Homeless in Edinburgh - a Fool’s Guide to Hogmanay
ALBUM: Sellotape by Tango in the Attic
Hi everyone! I hope this finds you in good health and enjoying the New Year. Today it’s another story time from my adventure to Edinburgh over the New Year. But I thought I’d also like to add a bit about the usual thoughts we all get around this time.
To begin with, I would like to apologise for and explain my absence over December. If you are an avid reader of my blog (you should be) you will know that I am on my year abroad in Sicily. But, as of February 24th, I will be moving to Santiago, Chile. I’m so excited for the opportunity to visit this area of the world, but as of now, there are a few hiccoughs. I got officially accepted at PUC in Santiago about midway through November and have been patiently awaiting the arrival of my acceptance letter in the UK. Well, I was patiently waiting until about midway through December when I began to freak out. And this is my convenient segue into the next part of my blog.
I hate to admit it but I am an insufferable worrier. I can't help myself. And it’s not just a mellow “in the back of my head” worry, no no. Once I get fixated on worrying about something, this normally results in a full on shut down. If I am stressed out enough about something, I will worry and worry while doing absolutely nothing to help the situation. The way I see it is, I don’t want to be faced with the huge to-do list that I will invariably have to deal with if I do address the problem. It’s a very “head buried in the sand” approach. And that’s what was slowly happening with my Chile application. I realised I hadn’t looked at my account login for ages out of pure fear that I wouldn’t have the time. Do you see how stupid and irrational I am? So, fingers-crossed, I am going to try my bestest to leave this terrible trait in 2017. I’m so intrigued with the concept of the magical idea of completely changing and bettering ourselves at the turn of a New Year. We seem to be eternally displeased with what we see in the mirror everyday. The way I see it, you will be forever disappointed if you spend your life pushing and wishing to be someone new or different. Nothing should be forced to change, especially not at the whimsical change of the year. So no, I’m not going to officially title it a New Year’s Resolution, because those never go well for me and who am I trying to prove? Just do what is right for yourself when it is right.
So you will be pleased to know, that with my worrying a thing of the past (hopefully), I have now completed my Visa Application and booked my flights for Chile. It feels weird knowing that I’m doing things and saving myself a bundle of stress. I also made it my mission when I was in Edinburgh to seize my acceptance letter, which had been being held hostage at the University, after the courier I employed to collect it had happened to go to the wrong office despite specific instructions. The Old Georgia would have panicked and wondered how ever she was going to get her acceptance letter. But as the old saying goes, if you want something done right, do it yourself. Which is exactly what I did my dear readers. I took the opportunity of going to Edinburgh to visit my friends for Hogmanay as the perfect chance to collect said form.
Now enough of the admin fodder, with yet another splendid segue I will begin “Hogmanay Storytime”. I arrived in Edinburgh on the 28th and was immediately faced with a hurdle - I had nowhere to live. My friend I was staying with for the most part wasn’t arriving until the 30th and my other plans had fallen through. Shit. So with suitcase in hand I made my way to the pub where my other best friend, who said I could stay with her, was drinking and just let the chips fall where they may. The chips falling where they may ended in a messy night of far too many g&ts and tequila shots before ending up in Hive till five. If you are unaware of the joys of the nightclub Hive, count yourself as one of the lucky ones. No night will ever end well if someone utters the dreaded words “shall we go to Hive?” Incidentally, my night ended with me being locked out of where I had cleverly (or so I thought) stowed my suitcase and sleeping on my pal’s sofa with my contact lenses in. Yum. The next morning I forced my horribly dry eyes open to a view from a fairytale - it had snowed overnight and Edinburgh was a picture.
Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities on a bad day in the wind and rain, but with the snow it was just picturesque. So the next day I dragged my friend all around Edinburgh taking pictures I have taken a hundred times before, but this time with the added effect of snow! I decided to treat myself to another night out, with my friends who have been scattered across the world - Sicily really pales in comparison to Mexico, Argentina and South Korea. There was nothing overly messy about this night out, it was just really lovely to see some old faces. I don’t think you really realise how much you miss someone, until you can squish their face with your own two hands and know they are there. It also makes going away again that little bit harder.
But after my two nights of sofa sleeping, I was finally able to take myself off to a real bed! I dragged my suitcase around Nicholson St, which if you haven’t tried to do during the Hogmanay period, don’t. Edinburgh becomes the busiest little city in the world at New Years - it is famous for Hogmanay and there are simply people everywhere. So during this very busy time, I decided to take my suitcase shopping with me, not my best idea. Apart from that, I finally made it to my friend’s place: the last stop, and could relax for one day before the Hogmanay parties really started.
