A New Year

I'm back!

Just in case you don't know, I went to London for New Year’s Eve. The real reason for me going is because I needed to return a calculator that my friend left in Cambridge when she attended her interview. It was a TI-83 Plus, quite expensive and it’s actually her dorm mate’s, so she really needed it back. I also needed to overcome the frustration of not being able to be in London during Christmas, unlike the past three years, hence another reason for the visit.

This was my first experience of watching fireworks for New Year in London, and even though a friend of mine said that I had done this a few years ago, for the life of me I really can’t remember. Tis’ very strange indeed. They closed the Embankment and Westminster tube stations, hence people had to walk to the River Thames, and since I’m really unaccustomed to navigating London on feet, I had to just follow the crowd and hope that they’re really going to the London Eye instead of some random pubs or something.

Still, I made it at the end. It was crowded but not in an extremely bad way. At least, nobody was squashed to death or anything. It was also a plus that I got a clear view of the London Eye, only obstructed a bit by some tree branches and a lamppost. I can’t really say the same to some of my pals who went to watch the fireworks separately. Only the top bit of the Eye is visible to them since the rest are blocked by buildings. Awwww… pity.

I was planning to follow my friends to their place after the event. However, on the way, I lost them in the crowd, which was pretty embarrassing because we were talking about my disappearing acts (people who always travel with me will know) just minutes before that happened. Yeah, I can be a klutz sometimes. The same thing also happened in a bus station in Hungary, and some other occasions which I would rather not remember.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the night and videos as well. Let’s hope my camera skills have improved from last time. As an aside, I’ve made the observation that fireworks are far more spectacular in real life compared to what’s shown on photographs.

The countdown was displayed on a building and started a minute before midnight. You can see the number 42 on it.

Yaz.