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Published: June 25th 2017
Geo: 55.9503, -3.18761
We had originally planned on bringing in the New Year in Prague but then we found out that Easy Jet offered a $50 direct plane ride to Edinburgh Scotland. Why was this significant? Edinburgh is consistently ranked as one of the top places to be in the world when bringing in the New Year.
The blindingly obvious thing we overlooked was the notion that we were no longer twenty-somethings who enthusiastically strive for an alcohol induced coma crowded together with thousands of their new friends.
New Years Eve is so big in Edinburgh that they give it it's own name, Hogmanay, and they extend the celebration for 3 consecutive days. The roots of Hogmanay, although a little uncertain, perhaps reach back to the celebration of the winter solstice among the Norse (and this invites a surprising show of Vikings in Scottish celebrations), This is as good an explanation as any for the pending show of Viking Drinking we were in for.
I can't remember the last time I even thought that drinking and partying for three days was a good idea- DH does have vivid memories of her three day binges but those took place in a faraway place and a long-ago time.
The opening event of Hogmanay is a massive torch procession that DH was desperate to participate in given the historic significance as well as the mystique involved with any kind of pagentry that is hundreds of years old (I didn't want to pop her balloon of enthusiasm but while the burning the evil of the past year and warding off future evil spirits does date back to pagan times, the Edinburgh edition is a much more recent event). Led by six pipe bands and a squad of Scottish Vikings, the mile of flame marched from George IV Bridge to Calton Hill, where the fireworks awaited us. Sounds good but as the safety officer in this relationship I couldn't help but notice that a number of the 8500 torches (8500 was the number authorities admitted to) were being held by heavily lubricated participants- the further we marched, the lower the torches burned and most were no longer being held aloft, and then the bottlenecks started which had drunk people with flaming weapons squeezing together. What could possibly go wrong with this scenario. DH, with her flammable faux fur lined parka, was blissfully unaware that I was warding off stumbling torch bearers, and she was really enjoying herself.
As far as I know, no drunks were injured in the making of this march, and of the city of Edinburgh survived with only minor scorching.
Next day was the New Years Eve that everyone else celebrates (the famous Auld Lang Syne song has Scottish roots). A large portion of the downtown area of Edinburgh was fenced off and 80,000 tickets were sold (the number authorities admitted to). We jumped in early and tracked down the only 'Scottish' band that was on offer- some sort of rock band with bagpipes and clogs (the other stages and screens were blasting out a disproportionate number of 70's songs which made DH- where the D stands for Disco- very happy). We also managed to catch 3 of the hourly fireworks shows that used the spectacular Edinburgh Castle as a backdrop (very appropriate that the castle sits atop an extinct volcano). And then it happened. The crowd went from manageable and reasonably sober to jam-packed and drunk- some of the partiers were starting to stop, drop, and roll and were taking up valuable real estate with their heads down and actively throwing up. After bulldozing through a short section of Princess St, DH declared our party over given the surging crowd situation, which was getting worse, and her own concerns about drunken women targeting me as a boy toy during the midnight kissing frenzy (ok- I made that last part up).
When did people start abandoning their drunken friends. I remember shaving off a few eyebrows and making creative use of Sharpies but we always made sure that our drunken comrades were propped up in the centre of the party. Scottish drunks are apparently left to wallow in their own sick with nobody claiming any sort of ownership or even applying toe tags.
My favourite Hogmanay quote came from an Assistant Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders police, who said: "I never cease to be amazed at how few serious incidents we have. Some of this is due to the fact that our overseas visitors, let's face it, have a low alcohol threshold."
Any official from a country that advocates warm beer has to be taken with a grain of salt but he must have been referring to Americans and not Canadians- after all, what other nation in the world has a holiday named after unlimited beer consumption (May 2-4 Long Weekend)?
The beauty of not being a twenty-something is that we've learned (although it took a while) that the night before is rarely worth the hangover the next day. While the others were sleeping it off, we took in the rest of the major sights of Edinburgh. Perhaps the most fascinating was a tour of the old underground city- apparently Edinburgh was built on a number of steep hills but at some point after a number of plagues swept through the city, a total rebuild was ordered- rather than a complete demolition, the tops of the crowded buildings were chopped off and a new relatively level city was built using them as a massive support structure- wow. Together with Edinburgh Castle, Arthur's Seat, The Royal Mile, St Giles Cathedral, and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh looks exactly as you would imagine Edinburgh- as much as Prague was elegant and colourful, Edinburgh was beautifully solid and intimidating.
And what could be more intimidating than being treated to the national dish of Scotland. Mince a sheeps heart, liver, and lungs with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt- wrap it in the sheeps stomach and simmer for three hours and you're ready for the taste explosion that, surprisingly, no other nation in the world elected to copy- Haggis. Serve with 'neeps and tatties' (Scottish for turnips and potatoes) and start everything off with a bowl of Cullen Skink (thick fish soup) and, if you finish, you should qualify for Scottish Landed Immigrant Status. It actually tasted much better than it reads on a menu.
And just to wrap our brief trip to Scotland on a really high note, we were able to hook up for lunch with two of our fellow Kilimanjaro climbers from four years ago. Carol and Annie looked like they could do the climb again although, based on the stories we were re-telling, the mountain seems to have grown another 10,000 feet.
We had a great time in Edinburgh and we need to get back to visit the rest of the country.
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Amanda
non-member comment
Smashing!