31 December 2008

Hogmanay!

It’s been a little bit strange to think about how different this year is right now, from the last sixteen New Year’s Eves. For ten years, on the 31st of December, we hosted one of the few Hogmanay parties in the U.S.  Before that, we hosted a New Year’s Eve Party with a theme. One year it was a pajama party.  Another year it was a hat party.  One year was “black and white.”  It was the year that the theme was “plaid” that we took the turn toward the recurring Scottish theme, did the research and began what we grew into a multi-tiered, annual, tradition and helped make “Hogmanay” a little more worldwide!

This year, instead of scurrying around the house, lighting candles, hanging lights, filling ice chests, and making wassail in preparation for forty or so guests, we are in Edinburgh Scotland making our dreams come true. We are here for the “real” Hogmanay—at the world’s biggest New Year’s Eve Celebration.  From the moment we first learned about this event, we’ve wanted to be here, and now, here we are!

Kyle has already written a beautiful post to the KRuMB about our day, and I truly have nothing to add to his heartfelt and artful essay. He is right when he writes that words cannot describe the raw emotions of the day. I only know that we can check another item off our life’s “must do” list. And that the only thing that would have made today any better, is if we could have had all of our friends and loved ones here with us! How we would love to have shared this evening with all of you!

So, I give to you (one of many) a photo of tonight’s fireworks.  It was one of the most amazing fireworks displays I’ve ever seen.  Afterwards, It was a full ten minutes before the smoke cleared enough that we could once again see the castle on the hill above us. 

Happy Hogmanay!  Happy New Year!

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31 December 2008
Happy Hogmanay! & a Happy New Year!
My goodness what a day. I don’t know how to begin to describe the emotions, the feelings, the sights, sounds, smells & noises. Overwhelming in a word, but comfortable in a sense. There was an absolute vibration that permeated every aspect of every physical being throughout the city.

We walked the length of Princes Street nearly to Calton Hill before deciding we were famished. We had done some shopping along the way, picking up last little oddbits we’d promised people but were well and truly peckish by the time we’d settled into a beautiful little pub called the Guildford Arms just off Princes street tucked away in a little corner of Register Street. As it turns out, this was another pub on my list of “must visit” pubs that I’d simply forgotten about. But, the selection of Real Ales here was, to put it plainly, astounding. We stayed here people-watching, pint-drinking & postcard-writing for a number of hours.

By the time we were ready to leave, Princes Street had been closed off, evacuated and re-opened for the Party in the Streets: The largest New Year’s Eve Party in the world (or so it’s billed). With our wrist bands (the street party ticket) on and our Concert tickets in hand we walked into a smallish, but vibrant throng of people. The true crowd (in fact, the largest crowd ever for a Hogmanay event in Scotland) was still on its way.

(This is one of many carnival rides set up for the event. This ferris wheel dominates Princes Street right next to the Walter Scott Memorial Tower. I had a very difficult time settling on which photo to use for the day but finally chose this one.)
We walked the length of Princes Street before deciding on some more food before taking our place in the Garden Enclosure. We ate our Scottish Beef Burger (with mustard and brown sauce) on the way into the Gardens, stopped at the beer trailer for a Red Stripe (the only beer available) and took our place against a centuries old Oak tree where we could see crowd, castle & concert. What an extraordinary event. The castle sent fireworks up once an hour to mark the hourly countdown; the bands on the stage played shortish sets in between firework displays; the crowd grew larger & larger and drunker & drunker as time went by (outside Bourbon Street in New Orleans, I’ve never seen so many stumblers in one place). Groove Armada, the headliners for our stage, began their performance at approximately 2320. They played right until 2357, when they went silent, the stage went dark and a Master of Ceremonies came forward to kick off the countdown. At exactly midnight, the Castle simply erupted in a three minute fireworks barrage the likes of which I have never seen before. Immediately following, the largest Auld Lang Syne choir (all the ticket holders) ever assembled began the singing of the traditional song belting it out in pure raw, beautiful emotions that even as I’m writing this many hours later brings a tear to my eye and bumps to my flesh. As the final refrain ended, a lone piper emerged on stage and piped “Flower of Scotland” – the crowd went rabid crazy and sung louder and more fiercely than ever before. Groove Armada joined the piper on stage in the dying skirl and renewed the concert in a furious flurry of sound and emotion. I cannot do justice to the power of the event with mere words, it simply must be experienced. Now, some hours later, I’m awake and still trembling with exhaustion from the sheer emotional toll of the event. This has truly been one of the most brilliant events of my life.
Slainte Mhath!

