The Arches

When I heard there was a new statue of a bear in Princes Street Gardens, I got pretty excited, and then I heard his backstory and I couldn't wait to meet the guy!

It was a lovely warm evening, so we decided to walk through the gardens on our way into town, so we could stop off and see the statue.

Wojtek was a beer-drinking bear who was adopted by the Polish army, and made an honouree solider, after helping carry ammunition. After the war, he moved to Edinburgh to live in the Zoo

I thought Padding Bear was cool but eating marmalade is not as awesome as drinking beer!

In the evening we were invited to the launch party for The Arches, a new shopping street set inside disused railway arches next to Waverly Station.

We'd visited these arches previously when they were being used for the Hidden Doors Festival in 2014 but now they've been taken over by all kinds of different businesses, from a nail salon and sports shop to a donut bakery and bubble tea cafe.

Not only was there an unlimited flow of prosecco and beer, but there were food trucks where we could grab something to eat.

Tom and I tucked into pizza from La Favourite which had mozzarella you could stretch for miles.

When we were finishing our pizza, a magician appeared and starting doing a trick for us where he had Tom pick and memorise a card, then I wrote my name on it and he coughed it up.

Even though it was still a little damp, I was thrilled when he offered me the card to take away as a souvenir.

Afterwards, we headed down the street to explore some of the shops.

There's an art gallery, gift shop called Elk & Wolf and a wine shop, where we were super excited to bump into Vicky Viola and her flatmate, Zu.

The Kilted Caricaturist was drawing passersby on the walls of one of the arches, and grabbed Tom when walked by.

Tom's caricaturist wasn't as flattering as he would have hoped but I loved mine from the minute he added cat ears and whiskers.

Vicky tried to be kind while "struggling" to recognise us from the drawings.

There was then just enough time to hit up the photobooth for a couple of strips and Zu made me laugh with her hat and prop combo.

We were handed a giant bunch of balloons as we floated our way along the street home.

But to be on the safe side, we decided to tie them to the railings outside of Dragonfly and have some Burntisland Ice Teas.