Scotland the home to the likes of Gerald Butler, Sean Connery and the one and only Fat b****** off Austin Powers (Get in my beeelllly!) and where I was heading to say goodbye to 2011 and celebrate the start of 2012 - Edinburgh to be exact. The capital city of Scotland and the home of the annual Hogmanay celebration.

It all started after a big night pre-celebrating in Leicester Square in London - the night before an 8 hour bus trip to Edinburgh - not a smart move on my part as the next day it took me longer than anticipated walking to the tube station as I had my head in the bushes admiring the garden on the way. Once on board the Haggis Wild & Sexy Tours bus and after some smack talking from my fellow travellers Kelly, again another Aucklander (are they taking over the world?) Jade - Matamata represent and Amanda the craziest Goreon that ever lived, plus 2 other Kiwi's and a bus full of Aussie's - we set off on our journey from misery to happiness todeey aha aha aha aha. When we arrived in Edinburgh we claimed our beds in the 18 bed hostel room and went to the pub accross the road to sample our first cider of the trip. Walked in a huge torch light procession with thousands of people lead by traditional Vikings hailing from the Shetland Islands. It was so beautiful to look back and see thousands of lights twinkling and the Edinburgh Castle lit up in all her glory. After this we went to the Three Sister's pub where our tour had put on a private party - since we were in Scotland we made a deal to try and kiss a traditional Scottish redhead - or ginga, fanta pants, fire crotch, ranga, tomato top whatever you may like to refer them as. Was a big night and did not make it to bed till 5.30am.

Woke up on New Year's Eve feeling a little worse for wear and was walking to find some delicious hangover food for breakfast when it hit New Zealand new years, received a call from my mum Glendog, and had the traditional new years song Auld Lang Syne sang to me over the phone. That night was the main event - Hogmanay - this huge celebration consisted of the biggest street party in Europe with 7 stages where we rang in the new year - the fireworks display was unbeleivably amazing, lasting a duration of around 7 minutes, I have never seen anything like it in my life - left me wondering how many thousands of pounds did they spend on those babies!

On New Years Day hopped on a bus and headed down to participate in the Loony Dook. The name is a combination of "Loony" short for "lunatic" and dook a Lowland Scots term meaning "dunk". With over 1000 people kitted out in fancy dress costumes including banana's, penguins, where's wallys, and a few brave wee (even wee-er afterwards) lads in Borat mankini's. The huge parade was lead by a hairy man in a kilt, playing the bagpipes - through a small town, accompanied by Nessy, the Loch Ness Monster. Once reaching the shore it was a sprint into the the frreeeeeeezzzzing ocean for a early morning dip. Was an awesome event to partake in as the atmosphere was full of excitement, with hundreds of spectators watching in disbeleif all us mad maaad people,singing, dancing and cheering us on. Jade and I got interviewed by a TV crew so I'm going to put that out there that we are probably famous worldwide now!!

Our crazy Scottish tour guide kept us all in high spirits as we were all suffering mild cases of hpothermia by doing some Fat b****** impersenations, and entertaining us with some great stories about the history and landscape of Scotland. Got to see the location that inspired J.K Rowling's Hogworts.

The last night in this vibrant city I happened to meet an ex Scotland rugby player, who I thought was using it as a pick up line (which was weird because he was my Dad's age..) but turns out he was the real deal and made me google him, and when I read out the bit where it said he retired with a hip injury he proceeded to pull down his pants and show me his battlescar which went from above his hip all the way down his ass, crazy who you can meet over a pint or two!

Edinburgh is an amazing place that made a lasting impression on me, (I even started to like Haggis by the end of it) and I would love to live there at some part of my adventure on the other side of the world. Happy new year to everyone and lets make 2012 the best one yet!! Bring on the adventures!!! xx