Cheers.

~KR (Written on 1 January 2009)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.3 sec (3/10)
Aperture: f/4
Focal Length: 14.3 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 4/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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30 December 2008
Today is the day my wife and I decided to try and visit a number of pubs while getting much of our shopping done. I located, prior to leaving, a list of the “best” CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) Pubs in Edinburgh. Armed with that list and a sense of purpose, we set out toward Old Town. We arrived in the Grass Market area of Old Town
at just past 1100 to find that the crews were busily erecting stages and setting lights for the evening’s performance. Grass Market is home to a new Hogmanay party that celebrates dance from around the world. So, while I nipped into the Black Bull #12 and had a pint of 80Shilling for my Da, Marita Beth stayed outside to watch a dance troupe blocking their routine. When the troupe was done, MB came on into the bar to share my pint and discuss the remainder of the day. With the new-found hustle-bustle in Grassmarket, we settled on making this place the end of the day, too. So, we carefully rejiggered the route, finished the Caledonian 80Shilling and headed up to the Royal Mile for shopping. I’m pretty sure we visited every kitsch shop on the High Street and any pub that was on my list (Jolly Judge, Deacon Brodie’s, Half Way House in Fleshmarket Close). We ate lunch, finally, at the Filling Station (bad choice) and continued our walk around the Royal Mile and so back to Old Town. My favourite pub in today’s wanderings was, hand’s down, the Bow Bar on West Bow Street just off Grassmarket. If you find yourself in Edinburgh, do check out this gem of a pub.

(The photo is from the top of Victoria Steps looking down onto Victoria Street as it turns to West Bow street. Up on the left is the Bow Bar, while the group of people in the upper right are on a “Witch Tour” of Old Town)
Being close to the marvelous B&B in which we are staying, we went back there to rest our feet, warm up a bit and drop off our sacks of goodies. Nearing 1900, we went back out to Old Town to revel in the dancing that was soon to be happening. And, revel we did. We started at one end of Grass Market when the event kicked off and saw/heard a traditional Ceilidh band playing a Gay Gordon. The crowd in the street formed a small open circle in front of the stage where as many as will could dance. From here we walked to the centre stage where some Swing Dancing was being exhibited. Some quite exceptional dancers were this quartet. We watched them until they were done and replaced by a teacher of Salsa. He attempted, to no real success, to get the crowd to sway with him; we left. The last stage was a series of 4 rotating acts warming up the stage until the Bollywood Steps came on on the back side of 2200. We saw an Irish tap dancer who apparently holds the Guinness World Record for “Fastest Feet” – I was unimpressed. We saw a group called French Fling who did not delight on their first number, but duly impressed with their Can-Can routine. We saw and experienced The Tumbleweeds, a line-dancing group who taught the crowd to dance to the tune of Achy Breaky Heart. When confident of the crowds level of competence, he switched the song to Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5. If you’ve never seen 800 mostly drunk Scots line dancing in the street to a Dolly Parton song, then you have really missed a sight – amazing! The fourth act came on, and I just wasn’t having it, so we ducked back in to the Black Bull #12 and ordered a Deuscher’s IPA. We watched the last 30 minutes of the Hull v Aston Villa game while waiting for Bollywood Steps to take to the stage (the Hull v Aston Villa game was a heartbreaker right at the death and allowed Aston Villa to leapfrog Arsenal into 4th place in the tables). The end of the match and the beginning of the dance coincided nearly perfectly so off we went into the dark cold to watch. Luckily, the stage was set just outside the pub and there was a non-occupied concrete post on which my wife could stand right there. We hoisted her up, steadied her and then watched a truly remarkable 40 minute dance routine replete with props and pyrotechnics. At 2300, it was all over and we headed to “home” to try and sleep knowing that the next day and night would be even more full and tiring.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 1 January 2009)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.5 sec (1/2)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 4/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

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