For most of the year, Lewes (pronounced Loo-wiss) is a small market town in East Sussex with a cool castle, a large sixth-form college, and the smell of brewing beer wafting over the rooftops. However, once a year the city explodes (almost literally) into the UK’s most amazing fireworks night celebration. Visiting Lewes Bonfire Night? Make sure your day goes with a bang, and not a damp fizzle with these top tips!
Spending New Year’s Eve at Epcot may not seem the most obvious way to spend New Year’s Eve but it is a serious contender for one of the best ways to kick your new year off with a bang. New Years Eve at Walt Disney World had been on our bucket list for years. If NYE at EPCOT is on yours, then read on!
New Year’s Eve 2017/18 was set to be a good one. I had miraculously managed to get five days off and so I was ready to jump on a plane and celebrate away from London.
Originally we were meant to be going to visit a friend in Carcassonne, France but her plans changed and so we were in need of a new idea.
We very quickly settled on a trip to Florida, USA with a couple of friends. They had family in Orlando and so we could celebrate there and meet them. We looked at all the NYE offerings in town and the theme parks and decided that Disney World would be the destination. They really know how to put on a great fireworks display!
When you think of Disney World, I bet the first image that springs to mind is the castle. It’s the same for me, but I know there is much more to see. We had been warned that Magic Kingdom, the park that houses said castle, would reach capacity early and so to guarantee entry we would need to get there early, and stay there. Mr Fluskey and I have been to Disneyland Paris and Disney in Tokyo, and so we wanted to do something a little different. Epcot was throwing its own NYE party with fireworks, DJs and even grown up drinks! Plus, it had the added bonus of being the only park of its kind. You won’t find another Epcot elsewhere as it is a little bit special. So it was decided; New Year’s Eve at Epcot it was!
Let’s start with the name; Epcot. This stands for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow.
Walt Disney, not just a creator of cartoons and theme parks, had a plan to create a city. In fact, he only built a Disneyland in Florida to secure funding for his greatest venture. EPCOT was due to be home to 20,000 residents. It would be an experimental and futurist city, always testing and implementing the newest technologies. It was designed in a radial design with public buildings in the centre, and residential properties on the outside. Pedestrians could walk freely as roads were to be built underground and monorails for public transport would be above ground level.
When Disney passed away in 1966 Epcot was still just a blueprint. The company didn’t want to proceed with it as a city without his creative guidance and so work began to create a theme park instead.
Epcot is a park of two halves, which reflects the battle between the imagineer’s ideas; Future World and World Showcase. Future World is all about technology and its advancement, whilst the World Showcase houses 11 themed areas reflecting 11 countries. You will find themed food, drinks and shops.
After an incredibly long day on which we flew from London to Miami, and then drove up to Orlando, we were exhausted. Our day started rather late and so we arrived at the park about two hours after we meant to. Queues weren’t too bad and we got our tickets in just two minutes.
Approaching Epcot is very exciting, as the first thing you’ll see is the park’s icon; the Spaceship Earth geosphere.
No doubt you’ll stop for a picture on the way in and then I would advise you to go straight through to the FastPass areas to the right and left of the main plaza. Here you can pick your FastPass times for a couple of rides. This allows you to join a shorter queue at the assigned time. Arriving late, there was nothing left. Whoops!
We looked at the waiting time for Test Track, but it was about 2.5 hours, so we decided to do it later in the day….this turned out to be a mistake as the queue only got longer from then on and we never made it on. Ah well, there’s always next time.
Instead, our first ride was Mission: Space. The Disney app listed the waiting time at 140 minutes but happily it was only about 80.
This is a simulator ride that lets you experience some crazy G-force. I really enjoyed it but all the safety announcements (seemingly a common theme in American theme parks) freaked my friend out a bit. She started to worry that it would break her in half. We reassured her, and boarded.
I loved the feeling that the ride invoked. The capsules are spun and the video screens in front of you make you feel like you are going through a rocket launch. It leaves your legs a little wobbly, and Mr Fluskey felt a bit sick…but he is RUBBISH at spinning rides.
We decided to stroll through the World Showcase to find some food. We needed to eat to keep ourselves going for new year’s eve at Epcot. First things first, we found a place selling cocktails that had no line. This was located in China, and the cocktails were delicious! We then went on the hunt for gluten-free food in Epcot.
