Awe-inpsiring Edinburgh ensures my 2016 went out with a bang
THE young man in the kilt was having difficulty at the urinal. ‘I’m wearing a kilt and mittins, I don know where I’m p******! Whoever thought of this was having a laugh.’ And he couldn’t stop laughing. The Scottish man in the urinal beside me was having a wee break from celebrating the end of 2016 at the Hogmanay festival in Edinburgh.
He, along with my brother and 80,000 other bubbly souls, had a plan for the night and that was to enjoy one of the world’s great New Year’s Eve street parties in a city deserving of all the superlatives the English dictionary could throw at it.
The usual quandry about what to do on New Year’s Eve was solved as soon as I got a brainwave in November to book a break in Edinburgh having Google’d Europe’s best New Year’s Eve parties. Arriving in the city on Thursday, it wasn’t long before I’d succumbed to its many charms.
From the wonderful sandstone buildings to the narrow stepped laneways, to the warmth of its inhabitants, there was something special about being in a city with so much confidence and purpose as 2016 wound down towards the much anticipated midnight hour explosions of colour.
It’s rare that I get to see my brother, who lives in the States, so the chance to fly from parental responsibility for a few days away with him was something I was eagerly looking forward to. Many a dimpled glass of ale was enjoyed over the course of four days and needless to say a fantastic time was had. Dungeons were visited, hills traversed, sights enjoyed and narry a sign of ‘dreeg’ (rain), cold or snow.
The whole city was buzzing and the Christmas Market, featuring more than 300 stands, showed just how a city the size of Edinburgh (500,000) can come together and make a magical attraction happen, benefiting local hotels, businesses and the city, as a whole.
While in Edinburgh, we had to try out the haggis, neeps (turnips) tatties (mash potatoes) and far from being (sheep) stomach turning, they were tasty.
We avoided the battered Mars bars and stayed clear of the pricey whiskies. Maybe it’s old age but we kept a leash on our drinking and marched to the life-affirming beat of the city’s drum, with the sound of bagpipes never far away. The only shadow on this golden city came via a front page story about the threat of a terror attack.
A police superintendent warned that there was a high risk of an attack on Scotland’s capital city during Hogmanay.
As it happened the attack befell the city of Istanbul. It could easily have been somewhere that my brother and I were. Islamic State says it was behind the attack on a Turkish nightclub that killed 39 people. At least 600 revellers were celebrating in the early hours of Sunday at Istanbul’s Reina nightclub when the gunman who was wearing a Santa hat began firing indiscriminately.
He fired up to 180 bullets with a long-barrelled gun randomly at people in an assault lasting seven minutes. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused groups such as IS of trying ‘to create chaos’. He promptly banned a local media outlet who had video footage of the attack from airing it, knowing full well that this would play straight into the hands of IS. Twenty-seven of those killed were foreign. Among them citizens from Israel, Russia, France, Tunisia, Lebanon, India, Belgium, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
We should count our lucky stars as we begin 2017 that we are healthy and surrounded by good fortune.