Sassenach*

Have you ever dreamed of being driven around Scotland in the glorious comfort of the heated back seats of a Range Rover? No? Okay, well lucky for you I have dreamed of it many times, finally made the dream a reality, and will share my secrets with you. But first, Hogmanay.

Hogmanay is Scotland’s celebration of the New Year, and man, do they know how to do it. I am a big fan of traveling to different cities for New Year’s Eve, and I usually start thinking about/researching where to go around July. This year, I kept seeing Edinburgh as one of the top cities in the world. This surprised me, but as I will take literally any excuse to set foot in the beautiful land of the Scots, I decided to go for it.

When I say they know how to celebrate, I’m not joking. This is serious business, people. Hogmanay is not just one night, there are multiple days of activities involved. We (yes, WE, I finally had a friend to travel with. Hey, Cait.) arrived on 30 December and quickly noticed many of the main streets were being prepared to be blocked off. This was for the Torchlight Procession. (Pro Tip: Participate in the procession. It seems more fun and less confusing than watching.) This procession involved hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people walking through Edinburgh in parade fashion with lit torches. Think Gaston and his friends going to kill the Beast, but more friendly. At the end of the VERY LONG parade, all of the people fill in spaces on a field to spell out a word previously voted on. If anyone can tell me what “BRAW” means, please use the contact page; still confused on that one.

The main event on New Year’s Eve is the Hogmanay Street Party. This was a great time. Yes, it was cold outside, but sometimes you just have to wear three pairs of pants for the sake of a party. Things that were great about this street party:

You can bring in your own booze (no glass though, naturally).
Tickets were cheap (£29).
Drinks at the event did not cause more debt that my master’s program (£6 G&Ts).
90% of the time the toilet situation was much better than expected. So. Many. Port-o-potties.
Fireworks over Edinburgh Castle every hour until midnight, and a HUGE fireworks display at midnight to bring in the New Year.
The fact that we made it back to the hotel WITHOUT peeing our pants.

The street party is very crowded, but as someone who hates crowds and people, I will say it wasn’t bad. There were multiple stages and various forms of entertainment throughout the entire thing. Highly recommend if you’re looking to switch it up for NYE.

Alright, calm down, I’ll tell you about that Range Rover now. One of my favorite things in my life of pretending to be boujee is private tours. Once you do one, you will never go back to a group tour, at least not without kicking and screaming. Since I love private tours so much, and my travel buddy had never been to Scotland, obviously it needed to happen. Enter Alan and his Range Rover. I cannot say enough good things about this tour. I found Alan’s company, Chauffeur Ecosse, through my normal process of searching Google endlessly until I find the thing I want, which in this case, was a Range Rover. Not only did he have that, but responded to me quickly AND was willing to take us for a day tour on New Year’s Day when, I kid you not, everything is closed in Scotland. So basically, Alan is a saint.

Alan suggested a general itinerary for the day, but once we were on our way, he made some adjustments to the route to include multiple Outlander locations. If I’m being totally honest, life was perfect that day. We started in Edinburgh, and made our way north through Queensferry to see the views of the bridges at Queensferry Crossing.

Then it happened, Alan took us to Lallybroch (Midhope Castle). At Lallybroch, we proceeded to have an Outlander style photo shoot, as one does when given the chance. Normally, to park and go up to the castle there is a £5 fee, but being a holiday, no one was there and the gates were open.

We made it into the lower tip of the Highlands, but weren’t able to stop for any photos of the snow. On our way back down we stopped in St. Andrews, ate our lunch on the (very cold, but very beautiful) beach, and explored the town, including where Will met Kate. I’ll let the photos tell the story on St. Andrews.

St. Andrew’s Beach

I don’t know what to do with my hands.

St. Andrew’s Cathedral

St. Andrew’s Castle

*hangs around and waits to meet a Prince*

And to end the day, we went to “Inverness.” At least what you would think Inverness looks like if you watch Outlander, but really it’s a town called Falkland, and it is a beauty. Thanks to Alan, I am a lot less confused about many of the filming locations of Outlander.

Now that I have written more words than were included in my first assignment of my master’s program, I will leave you with the few photos I was able to sneak the Range Rover into, because, you know, I was trying to play it cool.