Our original plan was to eat in China. We thought there would be plenty of gluten-free options, but the person at the front of the restaurant told us, unfortunately, that was not the case. Time to find a plan B. We sat and searched the internet for some sort of blog post, finally finding a great list of options.
Whilst we were in China, we decided to pop into the building we sat outside of. We were lucky enough to just catch the final five minutes of an acrobatics show. What a fabulous piece of luck.
After some aimless wandering, we found a German stand with food that everyone could eat. We ordered some sausages and sauerkraut, and stood around a small table to eat.
Sadly, we couldn’t quite be bothered to find a dessert to go with it. If only I had done some research before we left the UK. If you are feeling more organised than me, check out this guide to an inside scoop to Disneyland’s best desserts.
Here in the German area, we found a nice shop selling wine, Christmas ornaments (including this mysterious pickle tree) and other “German” things.
As we were almost half way around the lake, we decided to keep going. It was startling addictive to hop from place to place, popping into shops and the odd bar.
In “Venice“, we found a bar selling Italian wine, Prosecco and Limoncello, and we found a sweet, sparkling rose. We got a flute each and slipped it slowly in the sunshine.
Now, feeling a little jolly, we came across a larger stage that was throwing a little party. The DJ had everyone up and dancing with a fun dance game, and full of bubbles, we joined in too.
We probably spent a little too long larking about in the world showcase considering we were only going to grab lunch. It took us another two hours to seek out the delights of Japan, Morocco, France, Canada and the rest. Oh how happily we laughed at the UK’s showing; the bastard child of Mary Poppins, Robin Hood and Mohammed Al Fayed.
Back to Future World for another ride. We picked the Spaceship Earth, the ride inside the giant geodesic sphere (the golf ball).
The best thing about these tamer rides, as opposed to the huge rides in Universal for example, is that you can keep your bag with you. This meant we could use our phones. I know what you’re thinking, and no, we weren’t all on Facebook. In the our first long queue we played a cool space themed game that had us screaming nonsensical instructions at each other. In this queue we played “Heads Up”. We howled with laughter and the time flew!
The ride itself was very cute. At the beginning, they snap a picture of you, and thinking it was just going to be on a photo sales screen at the end, we pulled stupid faces. We should have done our research.
You then travel in your carriage through a series of animatronic tableaus while Dame Judy Dench narrates. The ride then emerges into a huge dome (oh, that’s why they need the giant ball), epic music swells to a glorious crescendo and you can sit back and enjoy the Disney movie-style magic.
As you descend “back down to earth”, you are asked a series of questions. Again, cynical me thought it was just market research, but we tapped through it anyway. After competing these questions, you are shown a cool little video dictated by your answers and starring YOU. So fun!
NYE Evening
Back to the Chinese cocktail spot for another drink. The soft base of the drinks and the alcohol are added to the cups separately. “Stir before you drink”. “Stir, stir, stir”, we were instructed several times by the cheerful server. One of our party didn’t pay attention and ended up with a straw suck full of pure spirit, eurgh!
With our drinks in hand, we began the wandering anew. The World Showcase was definitely busier than it had been as more people entered Epcot from the other Disney parks. We were just wasting time really, waiting for the sun to go down.
New Year’s Eve at Epcot has not one, but two fireworks displays. The first one takes place at 18:00 and is the usual display. IllumiNations; Reflections of Earth is a multimedia show and is put on every night. The floating globe and fireworks take place on the lagoon so a spot anywhere along the edge of the lake gives you a great view.
As soon as the fireworks finished, we noticed that a huge swath of families with young children started to make their way out of the park.
We had five and a half hours until the next fireworks show, so we broke away from our pitch on the lagoon fence in search of more entertainment.
We settled on The Seas with Nemo & Friends ride. Luckily, just outside was a bar with no queue and cheap bubbles. The glass of sparkling wine really cheered up the queuing. To be fair, the queue was just 45 minutes and the evening chill was starting to nip at our fingers so an indoor attraction seemed like a good plan. The ride was definitely for young children and so it was a little dull.
The ride may have been dull, but we loved the aquarium on the other side of it. Highlights included the little clown fish (Nemo himself) and some amazing colour-changing cuttlefish.
