I know, it’s taken me a while to finally rangle in this next blog post, eventually I will catch up to what’s been going on since the holiday break. I promise…cross my heart. Cool? Good, moving on!
So, New Years…….where to begin. Well, December 31st would probably be the most sensible starting point. I had been thinking a lot prior to New Years as to exactly what we should do in the lead up to the midnight celebration. I definitely wanted to make it into London to see the fireworks that explode over and around the London Eye at midnight (you know, the ones you always see on TV when they broadcast the fact that it’s New Years in England). The only issue was that it was going to be crazy busy and we would need to get there early in order to ensure a decent vantage point at Victoria Embankment. Therefore, I felt that a good wander all through London to places that Jer hadn’t been to yet would be a good way to spend the day.
We woke up on the big day and ate a hearty breakfast (get something in the old gut for the celebrations to come) and loaded up a backpack with a few beers each to bring along with us throughout the day. We hit the tube up to Embankment station and this is where our story begins. From the station exit we headed south along Victoria Embankment towards Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. From there we swung south-west to Westminster Abbey for a photo-op in front of the beautiful building and continued on north towards St. James Park. Although it wasn’t as nice a day as the last time I was in this park (September) there was still a hustle and bustle of people everywhere and of course the plethora of ducks, geese, seagulls, squirrels, pelicans, and the like. Unfortunately we had a run in with a duck that was sporting a badly injured leg that forced it to hobble around. Definite damper on the moment but it eventually flew off and so did we.
Once hitting the north point of St. James Park we were on the Mall and headed west towards Buckingham Palace. After wishing the Queen a “Happy New Years” (or at least I assume she heard it) we had a sit down on the Victoria Monument and enjoyed a nice (and discreet) beer. From here we pressed onwards to Green Park on the north side of the Palace. In this park we stumbled upon a memorial to the Canadian war dead from the First and Second World Wars. I had no idea this memorial was even here and it was a lovely discovery for both of us. The memorial was split into two pieces of slanted bronze with maple leaves sculpted into them. Water cascaded down each one as well. After cleaning up a bunch of garbage that was just thrown around the memorial we pressed ahead towards Marble Arch and Hyde Park.
At this point the stomach was beginning to inform us of its desire to ingest something other than beer for a little bit. We obliged it tenfold by heading towards Harrod’s and it’s famed Food Hall. You can almost get anything you want in the hall so we were presented with many different options. We decided to get a spread of a couple cheese, some meats, and fresh baked bread to take with us (picture on my Facebook page). After wandering around the store a bit to show Jeremy how absolutely ridiculous it was we headed out of the weeds and into Hyde Park for a sit down and to enjoy our newly acquired sustenance. While we were eating we noticed that Hyde Park Winter Wonderland was still going on and decided to drop into the German Beer Haus for a stein of beer each to enjoy before moving forward. Luckily they were plastic and only a £2 deposit on them so we obviously took them with us. They were to come in handy later on. After completing our steins we headed east out of Hyde Park to make our way back towards Trafalgar Square to meet up with Nicole and friends. Along the way we headed through Mayfair and played another rousing game of “PUB!”….of which I believe I am still the undisputed champion but Jeremy more than held his own. We rounded our way through Picadilly Circus and down Haymarket back towards Trafalgar Square. While waiting on the steps of the National Gallery we enjoyed another beer (using our newly acquired steins) until everybody arrived. Once we were all together we slipped up to Leicester Square for Noodle Stop and over to The Brewmaster for another pint. Once we were done there we headed on our descent to Victoria Embankment (full circle anyone?) to wait for the fireworks. A quick stop off for champagne along the way and we rolled into the area at around 9pm.
Now, wasting three hours actually wasn’t as difficult as it sounded. Luckily they had a radio station playing music and we had a crazy dance party in the middle of the embankment to ourselves with people looking on and probably wondering how long we’d been drinking for. Long story short the time actually went by fairly quickly and as we counted down to midnight I prepped the champagne and popped the cork as the fireworks began flying through the air. It was actually an absolutely amazing moment to be there. You can kind of get the feel through the pictures on Facebook but it’s hard to really describe how amazing it was knowing where I was in the world and to with the people I was with…it was really special. After a quick phone call home to talk to my parents we began the long and arduous journey of getting back to Colliers Wood. Luckily the city was smart enough to keep the tube running until 4am and thereby moving people a lot quicker than could be possible. It actually wasn’t as bad or long as I thought (albeit one moment in which we lost Jeremy) and we walked through our front door at approximately 2am completely knackered and ready for bed.
All in all it was an epically epic day and I was very pleased. Although I didn’t really the chance to say it before, I just want to thank everyone for making last year one of the best ever. I met so many new people, got to participate in lots of theatre, completed my education degree (and university in general) worked about 4 different part time jobs, and said good-bye to come here and continue on my journey. I can’t wait to eventually celebrate the dawn of a new year with everyone back home. Until then…
Cheers and tons of love,
Erik
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