Having spent New Year's Eve in Sydney for most of life, including experiencing the chaotic Sydney scene where my sister was separated from our family (this was when we were still kids and don't worry, we eventually found her crying at CQ station) after she managed to get on the packed train while the rest of us didn't, it was a nice change to experience the NYE chaos on the other side of the world and after an 11 hour delay from when I'm used to celebrating it!
The London scene is quite different to Sydney. For one, there are ridiculously more people and ridiculously less fireworks. But that aside, there were other differences too, some nice and some not so nice.
We left home shortly after dinner and took the bus to get to Westminster Bridge, one of the best viewing locations being right next to London Eye and Big Ben where the fireworks were being set off. Unfortunately, the roads started closing at 8pm and the driver ended up getting lost as all the streets he/she wanted to turn into were closed. After an elderly male passenger realised we were going in circles, he told the driver off and asked that he be let off where we were before the driver wasted any more of his time circling the area. Submitting the the request of the angry passenger, the driver stopped and opened the doors. Realising the dismal fate of bus journey, all passengers followed the old man's lead and got off.
Worried about the viewing areas being closed off once they're full, we hurriedly walked to the bridge. As it turned out, the viewing areas didn't close until 11:45pm! Nevertheless, by the time we got there, all the good spots were taken and we ended up occupying a little area with good views of both Big Ben and London Eye.
While we waited for almost 4hours for the fireworks, we had to put up with an increasingly large crowd, inconsiderate people carrying their prams over us, pushy Indians who were standing increasingly close and intruding into our personal space, a crazy bunch of lunatics dancing (and bumping into people while doing so) to the music played out on the loud speaker that hung at one end of the bridge, a stoned idiot trying to dance with his group while he lapsed in and out of his stoned trance, sausage sizzle sellers pushing their carts through the crowds, and the occasional piss from the skies!
Finally, the real party began. Just before midnight, a voice pumping out of the loud speaker told us all to act crazy as the world will be watching us and shortly after that, the count down began and an amazing display of pyrotechnics blazed the skies.
Using my Nikon advanced compact digital camera, which Irene never ceases to remind me of it being my Christmas present from her, I managed to take some dazzling photos of the fireworks. And with that, we stepped into the year 2012.
After the fireworks, we hurriedly walked to Waterloo station. One thing I like about the London celebration is that public transport is free after 11:45pm, but getting to them is no easy feat! First, you got to make a long trek to the station, then there would be a huge huge crowd that you would have to compete with to get into the station. Seeing how pathetic the whole situation was, we started to walk in the direction of home.
From Waterloo Station, there was only 3 stops before our station and so we could have walked home but by the time we got to London Brdige station, there was no crowd trying to get into the station and so we took the tube home from there. Fortunately for us, we got off at the first stop. The tube was so packed, the trip would have been extremely uncomfortable for those travelling long distances. Irene told me this is what she puts up with everyday going to work so I guess some of the people are used to it.
The walk from the station back to our flat was quite nice. It was not too cold and there were still many people about. And as we walked, we talked about how much better Sydney is and what we would have done if we were in Sydney instead...
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