New Year Plans

It is December and that time of the year when thoughts turn to the festive period. I concede that most people probably started thinking about their arrangements months ago, but I've never really been one to plan things too much. A last minute splurge of activity is more my style. This year will be no different as my housemate and I have just booked flights to Germany to see in the New Year. Our visas are running down and the cheapest flight out of Istanbul is to the German capital. This will be my fourth New Year on the road and yet another alternative to England. I have heard that Berlin has a reputation for a wild nightlife and, of course, a rich history to delve into during hangovers and fireworks. Previous New Year festivities have also been memorable, though for different reasons.

My first New Year celebration on foreign soil was in Tian Jin, China. However, this 'New Year' was strictly for the ex-pat community as the Chinese year didn't begin until the end of January with the Spring Festival. For six weeks, fireworks and firecrackers lit up the city non-stop. Riding your bicycle to work became a gauntlet which needed to be run, with kids and adults alike firing rockets at each other across the street! No lie, I saw one dad chase his child down the road and then launch the firework at the boy! Luckily, his poor aim meant no harm was done. My ex-girlfriend, Becca, knew someone in the city who she had studied with in Liverpool. We were very pleased to have been invited to her family's home to eat a gluttonous amount of jiao zi (dumplings filled with vegetables or meat).

The next New Year was spent on a beach in Goa, India. A journey around the second most populous country on the planet was punctuated by a month stay over Christmas/New Year on the beach at Palolem. Dancing on the beach with fellow beach-bums followed by a head-clearing dip in the ocean was not the worst thing to happen on the trip.

Last year was without doubt the least 'wild' New Year I've ever had in terms of partying, but perversely one of my favourites. As you may recall, I spent a year living and working in the vowel-shy, former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. For the turn of year break, Anna and I travelled around Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to see what a Central Asia Christmas and New Year would be like. As I have already talked about before, the first leg of the trip involved a car journey through the snowy mountains and undeveloped roads of Kyrgyzstan. Towards the end of the car ride, our taxi came upon an accident which had left several people seriously injured. Our driver leapt to the rescue and bundled two of the victims in to the car with us, which just left me to spend the next hour with an old dead woman slumped on my shoulder and another dying in the boot (trunk for any American readers) of the car. The actual New Year celebrations were fairly mute, as we were in the desert town of Turkestan in Kazakhstan with not much to do but wander the streets, buy alcohol and then drink in our hotel room watching Russian/Kazakh TV. Desolation defined!

This year should be more traditional and European in its format, but I hope it will also be equally weird and wonderful. Whatever you do and however you celebrate, enjoy the festivities!