Holidays in Edinburgh

Friday marked the first day of Hogmanay. I walked up Calton Hill by the observatory – they were setting up for a torch light parade and bonfire to be held that night. Last year they had 20,000 people walk through the city and up the hill where they set fire to a huge viking ship and animals modeled from sticks (see the picture of the stag in the link below). I didn't take part in the march, but around 9pm we watched the fireworks from our flat.

I got my first taste of the Scottish Highlands. On Sunday my flatmates, Sarah and Hazel, and I drove out to Central Scotland and hiked up Ben A'an (Ben is Scottish for mountain). A lot of other people had the same idea of getting in one last hike of the year; there was even a bit of a queue to get up the last section of the trail. The weather was great and I couldn't have asked for a better hike. Afterwards we stopped in at the Woolen Mills for lunch. This is a fairly famous/touristy spot because outside the restaurant is Hamish, a big, shaggy Highland Cow (the first I have seen since I got here). We took our obligatory pictures with the rest of the the tourists and headed back to Edinbugh.

That night there was a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee; traditional Scottish music and dance) all along one of the main streets downtown. At one end they had the traditional fiddle and pipe music and at the other end they had “American” line dancing to country music and karaoke. Just like Ireland, Dolly Parton is the be all and end all when it comes to country music. They really only played Kenny Rodgers, The Gambler, and Dolly Parton, Working 9 to 5, over and over again but everyone seemed to be loving it. The stages were separated by about 3 blocks with a parade of balloon animals/monsters making its way around, as well as a few event tents with games and story telling. I met up with a couple friends and we wandered through everything for a while before making out way into a couple of bars for the rest of the night. I had heard that Ashley McIssac (the fiddler from Nova Scotia) was supposed to be playing, but nobody quite knew when or where he was performing, so I missed out on that.

Finally New Years rolled around and I made my way out to the Hogmanay Street Party. I met up with the same group that I was out with the night before and we fought our way through the crowds and watched a few random bands play on the stages that were set up. The event is mostly BYOB, but there are beer tents set-up all the way down the street. We realized that the planning kinda failed when it came to trying to find a washroom. It was like being at Arts County Fair all over again... I think I spent about 40 minutes in line and got the most action I have had since coming to Scotland courtesy of the woman grinding against me as she danced around trying not to wet herself. I successfully made it to the “porti-loo” and got back to my friends just in time for the fireworks. At midnight the Red Hot Chili Pipers (yes, bagpipers) started playing and carried things through until about 1am when it started to rain and the crowd started to thin. I stopped to take a few pictures, but when I looked around I realized I had lost my friends in the mass of people. Calling was no use because of the noise, and I couldn't get a text through because the services was swamped with other people trying to do the same thing. I decided to just go back to the flat and am quite thankful I did looking back on it as I write this now. A solid nights sleep and no hangover is definitely the best way to start 2008.

Check out the links HERE for pics and videos of all this stuff.

Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year.