“Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and auld lang syne?”- Rabbie BurnsFYI: Hogmanay is the Scot's word for New Years Eve, and it is a massive celebration in Scotland
About a month before New Years, our exec staff informed us that we had two days off of work, not the one we were all expecting. When I found out that I had NYE and NYD off, I decided to see if I could go on a quick trip somewhere to ring in the new year. One of the things on my '27 by 27' list was to celebrate the new year at Hogmanay ain Edinburgh. I shot off an email to some friends of mine in the city asking if they would be around. An hour later I bought a flight. This was the most impulsive (and last minute) trip I have ever planned.
I landed in Scotland at 5 am on the morning of New Year’s Eve. I hopped on the airlink bus and headed into city centre. I was a little surprised to be dropped off a few stops away from the city centre stop, but Prince’s street was closed in preparation for the festivities. I had an address for my friends’ flat and a general idea of where they lived, but I wasn’t exactly sure where I was. Being that I am an idiot who loves an adventure, I passed on getting a cab and I picked up my 30 pound bag and started walking. I ended up on North Bridge as the sun started to rise and was treated to an amazing view of the city. I started to remember where I was and identified some landmarks of where I needed to be, and 30 minutes after getting off the bus, I found myself at my friend’s flat.
I was immediately greeted with tea (love that Scottish hospitality) and caught up with my friends. After an hour or so, I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to make it through the day, and certainly not the night, without a nap. I climbed into bed and slept for an hour. Throughout the day, more people came through (both old friends and people I had never met before). We had quite the group by dinnertime and headed out for a pre-festivity dinner.
We had a very filling meal and headed back to the flat to start drinking and getting ourselves fancied up. I had bought an amazing glittery dress from Asos for the occasion that I was super excited to wear. It was not at all weather appropriate, but if you can’t go all out on NYE, when can you?
We headed off to a few flat parties, and actually made it on the NYE snap story since one of the people we were with whipped out an accordion and we all sang auld lang syne. As the night wore on, we drank and danced and sang, and as midnight came closer, we gathered up bottles of champagne for the bells. We decided to watch the fireworks from the bridge (great choice). We were treated to three different firework displays from all directions. It was totally magical. Everyone around us was singing auld lang syne and we were toasting to friendship. Not gonna lie to you- multiple people were overcome with emotions and started crying… We have pictures to prove it. I hugged about 30 people I’ve never seen before and everyone was sharing champagne (probably not the best idea thinking back).
My fool-proof tip for finding a NYE kiss (if you are single) is stolen from a friend of mine. I watched him kiss multiple girls a few years ago on New Years (he's kinda sneezy) and asked him how he was doing it. He told me he would sidle up next to girls and say (rather loudly) ‘damn, I wish I had someone to kiss at midnight’, it worked every time- I witnessed it. He used it hours after midnight saying, ‘ah my year is going to be so terrible since I didn’t get a kiss at midnight’. It was impressive, albeit it kind of gross. If I’m being honest, I really wanted a New Years kiss (preferably with a Scot) on the bridge at the bells. I spotted a really attractive, tall Scottish guysand pulled the NYE Kiss trick… sure enough he turned and looked at me, smiled, and grabbed me. It was totally random and absolutely perfect. We headed back to the flat after the bells, blasted some T-Swift and drank some more.
At this point, I was going on an hour of sleep over the course of the last 36 hours, and I was fading fast. I decided to be responsible, and at around 1:45 am I called it a night. My friends continued partying until 6 am, and I maintain that I made the right decision in going to sleep.
New Years Day was mostly spent collapsed around the flat trying to recover. At around 5 pm, we decided we had to absolutely get out of flat and do something. It was insanely windy and a little rainy, but we wanted to get outside. We walked up to the castle and spent an hour dancing in the streets and hanging of the fences around the castle. It was one of those moments where I felt so alive. But it was freezing, so we decided to head to a pub and grab a new years drink. We walked to the Grassmarket and had some whisky and a few pints. We ended up back at the flat and made up a nice roast for dinner. It was a low key day, but it felt right.
Emz and I grabbed dinner and had a totally girl catch-up shesh. I am always so excited to spend time in Scotland with these girls- they are honestly some of my favorite people. We spent my last full day in Glasgow with Naomi. I had been to Glasgow once before, but for a concert so I only saw a minimal amount of the city. I didn’t think I was going to like it, but I was happily surprised. Glasgow is great. Totally different vibe than Edinburgh, but still really beautiful. I’d like to go back and spend some more time there- especially since people claim Glasgow represents ‘the real’ Scotland better than Edinburgh.
One of my other flatmates, Erin, joined us for dinner on my last night in Edinburgh and she agreed to drive me to the airport early the next morning. (Bless her). My flight was delayed a few hours so Erin and I ventured out to see the Kelpies as the sun rose. It was the perfect way to close out an amazing visit to my favorite country.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd love to hear from you, leave a comment!