Hogmanay - New Years 2005-06, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Some time ago, the remaining people from our Contiki group decided to head to Edinburgh, Scotland for the new years eve bash, which has become one of the biggest in the world, Hogmanay. Joining me up there was Joel (who organised the hostel), Jac, Matty, Kelly, Giselle, Georgie and Katie, as well as various friends that they had met in London.

We stayed at the Castle Rock Backpackers, which was located right under Edinburgh Castle and provided an awesome location for all of us. We only had 10 places booked, but were able to get several other people sleeping in their due to the sheer number of people coming and going at that time of year.

The first thing that struck us about this hostel was the number of long term people that appeared to be there, who all seemed kind of clicky and didnt seem to want anything to do with us as "randoms". Eventually I met some of them though, and they were actually quite friendly.

The second thing that became apparant, was that this was indeed a good hostel. Very large kitchen, two large living areas and the whole place was well kept up. This was in part to having lots of cleaners. Assuming there were enough jobs to go around, you can actually stay at Castle Rock for free if you are willing to do 2 hours of cleaning a day, which lots of people found very reasonable. Its the sort of place someone comes to for a few days and ends up staying a few months.

Catching up with everyone from Contiki and their new friends was a lot of fun, particularly with the relatively cheap prices in Edinburgh, due to its large number of students and backpackers.

The night before new years, there was a torch walk, with thousands of peopl walking with lit flames to the top of Carlton Hill where they set fire to some random wooden objects, like an old viking ship and a large horse.

The night of the actual New Years was maybe a little dissapointing. The one thing that really stuck was the massive crowds which were inescapable. Plus we couldnt hear the music, but we made our own fun, largely revolving around how drunk we were.

Eventually after a week of solid drinking and mayhem, most of the group moved on, back to London to their jobs, but I decided that I liked Edinburgh, and that I would stay...