Today I’m going to be lazy and give you a summary. We drove from Wales to Manchester along a massive highway, which meant we arrived in two hours. Awesome. Except we were off Anglesey Isle before we even realised and didn’t get to spend more time there because we weren’t there anymore! Then I needed to pee, and remembering I’m no longer in Mongolia, had to find somewhere….. Highways don’t have stops, so I pulled in to a tiny town. Drove around and around, through a caravan park with no toilets and up a hill. Stuff it – I pulled over next to a tree on a small road. Stood up and there’s a sign saying something along the lines of: follow the rules of fly fishing because there’s CCTV here to watch you. So someone in Wales has me on CCTV peeing beside the road. Bloody hell.
Manchester wasn’t super exciting but we picked up our extra passenger and drove north. A four hour drive – half of which on a lovely highway (Tegan drove); the other half on a skinny road up and over mountains. It was also very very thick fog (like, you couldn’t see the other side of the road), heavy rain and a few inches of snow on the road. Made for very slow going driving that managed to make my headache a bazillion times worse.
Our apartment in Edinburgh is lovely. It’s cheaper than a hostel during Hogmanay (the festival we’re here for) and we’ve got our own space in a proper apartment. It’s in a great location – not too close, not too far. It’s across from a supermarket too. We also got breakfast provided for the first day – so nice!
So NYE was a resting morning and then a big afternoon. I was still in the wars with my headache, slowly winning but under sufferance. The girls went off to the Walkabout, the Australian pub to celebrate Australian New Years. Ebony managed to get in under Tegan’s ID which she was very proud and excited about. I struggled up to the pub by 1pm to say ‘yay, happy new year’ but managed to get lost and make it two minutes after the New Years countdown. Bugger.
The pub was full of groups of people hanging out in their groups, taking photos of each other and making sure the photo was okay – as well as sending messages etc on their phones. It was jam packed full of drunk Aussies and it was totally not my scene, especially sober! I don’t like going places to just be at the place with the same people you’re with every other place. There’s nothing new and exciting about it. It dictates the event for everyone else as well – with groupie groups, you can’t infiltrate and just chat. Anyway, whatever. It wasn’t my scene so I was secretly glad I had a headache. I ducked in a couple of times to see the girls, and wandered around town – it is SO beautiful. I did manage to randomly run into an old friend from Mudgee, which is SO cool! He was at the Walkabout celebrating as well (okay, if I didn’t have a headache I’m sure I would have loved to be there).
I walked home and rested. The girls got home a bit later, chilled out, ate dinner and then headed out to the street party. Edinburgh’s massive NYE celebration. The tickets were about $25 entry and it was PACKED. It opened at 9pm. With heaps of different stages and different music. We met up with some of Tegan’s friends, walked up the very long road to another band. It took so long to get through the people that we stayed there. Again, not my choice for NYE but I’m a total party pooper when it comes to crowds of people. Especially hoards <20yo people getting shitfaced just because they can. Don’t get me wrong – it was really cool to be there and be a part of it, but I don’t need to do it again. The fire works were amazing and the castle overlooking the street was to die for. As soon as the fireworks finished at midnight, everyone was out of there! So weird. I thought that’d just be the party getting started!
Which all turned out well for us because it meant we left too – relatively sober and ready for bed. Ebony and I were home by 1am. We had an awesome night and were still home nice and early. We cooked some chicken nuggets, watched a bit of tv and went to bed. Tegan and her friends stayed out a bit longer.
Today was another sleep in day followed by the free walking tour around town. It was great. Man o man Edinburgh is amazing. It’s totally magnificent. The main road dips down from the castle at the top, so that you see houses and then the ocean. SO amazing. The weather today was spectacular as well. We learnt and saw a lot on the tour, walked home and rested.
We’ve booked two nights in a little town on Loch Ness for the next two nights – yay!!! :)
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