On New Year’s Eve during the day, my friends and I went for a lovely wander around the Christmas market where the stalls sell the best Baileys hot chocolate I have ever tasted. This was to be my last day with my friend currently living in Mexico so of course goodbyes were said before we started preparing for the night ahead. The strangest thing about New Year’s Eve for me is the planning. Normally I will not intend to leave for a club before 12:30, but when you have to add in being somewhere for the bells, the plans go awry. You clearly need an hour more drinking time at pres to make up for the earlier start. But alas no one thinks of this until pres are in full swing, when you look at the clock and you’ve got about 45 minutes until you need to leave and everyone is politely sipping prosecco. This happened to us, but it was also around this time when two of my friends panicked that they didn't have tickets to go anything. They had intended to do a bar crawl but at the last minute wanted to come where we were going. If I’m honest things got a bit too excitable at this point and so I took a back seat and decided to focus on making sure I was drunk enough for the night ahead.
I don’t know how she does it, but my best friend has a way of losing her keys at the worst moments. It is just impossible how she does it. 11:35 and all of a sudden we can’t find the keys. Shit. We were meant to leave 5 minutes ago! After a very flustered and drunken 10 minute look for her keys which were conveniently on the sofa where we had been sat all night (don’t get me started), we ran our asses down Nicholson Street to see the fireworks. If I’m honest midnight on New Year’s Eve was a major letdown and a massive confusion for me. We had all muscled our way through the crowd to try and see the fireworks. It was eerily quiet and nobody even seemed closed to excited. And then all of a sudden about 4 fireworks went off and we all looked at each other and said “is that it?”, it wasn’t until we checked our phones and assured ourselves it was indeed midnight that we started to celebrate. It was a very odd way to start the New Year - good thing I’m not superstitious about these things. I am sure if we had been down on Prince’s Street things would have been livelier.
As for the rest of the night, the usual things happened - we lost each other, we found each other, we made friends we will never remember the next day, but most importantly we had a damn good time and we were together (for most of it). In the end we stayed up till about 7, watching repeats of Come Dine With Me after the club closed at 5. And I couldn’t think of a better way to start my New Year. Drunk, happy, with my friends, but most importantly laughing myself silly at some quality British TV.
I’d like to say a soppy thank you for all the support I have had for the blog as we head into the new year. I’m so happy I’ve stuck at it. As a quick side-note, I should mention that I have started a new Instagram. I recently bought myself a camera, something I have wanted for ages, and have decided I am going to try my hand at photography, after how enjoyable this blogging has been. I’m going to snap pics of my travels and if I’m terrible, hopefully I’ll get better. Give it a peruse or even a follow if you will - https://www.instagram.com/flynn.fotos/
Until next time!
Hi everyone! I hope this finds you in good health and enjoying the New Year. Today it’s another story time from my adventure to Edinburgh over the New Year. But I thought I’d also like to add a bit about the usual thoughts we all get around this time.
To begin with, I would like to apologise for and explain my absence over December. If you are an avid reader of my blog (you should be) you will know that I am on my year abroad in Sicily. But, as of February 24th, I will be moving to Santiago, Chile. I’m so excited for the opportunity to visit this area of the world, but as of now, there are a few hiccoughs. I got officially accepted at PUC in Santiago about midway through November and have been patiently awaiting the arrival of my acceptance letter in the UK. Well, I was patiently waiting until about midway through December when I began to freak out. And this is my convenient segue into the next part of my blog.
I hate to admit it but I am an insufferable worrier. I can't help myself. And it’s not just a mellow “in the back of my head” worry, no no. Once I get fixated on worrying about something, this normally results in a full on shut down. If I am stressed out enough about something, I will worry and worry while doing absolutely nothing to help the situation. The way I see it is, I don’t want to be faced with the huge to-do list that I will invariably have to deal with if I do address the problem. It’s a very “head buried in the sand” approach. And that’s what was slowly happening with my Chile application. I realised I hadn’t looked at my account login for ages out of pure fear that I wouldn’t have the time. Do you see how stupid and irrational I am? So, fingers-crossed, I am going to try my bestest to leave this terrible trait in 2017. I’m so intrigued with the concept of the magical idea of completely changing and bettering ourselves at the turn of a New Year. We seem to be eternally displeased with what we see in the mirror everyday. The way I see it, you will be forever disappointed if you spend your life pushing and wishing to be someone new or different. Nothing should be forced to change, especially not at the whimsical change of the year. So no, I’m not going to officially title it a New Year’s Resolution, because those never go well for me and who am I trying to prove? Just do what is right for yourself when it is right.
So you will be pleased to know, that with my worrying a thing of the past (hopefully), I have now completed my Visa Application and booked my flights for Chile. It feels weird knowing that I’m doing things and saving myself a bundle of stress. I also made it my mission when I was in Edinburgh to seize my acceptance letter, which had been being held hostage at the University, after the courier I employed to collect it had happened to go to the wrong office despite specific instructions. The Old Georgia would have panicked and wondered how ever she was going to get her acceptance letter. But as the old saying goes, if you want something done right, do it yourself. Which is exactly what I did my dear readers. I took the opportunity of going to Edinburgh to visit my friends for Hogmanay as the perfect chance to collect said form.
