Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 3 January 2012
The last night of the year 2011 was my first and possibly the last time doing new year's countdown in London. According to the Mayan calendar however, it was my last, anywhere. Anyhow, it was a very fun experience which far exceeded my expectations. Prior to heading towards the northern bank of River Thames, I had been listening to a Londoner talking about the suffocating over-crowdedness in the streets of central London before and after the countdowns in previous years. I, having had numerous experiences at fireworks in Vancouver, Taipei, and Tokyo, would not call myself a fan of such events either. However I was pleasantly surprised about how well the night had gone for me and my friends.
Although the streets were overflown with people, they were not as bad as expected. We got off at Embankment station on the District line and arrived to the river side at 10:20pm, and we still found spaces right up to the edge of the river for us to stand. In Tokyo and Taipei one would have to arrive sometimes up to 4 hours to get a spot for a decent view of the fireworks. We were very lucky.
The music from the BBC radio station played at the site was great. It was like a night out to a outdoor night club that is much more chilled-out, in a good way. People were bopping and singing to the music. The atmosphere was very nice and friendly.
The fireworks itself was quite nice. It was very beautiful. It was a bit longer than expected, which was good, and one of the best new year’s fireworks I have seen. However nice it was, the fireworks itself should not be the focus. It was the overall experience of going out, and joining all the people present in the city of London to celebrate the coming of another year that made the night a very great one. After the fireworks people slowly dispersed and hostile pushing & shoving were very limited. Although, there were some idiots trying to fly Asian lanterns up to the sky. One of the lanterns became an epic fail and fell down quickly to hit a girl walking on the street. Fortunately the girl was not hurt and the fire was put out by a gentleman after some intense stomping action. People were saying “Happy New Year” to each other on the streets. It was very nice to see and experience. Well, at one point a gentleman ran up from behind me and touched me to wish me a happy new year and ran off. At the moment it was not so nice as I thought I was being mugged for a split second, but afterwards I felt great and felt that I was part of a huge community, the London community.
It is important to note, however, that I was staying at a place within walking distance from where I was during the fireworks. If you stay at a place that requires taking the tube to get back then going to the Thames river bank for the countdown plus fireworks may not be the best choice for a new year’s eve night out in London. However, if you do get to be in London during such periods in the future, provided that you are staying in central London, why not take a walk down to the River Thames and enjoy the great fireworks, music, and the people!
What were you doing in London???
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