Hogmanay's Death

Hogmanay was cancelled!!!

The gale force winds were blowing mightily across Prince Street (I have video to prove it) and by 9:30 were howling so horribly, that they cancelled the street party.  The torrential rain and the wild storm made it the highest profile New Years Eve Party to get cancelled (although Bangkok's was cancelled due to bombings, Edinburgh's Party is a bigger one overall).

Now, one might be tempted to say that the night was a loss-- and thus the trip as well.  Not at all, but the reasons are fairly personal to me.

1. Ive been to Hogmanay before (4 years ago) and had a riot (this sucks mostly for Ken, who had not been yet).

2. I felt terribly ill all day - I think from the sausage - and retched all afternoon.  I was in no mood to party, sadly.

3. I partied anyway, just not on the streets.  Because the street was the only place to hold 500,000 people for Hogmanay, the pubs were absolutely bursting at their seams.

It seems that my Italian connection is one of my best social skills, because it saved the day for me and Ken.  Our roomates, as it turned out, were really cool (Alberto and Laura) and we chatted with them in Italian for a good while.  They eventually invited us out with them, and so we tagged along, first to the raucus pub on the first floor of the hostel, and then to the bar called Cargo.

Cargo, it seemed, is a really really trendy, high-class pub on the outskirts of town.  The tickets were actually £50 per person ($112), but we phenagled our way in for FREE!  Neither us, nor the Italians really knew how that happened, but we were very happy for the chance anyway.

So we rang in the New Years in Complete Style, with traditional Scottish songs (Auld Lang Syne, amonst them of course) and a bunch of rowdy rich folk besides.

4. The two nights of Hogmanay before hand were so much fun, that the street party was almost going to seem like an anti-climax.  Hogmanay is truly such a wild party, that I'm completely partied out.  All I want now is a nice pint and a book to read.

--So all was not lost.  Yes, the street party was cancelled, but Ken and I had a roaring good time, regardless.  Now we are off to Culloden, Drumnadrochit, and Inverness.  We were return this Friday night.

Belated New Years party  Friday night, anyone? Heh.

Chris