Now enough of the admin fodder, with yet another splendid segue I will begin “Hogmanay Storytime”. I arrived in Edinburgh on the 28th and was immediately faced with a hurdle - I had nowhere to live. My friend I was staying with for the most part wasn’t arriving until the 30th and my other plans had fallen through. Shit. So with suitcase in hand I made my way to the pub where my other best friend, who said I could stay with her, was drinking and just let the chips fall where they may. The chips falling where they may ended in a messy night of far too many g&ts and tequila shots before ending up in Hive till five. If you are unaware of the joys of the nightclub Hive, count yourself as one of the lucky ones. No night will ever end well if someone utters the dreaded words “shall we go to Hive?” Incidentally, my night ended with me being locked out of where I had cleverly (or so I thought) stowed my suitcase and sleeping on my pal’s sofa with my contact lenses in. Yum. The next morning I forced my horribly dry eyes open to a view from a fairytale - it had snowed overnight and Edinburgh was a picture.
Edinburgh is one of my favourite cities on a bad day in the wind and rain, but with the snow it was just picturesque. So the next day I dragged my friend all around Edinburgh taking pictures I have taken a hundred times before, but this time with the added effect of snow! I decided to treat myself to another night out, with my friends who have been scattered across the world - Sicily really pales in comparison to Mexico, Argentina and South Korea. There was nothing overly messy about this night out, it was just really lovely to see some old faces. I don’t think you really realise how much you miss someone, until you can squish their face with your own two hands and know they are there. It also makes going away again that little bit harder.
But after my two nights of sofa sleeping, I was finally able to take myself off to a real bed! I dragged my suitcase around Nicholson St, which if you haven’t tried to do during the Hogmanay period, don’t. Edinburgh becomes the busiest little city in the world at New Years - it is famous for Hogmanay and there are simply people everywhere. So during this very busy time, I decided to take my suitcase shopping with me, not my best idea. Apart from that, I finally made it to my friend’s place: the last stop, and could relax for one day before the Hogmanay parties really started.
On New Year’s Eve during the day, my friends and I went for a lovely wander around the Christmas market where the stalls sell the best Baileys hot chocolate I have ever tasted. This was to be my last day with my friend currently living in Mexico so of course goodbyes were said before we started preparing for the night ahead. The strangest thing about New Year’s Eve for me is the planning. Normally I will not intend to leave for a club before 12:30, but when you have to add in being somewhere for the bells, the plans go awry. You clearly need an hour more drinking time at pres to make up for the earlier start. But alas no one thinks of this until pres are in full swing, when you look at the clock and you’ve got about 45 minutes until you need to leave and everyone is politely sipping prosecco. This happened to us, but it was also around this time when two of my friends panicked that they didn't have tickets to go anything. They had intended to do a bar crawl but at the last minute wanted to come where we were going. If I’m honest things got a bit too excitable at this point and so I took a back seat and decided to focus on making sure I was drunk enough for the night ahead.
I don’t know how she does it, but my best friend has a way of losing her keys at the worst moments. It is just impossible how she does it. 11:35 and all of a sudden we can’t find the keys. Shit. We were meant to leave 5 minutes ago! After a very flustered and drunken 10 minute look for her keys which were conveniently on the sofa where we had been sat all night (don’t get me started), we ran our asses down Nicholson Street to see the fireworks. If I’m honest midnight on New Year’s Eve was a major letdown and a massive confusion for me. We had all muscled our way through the crowd to try and see the fireworks. It was eerily quiet and nobody even seemed closed to excited. And then all of a sudden about 4 fireworks went off and we all looked at each other and said “is that it?”, it wasn’t until we checked our phones and assured ourselves it was indeed midnight that we started to celebrate. It was a very odd way to start the New Year - good thing I’m not superstitious about these things. I am sure if we had been down on Prince’s Street things would have been livelier.
As for the rest of the night, the usual things happened - we lost each other, we found each other, we made friends we will never remember the next day, but most importantly we had a damn good time and we were together (for most of it). In the end we stayed up till about 7, watching repeats of Come Dine With Me after the club closed at 5. And I couldn’t think of a better way to start my New Year. Drunk, happy, with my friends, but most importantly laughing myself silly at some quality British TV.
I’d like to say a soppy thank you for all the support I have had for the blog as we head into the new year. I’m so happy I’ve stuck at it. As a quick side-note, I should mention that I have started a new Instagram. I recently bought myself a camera, something I have wanted for ages, and have decided I am going to try my hand at photography, after how enjoyable this blogging has been. I’m going to snap pics of my travels and if I’m terrible, hopefully I’ll get better. Give it a peruse or even a follow if you will - https://www.instagram.com/flynn.fotos/
Until next time!
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