Experience The Adventure

Wow! After one day of parties, sitting up in bed, and just thinking, wow!

The biggest party ever! I was going to make it the biggest party of my life…

I need to get this posted regardless of proper writing:

Went with PP travel, the 5 day tour. Schedule went like this: Fri. pub meet. Sat, scheduled for Espionage Nightclub. Sun – new years party- starts at 9:30am for Kiwi NY at 11am and Auz new years starting 12am. Street Party evening. Sun – Stirling castle tour then party at Frankenstein night club. Tues – back to London

Arrived, forgot my printout. Good thing the near tourist info had internet. I was a little concerned beforehand about heading up by myself, but the plan is always to make friends as you go, and the concerns were unfounded. First guy I met, Luke, was a good guy and we were friends. A little worried about the SAs in our room who swore every second word, but people made fun of that and they were out on their own most of the time. They had this normal way about them to be loud, insult each other and swear, so every bouncer thought they were completely hammered, and they couldn’t get into a lot of places.

600ish Kiwi and Auzzies. Met one Italian, bunk above me, about 5 middle aged Canadians, a few Taiwanese, a few UK res, a few Americans, one German…

The Edinburgh Youth Hostel – nicest hostel ever seen. Like a hotel, everyone dressed up, nice showers, good lighting, extra bathrooms outside rooms on each floor, and build really well. Only 3 months old…it was great!

There was a winter festival going on at the same time. There was a ferris wheel, rides, some lights and a skating rink. They had a unique way of puting up lights on trees, so that it borders along the main trunk and branches. This looks extremely nice! There were also a lot of activities planned for Hogmanay, but the way things turned out, just partying you didn’t see or need to see any of the other things.

Fri- Walkabout. Thats pretty Auzzi. I thought there was going to be a pub? There was… for the next 4 places. Some were really good, all were really busy. Good discussions about lesbians. Some will admit experiences… they turn really red, but was too drunk to notice. I remember it was interesting, wanted to get into that conversation a little further, but was having too much fun. Figured out to only drink doubles for a buzz, and did for the rest of the weekend. Stayed out all night. Every night from here on in, at least till 3 am close.

Sat – There was a bus tour in the late morning around the city. Tours are great, no walking, perfect for a hangover. Afterwards we wandered the city for a while, not really stoping anywhere but just wandering through. Nightclub – Espionage – all night. Large place, 5 levels. Nice music and place, danced the night away on bottom level. Its all a blur.

Sun – the big day.
Heading out just before 11am to hit first new years – The New Zealand NY. A decent crowd for celebration, a little party. The party grew as time moved on, people started gathering there. A little early to be drinking, considering past couple of nights, but have to trudge on. Drink more! Celebrated the Auz new years at 12noon, 12:30, 1pm, 2pm, until 3ish. Like Deja Vu. You get a good fill of the new years! then needed some sleep, until dinner time.