(Now I am no videogapher, and this was meant to just be for me, but I wanted to share this with you.) The display finished and was met with a few seconds of utterly stunned silence before we all realised it was over. A huge cheer went up and New Year’s eve at Epcot mirth erupted. The music from the Italian raver burst back into life, and everyone started to scatter back into their favourite areas.
We were suffering with terrible jet lag, and so started to walk back to the car park, passing more parties on the way.
Rosie xx
Our time in Kolkata was very special. A very happy diary clash meant that we were in Kolkata for Diwali and Kolkata for Kali Puja. These happen at around the same time, and so we were able to join in with all of the festivities. Kali Puja in Kolkata is something you will never forget!
Read about our time in Kolkata – a glimpse of the past
Diwali (or Deepavali) is known as the festival of light celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Sikhs. It celebrates the glory of light over darkness, good over evil. It is a huge multi-day festival and is celebrated all around the world. People make lanterns, let off fireworks and visit their friends and families with gifts. Special sweets are shared and prayers are offered. The main day of Diwali is the darkest evening of the holy month so that the lights seem to burn all the brighter.
In a nutshell, this Hindu celebration commemorates the Goddess Kali, the destroyer of evil. She is worshipped by Shaktic Hindus and tantric worshippers. Shakti is the belief in the universal power of change and feminine power, and this is how it is personified.
Celebrated mostly in the North-Western states of India, Kali Puja takes place over five days and the largest celebrations are those in Kolkata.
Everywhere we turned, elaborate clay models of the Goddess Kali stared out at us. A few days before we arrived in Kolkata the ritual of painting on the eyes had taken place. Maybe that’s what made them so enigmatic.
On the walk home from watching the fountain light show, we came across something that really made me giggle.
I am pretty immature, and even more so back in 2009. Imagine my joy, coming across a huge tent with this emblazoned across it:
Sniggering like teenage boys, we made our way inside and had a look at the heaps of fire crackers, roman candles and huge rockets. There were fireworks here that you would never be allowed to buy legally as a normal person back in the UK. Feeling considerably less daring than our fellow shoppers, we purchased a pack of sparklers. Well, you can’t celebrate Diwali without a bit of light.
Just a few minutes from our hostel there was a stage that had been erected in a small square. A large statue of the Goddess stood opposite. We sat and watched a presenter entertaining the crowd. Children jumped up and down, shouting and trying to join in while the adults sat back in their chairs and surveyed the scene. The whole thing was in Hindi, so it washed over our heads but we could feel the excitement.
I don’t have anywhere near as many photos as I would have liked of the evening, but I will endeavour to try and share with you the experiences we had.
The crowds crushed in, hot clammy and eager in anticipation. Looking down, all I could see was shuffling feet. Kitten heels scuffed the street. Brown leather men’s shoes pigeon stepped beside sparkling sandals. Looking up was a riot of colour. Fireworks shot up into the air in random bursts. The usual disregard for safe launch distances ruled. Just don’t stand on a fire cracker and you’ll be fine!
Around the streets, huge temporary temples called Pandals had been created. They glittered with flashing lights. Archways led the way to these special places of worship. We meandered through these gaudy structures and saw joy and devotion on peoples faces.
Read about our other travels in India
Underneath the Goddess Kali, you can see her significant other, the God Shiva. He is often depicted in this position, prostrate and relaxed beneath the Goddesses foot.
Deciding it was time to join in, we pulled out our sparklers and a hastily purchased lighter. The lighter was struck and held to the end of the sparkler…
Nothing happened.
We tried again but still, nothing happened.
We held the lighter until our thumbs burnt. Matches were donated but were equally useless at getting the thick sparklers to ignite. This small spectacle began to draw a crowd. A gathering group of challengers joined in. Each, in turn, took a match to the end of the sparkler but failed to triumph. They stepped back with a head wobble of resignation.
Eventually, a bright chap had the idea of striking the stick against a rough bit on a motorbike that stood nearby. The sparkler flared and the watching crowd nodded approvingly. We could then light the other sparklers with the first.
Awkwardly we waved them around as the entire crowd looked on, not joining in, but not walking away. I have rarely felt like such an anticlimax!
When the last sparks fizzled out, the people dispersed, back into the ebb and flow of the throng.
Squeamish? Skip to the next heading….there are no pictures between now and then.
