Edinburgh Scotland for New Years

Several posts below this so make sure to read them all if you are a true follower...ha For all of you who do not know, Edinburgh is famous for having one of the biggest New Year's Eve celebrations in Europe, called Hogmanay. The event is so big that nearly all lodging is booked months in advance. I had heard so much about this celebration but figured I would not be able to find a place to stay. One big thing changed in November and that was my mate Dan moving to Edinburgh. He decided to try a different city out (after being in London for several months) and he settled in Edinburgh. This solved that problem! Dan graciously invited anyone to stay at his place. I accepted the offer as well as Eric. It was going to be the three guys for New Year' Eve!

The next task was finding a semi-affordable method of transportation. I decided that since I am a working man, I could splurge on the fare and not pass up this insane opportunity. After some basic research, I found train tickets return for only £60. This seemed perfect because the cheapest return bus ticket I could find was £48 and the train took off 6 hours each way. In that case, I spent the extra £12 and received return tickets leaving Kings Cross. All is well. Now what dates? Being I did not work any of the New Years time frame, I had only been to Edinburgh one night in the past, and I would be with great company, I asked Dan if I could stay for a bit longer than a couple of nights. Little did he know he was getting me from Dec. 28 until Jan 2... a whopping 6 days. I was excited for the vacation and the celebration. My train left Dec. 28 at 13:30. I packed my things and packed loads of food into my bag for snacks on the five hour journey. The trip north was quite uneventful other than the screaming baby and autistic child (nothing new to me though). The train went through Leeds, York, New Castle and several other English cities. My favourite thing about my train ride was the two kids and two mums sitting across from me. The one boy was five and the other was about 9. Both were on their way from the Holidays with family but either knew the other. The two boys started chatting along side the window and before I knew it, they were best friends! Colouring, playing video games, reading books, and loads of other kid train activities were going on. The mums then allowed the two boys to sit together and the mums sat together and started chatting. It was brilliant! I witnessed what I would predict to be a life long friendship blossom and build over four hours on the train. Quite entertaining! I also read and slept too.

I arrived in Edinburgh around 18:30 and met Dan on Princes Street by the massive Ferris wheel. It had been a while since we last parted the early AM search and rescue mission to be exact. After a long embrace (ha) we went to his place, dropped my bags off and headed for dinner. His flat's front door looks at the Edinburgh castle, which is quite beautiful, amazingly beautiful. His flat mate is in his low 30s and is a foot doctor. This man, Will, is originally from Glasgow and a nice chap. From his place, we walked through Grassroots Market and the search was on for cheap dinner. After an extensive search, we located a nice little restaurant that served chicken Kiev, chips, and peas. Dinner was sufficient and from here we decided to hit a local pub up for the Liverpool versus Everton match. Peter Crouch plays for this team and he has a very similar characteristic as me which all the kids at school pick up on. Do a little research if you want to know more about Peter Crouch (a huge footballer from the UK).

The next day I was off on my own because Eric did not get into Edinburgh until that night. Dan still had to work so I walked to the Firth of Forth and went snooping around Ocean Terminal. This is the area (firth of Forth) on the water. It was a cold and not so lovely day out, which made the 4 mile trek a bit chilly. After an entire days worth of exploring the not so touristy areas, I hustled back to meet Dan after work. We decided to cook Indian (he did actually while I sat on my bum). The chicken curry was fantastic and from a bottle! Post dinner we headed for the first big Hogmanay attraction, the Torchlight Parade. This parade was absolutely brilliant! We ourselves did not carry a torch, but about 10,000 other people did. We walked through old town, down the hill by the castle, along Princes Street, and then up one of the major parks that overlooks the city. It literally looked like a river of fire the entire time. We had groups singing, playing musical instruments, and dancing along the entire route. Once at the top of the hill, a replica Viking's ship was torched and up in flames. Later they set a massive wood cow on fire. The festivities finished with an amazing display of fireworks. I will make the claim that they were by far the best I have ever seen. We were really close to the display and they had so many fireworks I had never seen before. Usually I am bored after about 2 minutes, but this time after 20 minutes I craved more. Unbelievable! Dan and I decided to visit a pub and try some local ale while we waited for Eric to arrive. After about an hour, Eric called, we went and picked him up and returned to Dan's place.

