A pretty city with weather that's shitty

---

For New Years Eve celebrations we decided on going to Edinburgh for Hogmanay, we thought it must be good for it is always recommended in guides like 101 things to do before you die. Mind you swimming with sharks is usually on those lists so you never can tell. Perhaps they should make two lists one for normal people and another for the psychos that like swimming with sharks, perhaps they could call that one: ‘101 things to do just seconds before you die’.

We arrived in Edinburgh a few days before Jaimee and Joel who had conveniently organised accommodation with a mate of ours Bevan. He has a place just a 2 minute walk from the city centre with his girlfriend Brenda, it is quaint but was perfect for us i.e close to the city and a place to crash after a few too many shandies. Bevan was actually away over new years (in Egypt I think it was) so his mate Keith showed us around town and how to get to Bevan’s and hooked us up with a couple of free passes to Edinburgh castle.

Edinburgh is a pretty city but the weather is sh*tty. When we visited the castle, everyone we saw were wrapped up warm except for a few buskers in kilts and a few kiwi hard bastard farmers that were wearing stubbie shorts and jandals. Why do they do this you ask? I think it is either a macho thing or they don’t have their mum to pack their travel case. Is that right Corey? (Ha ha, just kidding.) Anyway the castle was really impressive, and has great views out over the city. It would have been a brave army to take on the Scots there. Well anyone taking on a Scot in a fight probably has to be quite brave. (We had a conversation at our flat lately about whether anyone has heard a gay Scotsman? No-one had, I’m not sure if they exist. I really can’t imagine a camp Scottish accent).

Later in the day, Jaimee, Joel and their flat mate Simon arrived. We dropped their gear off, had a huge feed and found a bar called the Three Sisters that was teeming. Being the night before New Years Eve, we said to each other that we’d take it easy and save our energy for the following night. This wasn’t the case at all. Everyone was partying so it would have been rude not to. I caught up with some kiwi mates - Nicky Gregan and Dan Fraser who are living in London. I knew Nicky was in Scotland but got a surprise when I saw Dan, especially because I had randomly seen him at a concert earlier in the year. (I ended up bumping into him the following night too, think he may be stalking me). He’d come up via Newcastle and was applying the hair of the dog rule. A mate of Jaimee and Joel’s was so excited to see them, he raced across the dance floor, threw his pint to the ground which shattered and yelled ‘how the hell are ya?’ Fortunately for him the bouncers weren’t watching. Another sight on the dance floor was a group, most likely Kiwi’s doing a dance where they were mimicking farmers milking a cow’s udders. Quite unique really, sort of like a white man’s haka. Not sure what time we got home, I knew my head would be sore in the morning though.

---

Photos

Edinburgh Covered in Snow
Thankfully this was the day after we left!