Watching the clock strike Twelve and tick over into a New Year is an experience we only get once every year and most people try and find an exciting way to celebrate the closing of a chapter and the start of a new fresh beginning. I thought I had done just that by choosing to be in Edinburgh for the Hogmanay Festival, a unique celebration held in the streets every New Years Eve. What I didn’t know was that it would not be as spirited, unique and fun as I thought it would be.
First off let me give you the context of that trip. I had just arrived in London to start my new life on a working holiday visa (I had a teaching role lined up in a Central London High School). I had just left a beautiful and hot beginning of summer in Sydney and arrived to COLD winter temperatures of the UK (ok maybe this has a little something to do with my perception of Hogmanay, but only a little). I decided to book onto a 4 day Contiki (for those that have no idea idea what this is = a group tour for 18-35 year olds that are usually a lot of fun!) that included bus transport to and from London to save myself hassle and also so I could make some new friends…and not celebrate NYE alone.
Ok, so back to the Festival itself. We left the hostel and headed out to the main streets below Edinburgh castle and joined the crowd in the freezing cold. There were a couple of stages set up with singers performing and our little squad for the night chose one that had an ok vibe of music going for it, and that gave us a decent view of the castle for the fireworks at Midnight. We were disappointed by the lack of ‘authentic Scottish vibe’ and had expected more bagpipes to be playing and colourful people getting amongst the crowd. The selection of music and artists was not overly thrilling and in order to get a good viewing spot close enough to the stage and the fireworks meant that we had to arrive early in the evening and wait it out for several hours in the cold.
Oh and if you wanted to go to the toilet you had to take a decent walk and find your way back to everyone in a sea of thousands of people…not an easy task. We always made sure we at least went in groups of two so you wouldn’t end up completely stranded and separated from the group.
To add further insult to injury if you wanted to have any alcohol the only way of really achieving this was to bring your own from the hostel and lug it there in a bag…like seriously who wants to have a bag with you weighing you down.?! It was annoying to be so limited with supplies. Now I just want to add at this point that I (and most of the girls I was with are not big crazy drinkers and I am usually that person who offers to drive on nights out… and dances ALL night on nothing but WATER #yourbodyisatemple)… But I will indulge and enjoy a couple here and there…and a NYE celebration kinda warrants that I think. Honestly, if I didn’t have my Contiki friends with me I would have been sooo miserable, over it and thrown the towel in early.
And that brings me to the fireworks. Being a Sydney girl I have grown up with the bar set incredibly high when it comes to NYE fireworks. I mean, sure it was kinda cool to see fireworks come off Edinburgh castle but in my opinion it was not that spectacular. These didn’t last for too long and then we had to battle the crowd to find the best route back to the hostel. At this stage I was COLD, exhausted and pretty over it. Not how I expected to be feeling as I was launching into such a new and exciting year for me. I didn’t really even take many nice photos because I couldn’t see the castle that well, there were too many people in front of me and my fingers were too cold! LOL!
I think one of the major issues here is that I had placed far too great an expectation of the occasion and when it did not live up to they hype I had read about I was pretty deflated.
I’m hoping to spend NYE Eve in a few other exciting destination over the next few years like Berlin, Amsterdam, New York and maybe even Bali.
Where do you like to bring in the New Year? What cities or places are your favourite to celebrate NYE? Drop me a comment below:
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