The next day Eric and I (Dan had his last day of work before the holidays) visited the amazing Edinburgh castle, walked the stone cobbled road known as the Royal Mile, and trekked around an old cemetery. For lunch we enjoyed an all you can eat Italian buffet. The food was sub par but it was all you can eat. After lunch, we headed for Arthur's Seat, the highest point in Edinburgh. This "seat" is a massive hill. Eric and I started climbing at about 15:00 and made it to the very top by 16:30. Now the going was a bit tough and a little scary here and there due to the fact that some of the trail was icy. Parts existed where if you fell; you would roll a bit and maybe hurt yourself. Luckily Tanzania prepared me for the climb (ha, as if Arthur's seat in Edinburgh has ANYTHING on the volcano in Tanzania). The view was again spectacular despite the overcast and clouds. We decided to head down a different route and encountered some very icy terrain, but we made it down safely. Unlike the others whom were within our view and took some pretty nasty falls (right Eric). We returned to Dan's for dinner, which was Haggis, nips and tatties (again more research to figure out this Scottish cuisine). This was delicious! From here we headed to the new part of town and met some of Dan's Canadian female friends. The Hogmanay festivities were continuing with a Spanish theme. Parade, dancers, concerts, and the whole 10 yards were present for a great evening. We did this crazy line dance that I swore will be done at my wedding. Dan had this massive Scottish woman teach him what to do and in turn we all learned. Basically the entire street gets in a line (men on one side facing the women on the other) and partners move down the line swinging their partner and each person in the opposite sexes line. It was very interactive and load of fun. ((So now that is the choo choo and the Scottish line dance at my wedding)).

After this, a Scottish bagpipe band came on stage and played some crazy music along with a drum and a singer. The crowd was quite young and very interactive. We did loads of jumping and organised, civil mosh pits. The music was fantastic! I ended up adopting a dance partner, Tara from Canada. She was the only one willing to participate with me! From here we moved to Fingers, a piano bar/club. We drank a pint and danced some. The highlight of this place was the fact that Dan and I busted out to Kelly Clarkson "Since you have been Gone," and the Canadian girls loved it (Eric pretended he did not know us). We both thanked Plums and were not embarrassed at all. The other women in the club starred enviously at our group. We decided we needed more vibes and headed to Frankenstein. We drank and danced until 03:00 when the place closed down. I was a dancing maniac. I was in the right mood and they were playing the right crappy songs! I would have to say this was one of my favourite nights of all time!

Saturday saw us sleep in, watch movies (Parent trap among one or two others). We had fish and chips take away for lunch. New Years Eve is all about laying low until later in the night. We watched more TV and then went back to the cafe for dinner. At this point, we did not have tickets into the big street celebration. We had not found any affordable tickets either (they were all sold out a couple of months ago). We brainstormed what to do at dinner and decided to go check the entrance for scalpers.

When we came out of dinner, we had an annoying and soaking mist, but we also managed to find three tickets for pretty cheap. We had all access to Princes Street and the surrounding party. The method to the madness was bringing your own alcohol. No booths were set up; everyone was carrying large coke bottles or plastic bags and cheap idea that would never fly in the States. We returned to Dan's flat for a brief 3o minutes and head back to Princes Street to bring in the bells. We saw KT Tunstall, Scissors Sisters, and Texas in concert. The biggest surprise was at the bells, when the Proclaimers came on live and played "I would walk 500 miles." This infamous Scottish song stirred the crowds, all 250,000 of them, and soon we were chanting and hopping up and won to this wonderful tune. The evening finished with us meeting up with more of Dan's friends and heading back to one of their flats. They literally lived next to the castle; you could see the castle from their kitchen window. They also had a roof top terrace that looked straight to the castle. I felt as though I could reach out and touch the castle. We ate loads of their food and Dan continued his drinking. We left at about 0400 and chatted with Will and his mates until about 06:30.

This blog is getting long and I am getting bored, so I will condense some of this for you. Props to those who have made it this far.

New Years Day: Up at 12:00 ate two pizzas between the three of us and on to the castle for the one o'clock run. The one o'clock run is loads of people down the Royal Mile. An interesting run after a late night of partying and shoveling pizza immediately after getting out of bed aka standing up off the floor. We returned to Dan's and had a rough lunch. We watched a Knight's Tale and then decided to take a 5 mile trek to Craig Millar’s Castle. This was a beautiful walk that ended in the middle of nowhere with us walking down a narrow, windy road with no street lights. It was quite dangerous if you ask me. Of course the castle was not lit up so we walked around the gate and up as close to the castle as we could. It was nice and we then cut through a field to avoid the life threatening road. For dinner we had Indian and it was delicious. Eric ditched us that night to return to London (catching his bus by about 4 seconds) and Dan and I played it low and got to sleep kind of early.

The next day Dan and I went to the Museum of Scotland (the biggest museum I have ever seen) and then caught lunch at a local pub. My train left at 15:20 and I arrived home at 20:20. I had three delays: a broken down freight train blocking the tracks; a coach with heat that would not shut off and therefore engineers had to look at it; and the Bobbies (police) for a disturbance on the train. With all of these delays, I still made it home only 20 minutes late. I was home to dinner and chatting with my flat mates whom I had not seen in ages. This concludes Scotland from 28.12.05 to 2.1.06. A wonderful trip it was. Thank you Dan and Eric!!!! Almost caught up!!!! Feeling better!!!!!! Go life!!!!!!