With the thousands of new people staying at the hostel, all presumably throwing money at the tour they are on, breakfast stepped up a notch. In addition to the regular cereal and bread, we had yoghurt, fruit, three different types of marmalade, three different types of jam, the works. Other than that, we had a low-key preparation for Hogmanay, just organising drinks, buying Keeley some amazing orange gloves, and walking around trying to find a post box to send some postcards – all of the post boxes had been boarded up for the day so that people couldn't put drinks or anything in them.
We picked up an evening meal at The Grosvenor hotel around the corner, which offered two meals and two pints for £10. Unfortunately, we weren't the only people with the same idea and it took us over an hour to get our food. The pub seemed to run out of food completely by 7pm so they obviously didn't anticipate so many people. The food was pretty good though and you can't knock the value.
The Hogmanay street party was a little more laid back than I was expecting – it's not illegal to drink on the street here so you were not only allowed, but encouraged, to bring alcohol in. Getting in was easy – flash the wristband and walk in, no queues, and it's just as well. Hundreds of thousands of people throughout the streets: it was incredible. It was kind of like a giant, open-air nightclub, except there were children as young as eight or so, up to old-age pensioners. The atmosphere was, in a word, busy. You never really felt uncomfortable like at Torquay beach or anything though – everyone seemed to genuinely be there for a good time and not to start anything. There were four open stages, two with DJs, one with a traditional Scottish band and one with rock groups like the headline Glasvegas. There was also a ticket-only stage in the park with Groove Armada, but our wristbands didn't get us into that area. Every hour before midnight they would fire a dozen warm-up fireworks, but they were nothing compared to the finale. It was neverending – normally in fireworks there are natural pauses while they reload, but this was just explosion after explosion seemingly ad infinitum. It was amazing. To round it off, everyone linked arms and sang 'Old Lang Syne' and The Proclaimers' '500 Miles'. The actual countdown and fireworks was great, but we couldn't help feeling strangely alone in the sea of people; it's definitely the sort of thing you want to come to in a group, especially because we've always spent New Year's with friends. It was also kind of strange getting New Year text messages at 1pm from Australia.
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1 comment:
It is also strange receiving them at 1pm the next day in Australia!
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