Happy Holidays and Celebrating the New Year at Hogmanay
Filed Under: Motley Mots by Daniel Noll and Audrey ScottAs Christmas and the new year approaches, we’d like to wish you and yours a very happy holidays from what was a snowy Berlin (damn you, warm front!).
Before we go offline for the next couple of days, we have a couple of announcements for you: our upcoming New Year’s celebrations at Hogmanay in Edinburgh and a giveaway featuring some of our travel photos.
Christmas in Berlin
As for us, we will spend Christmas and the next few days in Berlin, going offline (mostly) and taking a break with friends, plates full of Christmas cookies, pots full of tea, and a virtual stack of new books. This will be our time to be still and get ready for a new year filled with travel and projects across all corners of the globe.
But before we disconnect…
We’re kicking off the New Year at Hogmanay in Edinburgh!
In Scottish, hogmanay means the last day of the year. In more recent years, however, Hogmanay has been synonymous with Edinburgh’s new year’s festivities, torchlight processions, concerts, and fireworks that say goodbye to the old year and welcome in the new. And the Scots definitely know how to party, as celebrations last for days.
Photo courtesy of Edinburgh Hogmanay Press Office
We’re looking forward to taking part in this year’s Hogmanay. We are among a group of bloggers going to enjoy and share the event through the aptly named term Blogmanay. As we’ve never been to Scotland we’re excited to get a wee taste of Scottish spirit, music, and of course, whiskey. Oh, and kilts. (Stay tuned for embarrassing photos.)
Here’s a small preview of what’s in store for us during Hogmanay:
- Torchlight procession through the city (Dec. 29) – the photo above pretty much says it all for this one
- Concert in the Gardens (Dec. 31) – with Simple Minds as the headlining act
- Street Party (Dec. 31) – beneath Edinburgh castle with three stages, endless music acts, an estimated 80,000 dancers and midnight fireworks.
- Keilidh (Dec. 31) – Scottish music and dancing at its finest.
- Dogmanay (Jan. 1) – kicking off the new year with dog racing.
- Loony Dook (Jan. 1) – welcome the new year with a plunge into icy water anyone?
No shortage of activities and options, right? Exciting and overwhelming. We’ll do our best to live up to the task and live to tell the tale.
Once the new year is rung in properly, we’ll spend a few days exploring Scotland’s Loch Ness and Isle of Skye. It’s only a sample of Scotland, but we’re happy to have the opportunity now to see it in winter so we can plot some further exploration next time.
If you’d like to follow along in our (and others’) Hogmanay experience, keep your eye on the hashtag #blogmanay on Twitter and Instagram. The Blogmanay website will serve as a central repository for all this content from all corners of the Hogmanay-meets-blogmanay social media and online world so that you can take part in the celebrations from wherever you may be in the world.
Uncornered Market Travel Photography Printstagr.am Holiday Giveaway
This is for those of you who love travel photography and would like some inspiration in the new year. We’ve teamed up with Printstagr.am to deliver a selection of fun prints, a 365-day calendar and a mini-book made from a selection of photographs we’ve posted to Instagram (including from Japan, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Mexico, Egypt, Berlin, Amsterdam, etc.). Winners can choose to have us design their prize or design their own with our prints.
Absolutely anyone can enter. Shipping is international (and free, for winners). To enter: easy, just click here – Printstagr.am Giveaway
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Disclosure: This campaign is brought to you by Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and is sponsored by VisitScotland, ETAG, Edinburgh Festivals, Haggis Adventures and Skyscanner.
The campaign bloggers were sourced and managed by iambassador. As always, all opinions expressed here are entirely our own.
December 24th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
God, I hope they give you whisky, or you will have gone a long way for bad spirits
(OK, don’t feed the trolls!)
Have a great new years, guys!
December 24th, 2012 at 12:29 pm
Have a happy happy holiday both of you! Enjoy Edinburgh and lots of love, luck and happiness for the new year.
Besitos!
xoL
December 24th, 2012 at 12:46 pm
Happy Holidays, Dan and Audrey! Looks like you will have a great time ringing in 2013 and I can’t wait to follow along!
December 25th, 2012 at 8:03 am
@Craig: Ha! I imagine there will be whiskey, and lots of it! Hope you guys have a wonderful year & look forward to seeing you somewhere in this big/small world of ours.
@Leith: And same to you, Noah and Lila! Hope you’re enjoying the holidays in Salta and having some days off to gear up for a great year ahead with CloudHead!
@Jennifer: And happy holidays to you! I’m glad we had a chance to meet this past year and hope we see you in 2013. Blogmanay should be a fabulous time – look forward to sharing it with you!
December 28th, 2012 at 2:20 am
Happy holiday and the New Year!:-) The photo of Edinburgh looks stunning.
December 29th, 2012 at 12:24 pm
hope you guys have a blast! just like me, starting to pack things up before i would go completely online.
December 29th, 2012 at 11:33 pm
Happy New Year to you guys!! Have a great time!
December 31st, 2012 at 10:08 pm
I just downloaded an app to my Samsung called World Atlas. Now I can keep track of you guys. Very cool app. Maps of every country that you can zoom to see local streets. It also has travel info, current weather, current time, and factbook. Hope you’re enjoying 2013. It’s still 2012 here.
January 2nd, 2013 at 12:34 pm
The photo of the fireworks is just so awesome. Do they have good food there as well?
January 6th, 2013 at 8:24 am
@Mark: And we can now vouch that the photo is accurate. The fireworks at midnight on New Year’s eve was fantastic – literally shook the ground.
@Rachel: We did have a blast! And hope you enjoy your time offline. Ours was too short…need to schedule more days next time
@Sutapa: And a belated Happy New Year to you as well! Look forward to sharing all our adventures with you in 2013.
@Pete: I’ll have to see if there’s an iPhone version of that. We often get recommendations for places, cities, countries, etc. and have no idea where they are – sounds like this would be a quick way to orient ourselves. Hope you had a wonderful celebration of the new year and all the best to you and your family in 2013!
@Jenny: And the fireworks this year were just as awesome as in that photo. As for food, that’s a hard question. Scottish food is rather hearty and heavy – lots of potatoes, sausages, meat, as well as lots of fried foods (e.g., fish & chips). It goes perfectly with Scottish beers (ales), but it’s not particularly healthy or light. So, it’s hard to answer this question without knowing your food preferences.
January 7th, 2013 at 11:37 pm
Looks like you had a great celebration for New Years!!!
January 8th, 2013 at 6:51 am
@Red: Indeed. Glad we took this opportunity to get acquainted with Edinburgh!