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New Year in New York

Posted on 26. Dec, 2009 by Andrea in Travel

According to a survey by Skyscanner, New York is the most popular choice for UK residents to spend their New Year’s Eve holiday in 2009 and as we stand poised on the edge of a new decade, I’m reminded of standing on this precipice ten years ago…

I’d dithered and pontificated for the best part of 1999. I was not going to pay through the teeth to travel somewhere special to see in a new millennium, no matter how hard the travel media tried to sell it to me.
And then the millennium-bug rumour mill sprang into action.
All the computers would allegedly stop at midnight on 31st December 1999 it said. Wall Street would crash, life support machines would seize up, we’d all be plunged into darkness and airplanes would fall from the sky. That was enough to do it; bookings dried up and suddenly you could go just about anywhere for the millennium at lower prices than you’d ever seen.
Never one to miss a bargain, that’s how I ended up in New York’s Times Square along with a million others to see out the old millennium and welcome in the new.

Security was so tight following terrorist threats on the Mayor’s life that once you were in Times Square, you had to stay there or not get back in. So any chance of popping out to an off-licence for a bottle in a brown paper bag or to a deli for some doughnuts was out of the question.

It was all so exciting when the millennium arrived in Tonga, twelve hours before it was due in New York. It was still exciting when it arrived in London seven hours later and to celebrate the USA’s special relationship with the UK, we were all showered with Union Jack flags while The Beatles blasted out All You Need is Love over the giant Tannoys. As the century slipped away around the rest of the globe I was tempted to call it quits and head to a restaurant but I’d come all this way and I was determined to stick it out. When it was finally New York’s turn, at five in the morning UK time, exhausted, starving, frozen to the marrow and stone cold sober I can honestly say I was heartily sick of the thing.

No sooner had the infamous ball dropped than I was brushing off the ticker tape and heading back to my hotel where two bottles of champagne were drunk in 40 minutes in an effort to make up for lost drinking time.
It’s one of those things that you can tell people; that you were in Times Square for the new millennium, but if the truth be known I’d probably have had more fun in Tenerife, which is where I’ll be this year.

And, it seems, I won’t be the only one as the second most popular destination according to the survey, is Tenerife.

This time I’ll be standing in warm air beside a glistening harbour, in arm’s length of at least 25 beer kiosks and assorted food vendors, watching amazing fireworks, swallowing a grape for every stroke of midnight and dancing ‘til dawn.
Who needs the Big Apple, give me the Big T any day.

Here’s Skyscanner’s top ten venues for Brits to spend their 2009 New Year’s Eve:

1. New York
2. Tenerife
3. Paris
4. Amsterdam
5. London
6. Alicante
7. Malaga
8. Edinburgh
9. Geneva
10. Dublin

Where will your date with New Year be?

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Tags: dating, New Year 2009, New York, Online dating, places to celebrate New Year's Eve, relationship, Spending New Year's Eve in Times Square

Andrea Montgomery

Freelance feature/travel writer and author of 2 travel guides, Andrea is a compulsive blogger and Tweeter with an annoying tendancy to behave like Head Girl (presumably because she never got to be one).

Andrea - has written 19 posts on Sparkle in my life. Contact the author

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