Drinking in the hostel with many interesting characters, lots of drinking games. After dragging them out, and everyone else in the hostel (hostel knocking), we went to the street party. Hostel knocking has its moments. It was windy, police were stopping people, I thought it was for alcohol and always walked away. Turns out street party was cancelled, barricaded and surrounded by police. They wouldn’t let anyone in. You call this rain? its like summer in Canada. Stop act like you’re being blown around by the wind. Its sure as heck isn’t -30 with a meter of snow. Toughen up! Lots of the Kiwis thought that was funny. It may be funny, but at least its true.
Headed over to a pub on the other side of the river. Small place, friendly PP crowd. Met some UKers there, and the usual crowd, which is like many crowds from the hostel and hotels, and then theres that picture down below. There were plenty more countdowns, including the south Africa. Couldn’t recognize them all, eventually just started ignoring it. Stayed there until midnight, then we all ran out and couldn’t see any of the fireworks. Who needs that when you’re partying? My memory is bad when I drink that much. I introduced myself to some girls that night, so decided they should tell me we spoke before, like 5 times. I know they were from previous nights, because we weren’t there for that long. It wouldn’t be the last time. Luke showed up and we headed for a nightclub. There was a mass gathering on one of the streets, lots of drunken dancing. Opted not to stay, to The Q! People slowly rolled over to this party to make it huge… partied it up there, until 3 am. Can’t go back yet! T the Italian agreed, so did someone else, can’t remember who, then we promptly lost each other in the crowd outside the club. Turns out they were chatting to some polish girls, I probably left before they did. I turned around, met a couple of Edinburgh youth, a guy and a gal who were cool, and we headed to Espionage. Partied it up at espionage, dancing away, until 6ish. It closed, we got kicked out. Wow, was it chilly. Looked for some place to eat, stood outside of McDs with an angry mob of people. Let us in! Nothing we could do would convince them. Once I got tired of that, I decided can’t do much more, will head back.
On the way back, met some people, continental North American accent i think, but it was hard to tell at that point, they were heading to a pub. At the pub, two of them didn’t have ID, so they weren’t let in. They started swearing at the bouncer… I was hungry. I’m not with them, so got in. It may have been about 6:30 at this point. Sat down at the bar with my drink, my crisps and my nuts. Small one floor place, like a pub. Some younger uk guy chilling out there and some older uk guy there too. Had a nice chat. did that chat figure out some things about the future? maybe the old guy was another self employed guy, though i also remember chatting to others who are small business owners at other place. 9am, well it looks like this is my new year. Then a huge shock! who’s counting down? I’ll be it, Canadians? Nope, turns out they are Americans. Well eventually, couldn’t drink anymore, headed back for the 9:30is breakfast back at the hostel. Ah, real food. Sleep.

Monday. Went to bed for an hour, until 10:30ish.
Got up to made it to the bus to check out Stirling castle. Could see the William Wallace monument, the bridge – maybe that’s why the castle was there. Watched the storm rolling in so tried to see everything quick, but it never really hit hard.
Sleep. Then back up for the party. Only guaranteed entry until 9, decided to risk it. One of roommates came back slightly before 9ish, joined him and the others from the next room to head out to Frankenstein. Three main levels, ours reserved in basement. On the bottom floor one girl needed a rating, so I gave her a minus 5. She was insulted but introduced me to her friends anyway. They were alright, playing drinking games. I thought we had never met, apparently they were the same girls from before, introductions number 6… who knew. They look too normally plain, and I didn’t have that problem with anyone else! After I got bored of their drinking games, I headed around more. Late in the evening, Frankenstein came down from the roof, looked around and went back up. I was dancing up stairs and turned around; “you guys look familiar.” “We were just talking downstairs.” At least this time, number 7, they looked familiar. Bartenders dancing for a while on the bar. Rest of red Christmas hats given out with a large mob who wanted them. A big, busy place. Once it was over and it closed, the rest of them were dancing in the streets, all craziness, that was enough, had to head back to hostel.

Tuesday. Next morning had to check out early. Met up with Luke and we went back to London on the train. He showed me a really great shortcut into the station, saved a 30 min walk. it was soo busy, we skipped the first train, which people were standing everywhere. Stand for 4.5 hours? nope. Luke tried buying a seat, the desk said good luck, and we hoped the next one. Good move, got some empty seats. Besides trains having delays and break downs, back to London.

Got sick and didn’t make it into work for about a week. Soo thirsty, yet drank soo much water. It was a rough week. Had a bad cold. Apparently it was going around the school now, a whole bunch of people were out. Same cold is going around Paris, I found out this weekend.

I don’t feel the need to drink at the moment, pure contentment. That was a party. A huge new years party. Biggest party of my life. Must have been something I was looking for. You can’t put a pricetag on that. I don’t plan to ever do that again. I don’t think I could physically handle that again. But for a party, wow.

Who are there people?

Scots. most of the night looked like this.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 15th, 2007 at 11:02 am and is filed under London, London Trips, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.