Scotland - The New Years Adventure (Part 1)

Scotland was where I spent New Years Eve and the first couple of days of 2011. Glad I did it. I haven't really seen much of the Northern Hemisphere since arriving in London, but this is the primer which will hopefully open the door for the year ahead! Edinburgh was recommended as a place to celebrate the new year, so that's where I went - with a couple of pals of course.

The transportation mode of choice was the train. Popping onto The Train Line website makes purchasing train tickets quite simple. Next, to celebrate the New Year one can't go past the Hogmanay - Edinburghs way of heralding a new year... unfortunately I wasn't going to be there for the torch procession from the Castle! The hardest part of the whole enterprise was finding accomodation - with less than a moth to go, every single place that I found was booked out and/or required a minimum stay (of 3 to 4 nights stays). After hours of searching I eventually found a hostel a short walk away from the action - just about the last place I could find (Budget Backpackers) - great name, I know. At 50 quid a night each for a 4 person dorm, not what i'd call budget!

So New Years Eve, Kings Cross Station, 2pm. Onto a First Capital Connect train bound for Edinburgh. Now for some reason I thought that seats weren't allocated, this is probably based on my experience in the UK 5 years earlier - where I had a BritRail pass and just hopped on to trains wherever and whenever I wanted. It was not the case this time. Allocated seats was the name of the game, with ticket stubs on each seat outlining who should sit where. My distant memory seemed to recall plenty of little tables on the train in four seat blocks. Wrong again! Anyway... back to the main story... as the train travelled 200kph time passed quickly as I took the opportunity to catch up with my co-travellers as well as fit in a quick nap in anticipation of the long night ahead!

The three of us arrived in Edinburgh Waverly Station and quickly disembarked and headed for our accomodation for our stay in Scotland. Unfortunately for us, the most direct route available to us was closed - due to the Hogmanay, perhaps. So, out the side entrance of Waverley we went and headed on down to Cowgate. We checked in, dumped our bags, and quickly headed out again - 4 person dorm, the three of us plus one random (who wasn't in at the time).

The first order of business was to get a bite to eat before joining the rest of the revellers at the street party. We were told of a few places to eat by the hostel reception and made our way to a couple of them. It was almost 9pm, yet the kitchens for just about every pub we went to was closed! I would have thought business would have been good. Nevermind, an Italian restaurant was open on Grassmarket - so that's where we ate, with a few ciders to get the night started!

We eventually arrived at the street party at 10:30pm. We walked past the police cordon and security check... inside! Once we passed the security checkpoint two things were immediately obvious - the amusement park rides (for example... a Ghost Train) and a small music stage. I was expecting the music stage, but not the rides! The most popular of the rides was the reverse bungee, crowds gathered around the ride to watch people get flung into the evening sky. I ended up going onto a ride, but not the reverse bungee - not sure what it's called but it was a swing which also rotated - not the best thing to go on after a few mulled wines!

As midnight approached the volume of people seemed to jump. After doing a tour of the street party boundaries it was time to camp out and find a spot to watch the fireworks. The most popular place seemed to be just down the road from the Edinburgh castle, and that's where we stayed. Whilst waiting for the fireworks to start a few random local students decided to have a quick chat with us. Each of us were approached differently but mine went something like this:

Male Student: "Hey there, yea you - can I ask you a question?"
Mark: "Sure, go ahead"
Male Student: "See this girl over here, name is Julia, what do you think of her?"
Mark: "Sorry? Not sure if I heard you correctly"
*Male Student taps girl on the shoulder and she turns around*
Male Student: "Julia here, what do you think of her?"
Mark: "She's great!"
*Julia, Male Student, and Male Student's mate all have a bit of a laugh*

Very random indeed.

Next, the fireworks. The fireworks were nice, and the crowd were very much behind the display infront of them. I liked them, although I must admit... nothing on Sydney. Perhaps i'm a little biased, but i've been hard pressed to find something better than the New Years Fireworks in Sydney. There was a variety of fireworks - bright and colourful, sprial and whiney, fizzy and glittery - it was all there (clearly my descriptive skills leave much to the imagination!).

Once the fireworks were over it was time to hit the music stage - as there was only the one hour left before the street party festivities were set to close. So up we went to mingle in with the crowd, straight into the middle of the mass of people crowding around the stage. Bright lights, dancers, it was all there. The singer could have been a somebody, I wouldn't know. Whilst we were dancing in the middle some old middle aged guy appeared and started dancing closely to any young person he could find. Very creepy. Eventually he made his way near us and hovered close, as there was a cluster of young girls not too far away from us. Extremely creepy. After a while we got chatting to a few locals, as the creepy old guy was a primer for conversation.


Meeting up with a couple of local Scots was great. Always great to meet new people. After the street party finished up we headed on over to the Doctors pub. Now this pub got its name due to it's location - the old hospital (a.k.a. the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh) used to be located just about across the road. So it's not too difficult to find out where the name comes from! Fortunately Doctors was still open for a while, so we all sat down and had a few drinks. Good times. Now would be a great time to add that I was picked up at the bar... but that's a total lie.


We eventually got kicked out of Doctors pub as it was closing time. Not quite finished yet. For a little while longer we continued the festivities at a local flat. Some strange gingery drink from M&S seems to jog my memory somewhat... but I have no idea. Finally ended up getting to the hostel (in the rain) close to 7am in the morning. Rest quickly followed.


So Hogmanay was decent - something that's worth doing with friends, not exactly party-party-party. As it turns out it's a great way to meet some locals! I was quite surprised that there weren't lots of people wandering around drunk - but that's probably because the lines for alcohol were so long... one would sober up just getting to the counter. More food and more music would be good... although I must admit I didn't sign up for one of the concert/street party combination tickets. Next time, perhaps.


That was part 1... in part 2, more Scotland! ... and some travel quirks.