New Year 2003/04

A few days earlier we went to see cyberjam with Hai and Mai. It's a musical show with lots of instruments, dancers, lasers and trampolines.  It was very different but very fun.

During the intermission of CyberJam, Tram met the prime-minister of Malaysia.  She managed to sneak behind the rope and have a picture.

The train station near where Hai and Mai stayed.

Snow on the way to Edinburgh.  It was about -5 degrees in this shot... very chilly.

We got to our hotel that night.  And it snowed!

We met some Yanks, they were lots of fun.  The guy next to Tram is a New Zealander turned Californian.  This is the Frankenstien bar, which, as you may have guessed, it a bar themed on Frankenstein.  They had movies running, candles with lots of wax, crazy props and interestingly named cocktails.  We all went here on the first night.  There were 3 or 4 busloads on the tour.

The next day we went to the Walkabout for the big countdowns in every time-zone in New Zealand and Australia.  This is us calling home :)  We had lots of bundy!

The American girls at the walkabout.

This is a monument to... something.  I think a writer.  Apparently you can walk all the way to the top, but the staircase is very narrow and it's kinda dangerous.  It was very cool with the Ferris-wheel behind.

We stood out in the wind and rain for about two hours.  We were getting quite wet.... waiting waiting for either the concert to start of the fireworks or preferably both.

But neither happened.  We weren't even drunk (yet) despite having started at 10am.

The group of people we were hanging out with from the tour at the street party.  Two of the guys decided to strip a few minutes earlier (no photos sorry).  They were brave.  Lots of strangers taking close-ups.

The big screen telling us to get the hell out.  Lots of unhappy campers.

In the bar an hour later, Scott and Paul were having green chartreuse!  Good stuff.

The next morning.... the view from our hotel room.  The buildings on the hill are Edinburgh Castle.

This is the view from Sterling Castle, about an hour from Edinburgh.  It was high up on a hill and has probably the best strategic positioning of any castle in Europe.

Tram outside the gates...

The hill where William Wallace led his rebels to victory.  The rugby fields were where the battle was fought.  The tower on the hill is a monument to our hero, Mel Gibson.

A recreation of the kitchen at Sterling Castle.  The deer is real! Well, it's stuffed...but close enough.

The view from the ramparts.

More sterling castle...

This was an Indian show.. there were lots of pyrotechnics and music and mechanical elephants :)

There was also a guy who was on a fireworks powered wheel.. he was spinning really fast for a while...

Tram with out of the performers.

Edinburgh Castle!  It was really nice at night.. and had a great view of the city.  I wish Brisbane had a massive castle on a hill right in the middle.

This is some random building that just happens to be in front of the street side-show alley place.  They shone lights on it.

Ice skating ring with the view of the castle in the background....

Another group of people on the tour that we were with.

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This is a Spring Log (or Bog).  Tram bought a spring roll from this Chinese place, and they gave us this huge, disgusting thing full of left-overs (we think).  Oh, and it was half full of oil.  Lucky we weren't like one of the other people who bought four of them (expecting them to be like normal spring rolls)