NEW YEARS IN SCOTLAND

Hello!

Happy new year everyone... hope you enjoyed the festive season.

Well we had a lovely cold christmas with Spence & Tor who made us a yummy hot, traditional christmas lunch. Unfortunately not a white christmas this year though.

Then on the 27th Dec we headed to Edinburgh, Scotland to spend 6 nights and see in the new year at the Hogmanay celebrations. We were met at the airport by Rawena (our school friend) and her boyfriend Christian who share a flat in Edinburgh right at the base of Edinburgh Castle. We spent our first 2 nights at their place which was really nice and we had lots of fun catching up. It was so great to have local friends show us the sights of the city and recommend some tourist attractions. The rest of our time was spent at our first hostel! I guess you've gotta do these things :) It was ok. This is the green door to Ro & Christian's building.

One of the recommended attractions was Mary King's Close tour. It is a guided tour of the underground vaults which the city was built on top of many years ago in the days of the black plague. It was very interesting and a bit spooky. It's like a little city of dark rooms underneath the main street (The Royal Mile). We really like Edinburgh with it's cobble stone closes and paved streets, little boutiques and ancient architecture. The pubs are great too!

The picture above is The Royal Mile which is the main street of Old Town. And below is St Giles cathedral on the Royal Mile.

This picture of Bobby's Bar and the statue of the dog is a memorial for the very famous terrier named Greyfriar's Bobby. The terrier faithfully guarded the grave of his master, policeman John Gray, at Greyfriars Kirk for 14 years until his own death in 1872. It's a sad and amazing story of loyalty. It's just down the road from Rowy's house.

We went to Edinburgh Castle on a day when the weather was pretty bad so didn't get to enjoy it thoroughly. We saw the Scottish Crown Jewels and had a look around there for a while. There is a cannon shot off at 1pm every day from the castle to signify the resurrection of the jewels which were recovered after being hidden for many years. Rowy & Christian took us up Arthur's Seat (a huge hill/mountain). It was certainly worth the hike even though it nearly killed us! From the top you get a wonderful view of the city of Edinburgh and the Castle, right out to the ocean and highlands as well. It was really great and luckily we did it on a fairly clear day so we got some good pics. I don't know if you'll get the impact of how high it actually was!After our big walk we drove a little bit out of the city to see Rosslyn Chapel (From the Da Vinci Code). It had beautiful carvings and symbols which i wish i understood. Apparently there are also frequent references to the Knights Templar (from the book).
One of the hightlights of the trip for us was going for a drive out into the Highlands. We're so lucky we were able to go for a drive with Rowy & Christian because we otherwise probably would not have visited this part of Scotland. We really appreciate it guys! They kindly drove us on a nice day to see Loch Lomond (like Loch Ness which was a fair way away). On the way we got a good dose of the gorgeous countryside. This is the only place we've seen snow so far...on the hilltops. Everything was so green and the Loch was very different to the places we get to see at home with it's dark (nearly black) water and hills behind. It was freezing there and it does have a relaxing but kind of eerie feeling. Another exciting part of the drive was meeting some Highland Coos! They are like big cows with very long hair. They also have rounder ears which makes their face look a little like a bear. They are pretty cute.
So as you know, our main reason for going to Scotland at this time was for Hogmanay (Scottish New Years Festival). I've already told some of you but Hogmany was actually cancelled at the last minute this year due to terrible weather. On New Years Eve there was sideways rain and gale force winds so the street party and all other events for the night were cancelled. We know... bummer! Especially because we had tickets to go to another event which was called 'Celidah in The Gardens' (a night of traditional scottish dancing) which would have been alot of fun. Not to worry, we still had a great new years partying at Rowy and Christian's house. The 4 of us made the most of it and had a crazy, memorable night so it was fine. They did let a few fireworks off the castle but nothing like what was planned.
Luckily the Hogmany is a 4 day festival so we did get to go to a couple of the events while we were there. Our favourite was the Torchlight Precession which was held on the night of the 29th. I think it is a traditional viking ceremony where a mass of people walk through the city. Each person is armed with a huge torch of fire (which you buy). The group walks behind a band of pipers and heads to the top of Calton Hill where more bonfires are set alight. The story goes that it is a ceremony to encourage the sun to come out and make the days longer as you go into a new year? Anyway, it was a really fun, unique event which looked spectacular as everyone walked the street with their torch. Then there were some great fireworks when we got to the top of the hill. I don't know if i explained that very well but here are some photos....

Now to plan the next trip! :) hopefully we can get another one in before starting work. Oh, and i finished my overseas nursing programme everyone... yay! xoxox

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