Perhaps it’s because winter doesn’t feel like Christmas to me – but I didn’t enjoy the festive offerings at the market.
I grew up in the Southern Hemisphere – New Zealand to be exact – where Christmas is strictly a summer affair. There’s no winter warmer drinks or roasted chestnuts – but having moved to London, I’m getting ready for my first ever winter Chtristmas.
As I understand it, part of this experience is heading to a Christmas Market, so while on holiday in Edinburgh for the weekend, I took the opportunity to check out one of the UK’s most popular Christmas Markets.
As soon as I stepped off the train I could see that it certainly was popular – the area around Waverley train station was absolutely teeming with tourists. After a five and a half hour train journey I really didn’t feel like doing battle with the crowds, so we decided to skip the market that day. Instead, we chose to explore on a Sunday afternoon when we hoped the crowds may have thinned somewhat.
There’s no denying the market was beautiful – against the backdrop of Princes Street with Edinburgh Castle perched atop the cliffside opposite there’s a gigantic ferris wheel, a helter skelter and an absolutely terrifyingly tall ‘Sky whirler’ which takes brave passengers 80 metres into the air and spins them around.
I was not quite brave enough for the Whirler and opted for the Ferris Wheel instead. Tickets cost £11, which I felt was somewhat reasonable. As the queues were small at this time of day, my boyfriend and I had a carriage to ourselves which was great, as I am terrified of heights and may have caused some panic if we had other people in with us.
Despite my fear, I did enjoy the ferris wheel’s sedate rotations and gorgeous views across the city all the way to Arthur’s Seat. The weather was clear and calm, offering amazing visibility of the whole of the city – but I was still glad when I was back on solid ground.
By the time we were back on the ground just 10 minutes later, the crowds had grown significantly and moving through the market became like a game of mobile tetris where none of the pieces fit and also frequently stop dead for no apparent reason.
I tried to browse some of the stalls but found myself pinned to the wooden tables by people behind me, which made looking at the wares difficult.
After fighting through the crowds we stopped for some crumble at £8 a portion. I chose apple and my partner got cherry, although it was hard to tell as the watery custard on top completely covered any hint of the fruit below.
The crumble was okay – perfectly adequate for wandering through the crowds but not really anything to write home about, although of course we did both finish our portions.
After that it was time for another first – a mulled cider. I am a huge fan of cider in its original form, so I thought this was definitely going to be a hit for me but oh, how wrong I was. The small paper cups of liquid cost £6.50 and my partners had some suspicious looking bits floating in it which I assume were spices.
Mine was thankfully free of detritus but at the first sip I knew I had made a mistake. It was as if someone had chucked a tin of cheap cider into the microwave then chucked some cinnamon in it as an after thought – metallic and chemically as well as cloying. I am not one to half finish things, but tragically, I couldn’t make it more than half way through the tiny cup before I had to admit defeat and bin it.
A gentle rain had started by this point and the crowds had seemingly tripled in size in the half hour we had wandered through so I decided I couldn’t bear it any longer and we scarpered to the nearest pub for a calm down pint – cold this time.
All in all, I was disappointed by my first market experience but some of that I do attribute to being so used to summer Christmas. Being bundled up in several layers as a misty rain coats my glasses isn’t what I feel Christmas is about – I’d rather be manning a barbeque in a sun dress.
I have the ethos of trying everything twice, so I already have plans to try another market in London. Hopefully the offerings are slightly more inspiring – although I don’t have any hope for the crowd to be smaller.
