New Years Eve

New Years Eve in a new country…our first time for that. Well to be perfectly honest we started the day off quite late because we’re still adjusting to the fact that our bedroom is darker during the day than at night. Not to worry though we knew we wanted to do two things-see the fireworks by Westminster and visit Marianne at work. We spent the afternoon meandering around and later in the evening scoping out the Westminster area. All the streets leading out of Trafalgar Square were closed down and filling with people and there were Jumbotrons operating in the square for Embankment spillover. The police force was out in force, pun intended, with a lot of mounted police but there didn’t seem to be any tension. We walked down a closed Whitehall all the way to Westminster and realized the Westminster Station was closed. Good to know for later when we come back down. We could see the Thames Embankment was packed with people. When you walked by the odd alleyway that led to the embankment you could hear the distinctive roar of people and thumping of music peak through. It was hard to not notice the centuries old buildings and contemplate all the different methods of New Years celebrations they’ve seen. We’ve never been in a large city with a proper New Year’s celebration so we were excited to experience it. Soon enough we went over to Marianne’s work around 10:00pm to grab some food and drink. Marianne was kind enough to hook us up with passes so we could avoid the cover charge. The place was already full and the New Year’s energy was quite abundant, not in a rowdy manner but just friendliness. We spent sometime talking to some new friends but realized it was already 11:20. We freaked because we were at least 30 minutes away from the fireworks. Needless to say, we booked out of the bar, hands stamped for later entry, luckily caught an immediate bus to Notting Hill Gate, charged into the Tube station and onto the Circle Line. 11:33. We were relieved to be on the train and moving towards Westminster. The train was excruciatingly stop and go and was filling up. 11:52. We arrive at St. James Park Station which was the last stop and everyone flooded off. The station crew was expecting the crowd and was shouting herding orders as everyone hustled up the stairs. We were about a 1/3rd of a mile from a viewable spot so we hurried with the crowd towards the Embankment. Everyone was really excited and didn’t want to miss Big Ben turn over. We hit a wall of people near Westminster Abbey; we tried to push through but gave up and settled in. About a minute later Big Ben tolled and the fireworks shot into the sky. The scream of the crowd above the Big Ben tolls was pretty fantastic and something we won’t forget. We stayed till near the end and then made our back to Victoria Station because St. James closed after our train. 12:46. We made it back to Marianne’s bar in Notting Hill and the party was still going. We hung out downstairs till about 2:30am and sort of helped the staff clean up but not really wanting to step on toes and cause more of a mess we bowed out. Not before Beckie did a little solo dance to karaoke “Rock with You.” One delight of the evening was not only the hospitality of Marianne’s work mates but free travel on London transport. We got back to the apartment after a late night bus ride around 4am. So much for trying to reset our clocks. Happy New Year!