow. Four days later, I was actually able to get myself out of the city; impressive, I know.

Three fingers... Nay Garry

I ended up meeting some people on the Highlands tour that asked me to hang with them when we returned to the city. It was only one night as they had to return home Monday. A cool group and we ended up hanging out at a bar next to the hostel that had an open mic night followed by a visit to The Hive off the Royal Mile. It turns out that this is a club not worthy of being a urinal. Case in point, two drunken Scotsmen… This also reinforces my previous posting about the Scottish Napoleon complex. Anyway, one of the girl’s that was out with us, Jess, had some sort of exchange with what I’ll call the guy in the orange shirt. Now… I could really try and explain what happened between them in detail, but I honestly don’t think it will help in the slightest, nor do I really know. Basically, they didn’t like each other. I’ll give credit to TGITOS’s (The guy in the orange shirt, pronounced Tee Guy Toes) friend because he actually tried, at least initially, to separate them. However, at one point TGITOS (That’s… Tee Guy Toes) stood up and started punching his fist into his palm at Jess. I couldn’t believe it and he caught me eyeballing him from where I was sitting. He immediately turned his attention to me and asked if I wanted a piece of him too. I laughed hysterically for a moment and he started to walk toward our group. To clarify positions, Jess was between TGITOS (Say it with me… Tee Guy Toes) and me. I interpreted this as an advance at me, or worse, her (standing 4’11”). To be fair to TGITOS, I really don’t think he had seen me standing up at this point. No matter, once I stood up, he didn’t hesitate with any forward movement. I grabbed the girl, Jess, and slid her to the side of me and was expecting a punch or some sort of manly effort from TGITOS. Nah… Pretty pathetic of a push to my shoulder; I just grabbed his wrist and twisted enough to make him stumble into the wall. At this point, I hadn’t released TGITOS’s wrist and his friend rushed forward to try and push me. I wasn’t having any of that so I used TGITOS himself to balance me a bit, thus further thrusting him into the wall, and proceeded to shove his buddy into the wall next to him. You all probably have this vision of a drunken melee in the middle of a nightclub, but it was really mellow and unless you were staring at us, you probably had no idea anything was happening. Having said that, the Drunk Samaritan came rushing past me from the bar (Drink in hand and slurring) to tell the two dumbasses that were now stumbling against the wall to calm down. That’s when the bouncers approached to throw the three of them out of the bar. That’s correct… not myself or anyone that was in my group. I’m a stealth ninja assassin. Don’t worry, I vouched for the Drunk Samaritan and the staff released him back to the bar for more drinks. Au revoir TGITOS!

Jen, me, and ... Go Lakers!

The rest of the time in Edinburgh was spent back at James’ place. Turns out… the basketball team had its last game of the season Wednesday and there was a team dinner that evening followed by a night on the town. The team played a good second half, but wasn’t able to come back and win the match. Regardless of the outcome, I’m sure it wouldn’t have altered the enjoyment of the evening. A fun night indeed, but far too damaging to one’s liver (I’m sorry my friend…).  Met some more cool dudes and was introduced to a wonderful drinking game that I fully intend to use the rest of my life, when feasible. Thank you Alex! Saint Patty’s was pretty mellow in comparison, so I’d like to think that I carried over the previous evening as part of my Irish celebration. James, Jen, Alex and I were going to hit up a jazz club, but with a 5 pound cover we decided to shift course and enjoy a bar up the street. An evening centered more on talking to each other rather than slamming green beer and stealing Guinness caps, it was an excellent final night to my nearly two weeks in Edinburgh!

A lovely two weeks