The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.

If you get the chance you just have to do Edinburgh's Hogmanay for New Years. Probably one of the best things EVER! Back to that later.

After a 1.5 hour drive, only just holding on to my stomach I boarded a ferry in the torrential rain.. Holy poop I don't know how I didn't vomit... After that I had an hour and a half train ride to Edinburgh.. No famous people this time. Arriving into Edinburgh I saw a GINORMOUS sign advertising the Dirty Dancing stage show!!! Was not going to miss that! It is safe to say I HAD THE TIME OF MY LIFE!!! WOO! One of the greatest things I have ever seen in my life!
Any who.. Edinburgh. WOWEE. So pretty.

The first thing you see when you walk out of the station is the Castle on the hill. Magnificent. And all of the old buildings Words can not describe it. You have to see it..

The place I was staying was average. It was called the Braveheart Guest House. 5 out of 6 mornings I was woken by the delightful sounds of someone vomiting in the bathroom that shared a wall with my bedroom. Delightful... So if you decide to stay in Edinburgh, stay somewhere else.

The town itself was buzzing, so much happening at this time of year! The first official Hogmanay thing was the torchlight procession. Massive fire hazard, but so much fun. If you do this, remember to wear old clothes, because you will get covered in wax. It was on this journey that I met some delightful people who let me walk in close proximity to them for the procession and even invited me out for tea afterwards. The procession ended on the hill, I was up the top with 40,000 other people, the atmosphere was buzzing. The lighting of the bonfire was overrated and the count down for the fire works was a little off, but still pretty epic!

 

Torchlight procession
 Next up was the actual New Years eve festivities, I met up with Sarah and Blair and a few of their mates from back in the good old Rat and started festivities at their place. After working out the best ways to smuggle our orange juice in to the event we made our way down. A few of us had to pee early, so we joined the jolly lines for the porta loos and then hit up the bar. This is where I lost glove number one. But don't fret friends, I found a red one! (and lost that on the next loo trip) We wandered around the street party, enjoyed the bands, spiked our drinks and then headed in to the concert in the gardens.

street party

Upon walking into the Gardens, we came to the realisation that our friends were on the other side... Awkward... Anywho, we started pushing our way through the crowd and somehow ended up in the enclosure.. Whoopsies.. But we didn't wanna be in there without our friends. So I sweet talked the security guard and he was nice enough to let us go around the back. After I found a stall that sold a pulled pork roll (HEAVEN) we somehow found our friends. On the way up I had a slight fall and face planted. Was just slightly covered in mud...

 

Apparently Simple Minds used to be some band in the 80s (?) luckily I'd had enough OJ to not worry about the fact that I didn't know any of their songs.. Midnight came along followed by some spectacular fireworks and the worlds biggest Auld Lang Syne. Pretty bloody cool (excuse my French). We partied until the wee hours of the morning and let's just say I was feeling pretty dang tired come January 1.

 

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, but I will definitely be heading back shortly to check out the scenery. Something that I didn't really have much opportunity to do on this visit. So Edinburgh Hogmanay 2013- Thanks for playing. Be Lucky.