Showered up and dressed, we went out to dinner at one of Wade's favourite mexican restaurants, 'Iguanas' with a work colleague of theirs joining us, Jackson. The place was packed, so we had some Margaritas to while away the time. After a short while the table was ready and I got a chicken burrito while getting increasingly happy from a few tequilas.
I think we got out of there at some time near 10pm and started to walk to the harbour front for the New Year's Eve fireworks. We crossed over the bridge to Clark Quay to firstly find the vendor for the Mickey Ears / Devil's Horns light up headbands that people were sporting. The crowd in this spot was very, well crowded, and we pushed through to find a concert in the middle of it all.
We walked past the Slingshot / Swing ride, stopping here for photos of the victims, I mean riders. Walking further along the river banks into increasingly thickening crowds and after about half a hour my hosts retired for the evening to get a close by train back to their apartment before it got too nuts.
I pressed on, wanting to see my first 'big city fireworks display' (best said in a hick voice) and man, it wasn't even standing room the closer I got. It was a veritable sea of people of all nationalities, shapes, sizes and ages. I really don't think it's terrible smart bringing your baby in a pram to such an event, given the heat and space issues, but people did regardless.
After a lot of pushing, shoving and climbing I ran into the police barrier and ran out of time. I managed to make it to a park jutting out between two bridges when it finally struck midnight. A huge murmur went through the crowd a few times as it came closer to midnight, with a final huge cheer as it hit midnight and the fireworks started. My view of the fireworks was restricted by the bridge in front of me, but I think I saw most of it, and it was impressive regardless. Just wish the indian guys besides me wouldn't whistle so loud, just about lost my hearing to them and not to the fireworks explosions.
I think the fireworks went for 15 minutes, then it was time to head back to Wade and Athene's. And damn, I certainly got through crowds before, but now the throng of people making their way out of the marina across the was truly pressing. I just needed to cross the road to get to the nearest train station, but the police had blocked the roads, so I had to go back over one bridge, cross the road at the approved point then come back across another bridge and make way to the station. And even then the crowd had to be stopped to let traffic through, of all things.
The crush of the people outside and once I final got to be inside the train station was immense. I am fairly sure I had imprints on me from the various people I pressed into. Having said all that, the subway trains did a good job to get people out of there quickly, being quite frequent. So a little while later I was exiting my station (at the wrong point, so I was very lost for a while). I found out that you can also buy Milo in a soft drink style can too, tastes the same though.
All in all, got back to Wade and Athene's about 1.30am or so, to shower up and get to sleeeep.
Overall thoughts, I am glad I pushed on and did it, seeing the spectacle close up and all. Would I do it again? Certainly not the way I did it, I'd camp out two hours or more in a preferred spot if I was to do it again.
But bugger it, I did it, in a new country as well. Happy New Year indeed.
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