After Christmas was a blur of museums, cafes, dreary weather, and spreading the news to family and friends. It was a wonderful haze of romance. We went back to Montmartre to see it the right way, discovering all the sweet little alley ways, savouring the crepes and gazing down on the city from the steps of the Sacre Coeur. We agreed not to make wedding plans until we returned to Canada, but little snip-its of ideas popped into conversation on a regular basis. As much as Paris had redeemed itself in our eyes, we were ready to take off and make our way to the party of our lives (besides the up coming wedding of course.)
New Year’s Eve in Edinburgh! Now there’s a party. We arrived in the evening a few days before the big night and made our way to a funny Hostel called Castle Rock. Nice room, 16 beds (oi!), a kitchen, free coffee and tea anytime, but shit internet. That’s the thing with Scotland, everything is old so that new technologies don’t quite work right.
New Year is Edinburgh is called Hogmonay. The Scots also invented the song “Auld Lang Syne”. The whole main street and garden overlooking the castle turn into a MASSIVE street party. I read that over 100 000 people poured into the streets to party this year. We met four great people from Manchester who took us in and we partied with them for the night. Normally, our New Year celebration involved a group of friends, a few bottles of cheap champagne and a pretty subdued party. This year was different. I personally was very happy because never having been to Scotland, I had no expectations so all I could do was join the enthusiasm of the group! We were as dressed up as we could be while comfortable, not that anyone could see it, winter coats still rule the wardrobe. Although of course, just like anywhere you get the girls in stilettos, mini-skirts and tube tops.
We rode carnival rides, drank whisky in the streets, watched a random UK band (THE CORAL!!!!), danced, sang, ate street vendor supper, and watched a beautiful, albeit short, fireworks display over top the castle. Mostly though, we laughed and cuddled as only 2 people in love can do. After the street party dissolved we ended up at a bar making our entrance no earlier than 2am. Yes ENTRANCE at 2am. At this moment, we LOVE Scotland. Never could you go to a bar at this time in Canada and gain admittance. Walking home was a haze of dancing and yelling (WE LOVE THE CORAL!!!!) I don’t remember much except for the outrageous amount of girls walking home barefoot in streets covered in filth. (It took a good week to get Edinburgh totally cleaned up and hosed off, but they got the major stuff done by early next morning.)
New Year’s day was lazy and quiet. We did however make our way out for a big brunch, which was greasy and gross. Haggis has officially been tried. The verdict is not good. The evening consisted of no fewer than 2 ghost tours with some great stories that took us trotting up Carlton Hill in the pitch black. The hostel has turned out to be fun because we could cook (yay!) and we went running 3 times. The funniest part is that we spent 2 months traveling trying to figure out how we were going to survive the cold in Scotland. Meanwhile, it was above freezing every day and New Years itself was 7°C.
Sunday January 2nd I FINALLY made it too my first rugby match. Live scrums. Two rival Scottish teams and a bitter battle right to the last second. Nuff said. (At this point dad would call me a basher smasher and do a funny little snarl, and he would be right, I screamed myself hoarse cheering for Edinbrugh!)
After the hostel, we moved to a couchsurfers for 3 days. It was a really sweet middle-aged couple who took great care of us. They served tea and coffee all the time, and left breakfast out for us. We enjoyed sleeping in, (I had a raging cold by this time) and quiet nights by the wood stove.
One night I streamed the gold medal world junior hockey championships. I am Canadian after all. I went to bed after the second period. I figured a 3-0 lead was a pretty safe bet that we had won gold. It was after all almost 2am by this point. Boy, was I in for a surprise next morning when I got online!
Ken and I had decided somewhere between castles, cider and kilts that we would try to stay in Edinburgh for awhile and get some paperwork sorted, maybe even find some short term work and settle our brains a little before the next adventure. So, the goal was set that as soon as the Scots went back to work (they didn’t start until January 4th) we would start hitting the pavement. However, this still left us with a couple days to enjoy the vacation, so we took the opportunity to hike Arthur’s Seat. This little mountain seems quite innocent but you can get a few steep stretches and the view from the top is so worth it! Although windy as all get out. We spent a good couple hours roaming around the Hollyrood Park which encompasses the famous seat then hit up a café.
Ken and I are loving our late afternoon cappuccino breaks. And now, we use them to talk wedding wedding wedding! I know we said we’d wait until we were back in Canada but you cannot tame the thoughts of a bride-to-be… and apparently those of a groom-to-be either. So as we enjoyed the lazy, care free afternoons or strolls around Edinburgh, colour schemes, guest lists, party favours, menus and questions of to cake or not to cake are common conversation. (Insert girly shriek here).
Oh Kalene, the walking contradiction. Rugby and wedding dresses. Cappucinos and £2 pints of cidar. Happy First Footing friends.
