Hogmanay and Edinburgh

Six in the morning was a very early start having not long arrived. But this is all part of the amazing experiences of travel. By 6:45am Will, Kelly and I set off for the station and caught the 8am East Coast Train up to Edinburgh. I made good use of the 4.5hr train ride by writing in my travel journal.

It was a short walk up and down hill to our home for the next three nights - MacDonald Holyrood Hotel right near Holyrood Palace. A brief few moments to settle in and we were off again to have some lunch and begin exploring Edinburgh. I'd forgotten how mountainous it is here :) Although it was good to wander and get orientated again, my legs were not so sure.

Darkness set in by 4pm and Will and I took some great sunset and night photographs before we stopped for some mulled wine - well, Kelly and Will enjoyed it and passed. In order to warm up again, we headed up to Calton Hill to watch the Torch Procession that opens the Hogmanay celebrations. From the top of the hill we watch thousands of people carrying torches along Princes Street to us. Quite spectacular. An estimated 20,000 people were participating in this event! It was packed. They had a ceremony with a bagpipe and pipe band and set alight a wooden Viking ship. Shortly after the fireworks display signified the beginning of the Hogmanany festival. It was great, however I missed most of the fireworks because the breeze blew all the ash straight into our eyes :) But it was still amazing.

Friday 31st December

As I was drying my hair my phone rang. And to my delight it was my sister who told me she was now a mummy! Little baby Logan was born. I'm an Aunty!

We spent the day exploring Edinburgh castle. There is so much history, and some not nice at all. Although I am amazed at how much evidence there is, the Brit's just love to hang on to the past. I did find I enjoyed the photographs and design history most interesting.

Sitting at Starbucks (the only place in town we could get a table to sit at, there are more people every second!), we made plans for this evening, as the street party has many stages (5) with bands and DJ's we wanted to also be in a good place to see the fireworks. During this time I had a few texts to Ricky and we aimed for meeting up at the streetparty.

Back at the hotel, after a rest in my room I headed to Kel and Will's room for a pre-party drink and watched Sky News and their coverage of the celebrations in NZ, Sydney and Hong Kong.

After dinner I layered up - four layers on my top half, and two on my lower half, plus beanie, scarf and gloves. Once outside and up at the street party I removed my beanie and gloves as it wasn't as cold as I'd anticipated. We got ourselves a spot on the barrier in front of the Concert in the Gardens stage. We could watch the bands from the street party and saw The Charlatans and later the Biffy Chyro - a Glasgow band that is up and coming. At 11:30pm we saw the Sky News guy getting ready for his live update - he was right in front of us. As he did his report the camera panned and walked down the barrier and .... we made it on TV!!! bouncing and cheering - so much fun :)

Shortly after this we decided to head to the intersection of Princes Street and Fredrick street in order to get a good view of the fireworks (away from the trees) and hopefully meet up with Ricky. However, with an estimated 80,000 it was almost impossible to more. We did make it to the intersection, but couldn't find Ricky. The countdown began and we rand in the New Year with cheers, clapping and hugs, as well as watching some outstanding Fireworks off Edinburgh Castle.

Unable to see anyone, we made our way back to the barrier to watch and listen to the bands until 1am.

An amazing New Years Eve!!