Everywhere, amidst the bubbling conversation and bursting fireworks, the bleeting of goats filled the muggy night air. Part of the Kali Puja celebrations is called bali. This means animal sacrifice. It takes place in or around the Shakti temples. It is actually illegal but unless someone complains, no charges are brought. With it being so integral, I don’t see that happening all that much.
As the evening progressed, we heard less goat noises and realised that the slaughter was underway. We passed one temple where the heads of over 30 goats were being displayed, the sticky, red blood dripped onto the street. I am assured that the goats are eaten, so it is not a complete waste of life. For that I am thankful but being tied to a monument and then beheaded can’t be the most humane way to die.
Check out Riding the Rails – Why Travelling India by Train is the Best Way to See the Country
India is full of colour, but it really comes to life during its hundreds of celebrations. We were incredibly lucky to have been bang smack in the centre of two of the most fantastic festivals.
Rosie xx
Our flight from Rome to Barcelona only took us about an hour. The Terravision coach from the airport into town took us slightly longer. Barcelona Girona Airport is very far from the city, I believe it is just called Girona by the rest of the world, but Ryanair is still promoting it as Barcelona. Luckily, I am not fussy and it dropped us off at a metro station so we could continue our journey nice and easily.
Living in London, we are quite good at navigating with underground systems, but emerging into the sprawling station of Placa De Espana, we were baffled by the number of exits. A full ten minutes after arriving, we figured out the right direction and exited the station.
Booking a room in Barcelona had been surprisingly expensive. We had settled for a strange shared apartment a few streets over from Placa De Espana, that I booked through Hostelworld. The whole block smelt of deep fat frying, the decor was a collective smudge of brown and there was no reception to speak of.
It turns out, we had arrived right in the middle of La Mercè, Barcelona’s largest festival, celebrating the Patron saint of Barcelona, Mare de Deu de la Mercè. Unfortunately, we had missed one of the biggest moments of the festival. It showcases the tradition of building huge human pyramids called castellers, or castles. These aren’t the ones we used to do in the playground, three layers of kneeling, squealing girls, but three or four tiers of standing men with people standing on their shoulders, topped by a standing child. Quite a feat.
The success of our Fat Tire tour in Berlin inspired us to try it in Barcelona too. We didn’t regret it. We made our way through the throngs of people wandering slowly along the winding lanes of the old town, dinging our bells cheerfully.
The tour took in:
And many more.
Honestly, Fat TireTours are wonderful. There was a particularly thrilling downhill section that led down from the bull ring. I skirted a roundabout, gravity pulling me ever faster, with the wind whipping my hair into a frenzy. It was truly invigorating. My lack of driving license means I don’t get to go very fast in life. Being in someone else’s car, or a bus, or train is never as fun as when you’re in control. In Berlin we had stopped at a beer garden, here in Barcelona we stopped at a bar on the beach. Sitting, overlooking the beach, and sharing jugs of sangria, our aching muscles relaxed fully.
We accidentally caught ‘the Parade of the Giants’. We went for dinner overlooking one of the squares in the old town and a parade of huge models came past. Women in peasant dresses, pious looking saints and men in strange robes bobbed past the window. Some of these models reached the widows there on the first floor. We scoffed our food and afterwards we squeezed onto the train to see the eagerly anticipated fireworks which were located, rather handily, right next to our hostel!
We sat waiting on the main roundabout of Placa De Espana, this has a bit of a slope and so we stood a chance of seeing (we are not tall). Swept up by the joyous atmosphere, I took my eye off the ball. We suddenly realised, the camera was gone. Some talented master thief (or cheeky little sod) had pickpocketed our Sony camera. I was gutted. If only there was a way I could find this person and just beg for the SD card full of our snaps from Berlin, Rome and Barcelona!
Trying to put it behind us, we settled in to watch the firework spectacular. It was immense! The whole display took about 45 minutes and it was all timed to music, some of which we knew and some we didn’t. There were thousands of people in attendance and everyone was singing along loudly. I never thought I’d hear a huge crowd of people all singing the Teletubbies theme tune in glorious unison. Buoyed up by this wonderful occasion, losing the camera seemed less of a disaster.
The next morning we had to continue our trip in Spain as we were bound for Madrid.
(We are almost at the point in the trip where we managed to get some photos, but not quite.)
Rosie xx