Hey guys, its me again. Before I start, just wanna wish all of you a very happy new year! Pray that this new year will be a great one for all of you with new experiences and achievements! 🙂 I still remember myself counting down to year 2016 with our Malaysian Society Ms President- Debbie in Munich last year and I just couldn’t believe it’s been a year since then! The experience was a really amazing one if you wanna know more just click HERE.

Coming back to year 2016, I’ve decided to spend the last day of the year in London this year since I’m working and I don’t have long breaks. Before even coming to UK, I’ve heard of the amazing London New Year’s Eve fireworks already and I was really looking forward to experience it but missed it last year as I ended up in Munich. So this year, I was determined to attend as I know it’s my last chance since I’m going back home soon. 🙁 The London NYE fireworks event was used to be free to entry but due to the high demand, it now requires ticket for entrance and the event place was divided into a few area namely Blue, Green, White, Red and Pink area and each ticket cost £10. However, that doesn’t seem to restraint people for attending the event and tickets were sold off so fast. I only managed to grab a pink area ticket whereby we will be watching the fireworks from the Waterloo Bridge.

Initially I was going with a friend but she couldn’t make it last minute as she was ill (blame the cold weather 🙁 ) so I ended up going alone. I was kind of disappointed at first and felt a bit sad when I think of counting down to the New Year alone but I was still really looking forward for the event as London NYE’s fireworks was apparently world famous and it’s one of the best in the world and so I MUST experience it in person! Apparently this time it manages to attract visitors from more than 100 countries in the world!

So on the day, I reached Waterloo station at about 6pm and started looking out for the directions to the bridge so I could find my way there easily afterwards. And then, imagine that there’s already quite a long queue at the entrance! So people actually queued up since 6pm for the fireworks at 12am which is a 6 hour long wait and it’s really crazy! I was struggling at that the moment trying to decide to just join in the queue or go grab some dinner first and come back again which in the end I chose the second option as it’s really too cold out there.

I came back to the queue at 7.30pm after dinner and I was startled at the long queue formed. Apparently the queue was so long that there’s just people circling the nearby buildings forming lines! The door opens at 8.30pm and I waited patiently in the queue and entered the bridge at about 9.15pm. I walked around abit on the bridge trying to snap some Instagram worthy pictures and find a nice spot to sit down while waiting for time to past. More people started squishing on the bridge and it’s really full of thousands of people by the time it’s time to countdown! There’s a huge amplified hanging in the middle of the bridge with DJ playing music and entertaining the crowd throughout the whole night.

As the clock strikes 12, the fireworks started shooting off like crazy and its really stunning! The only regret I had is the location or area that I was wasn’t the best so I couldn’t see the whole picture of the fireworks clearly but nonetheless its still amazing. The fireworks only lasted for about 15 minutes but it’s definitely worth it although you need to queue for a few hours for that. BBC also streamed the fireworks live online and there are viewers from everywhere in the world! If anyone of you are interested, do check out the video HERE or a special 360 degree video HERE.

The fireworks are really amazing and definitely worth going if you’re ever in London on new years eve. A few tips for you to make sure you have an amazing experience:

a) Try your best to buy BLUE area tickets as they apparently have the best view of the whole fireworks performance! Other tickets are fine as well but might not be as good (like I was in the PINK area and I could not see the layers of the fireworks as they are all in a lump from my view)

b) Check out the Mayor of London’s website again if you missed the first batch of tickets selling period as they will usually release a small amount of second batch tickets again later on. (about beginning of Dec if I remembered correctly). Actually to be better you could just sign up the ticket alerts now and you’ll get notifications once the tickets go on sale!

c) Identify the correct area that you are heading to and follow instructions on the tickets on how to arrive to the correct area. Bear in mind not all the areas are connected and some of the tube stations are closed for the event so you’ll need to make sure you’re heading to the right place as you don’t wanna miss the performance. In anytime you’re not sure, there’ll be thousands of event helpers around on the day too so just ASK!

d) Give yourself plenty of time to arrive and when you leave as there will be loads and loads of people everywhere. There’s also reduced train and tube services after the event so you might need to think of a back up plan to go home. Tips: try to walk to further stations as they are usually not that crowded and you’ll get a higher chance to get into the tubes (ie: I walked all the way from Waterloo Bridge to London Bridge station and I managed to get into the first tube that arrive on station)

e) Relating to point c), good news is tube, bus and overground services are FREE to ride for a small period of time after midnight on the 1st of Jan.

f) Wear really comfortable shoes and thick layers of clothes when you attend as you’re gonna stand at outdoors for a few hours and it’s freezingly cold during the winter months!

g) Try to eat your dinner before attending the event and bring some snacks or drinks with you to past time. Do use the toilet first before arriving at the event place too. There’s a limited amount of portable food stalls and toilets available on the event site but bear in mind it will always be a super long queue as there are thousands and thousands of people there!

h) This is abit weird but apparently no metals are allowed in the event, not even thermos tumblers ( i made some hot chocolate in my thermos and brought it there happily but was confiscated at the entrance and could only take it back after the event so BEAR IN MIND). Glass bottles are not permitted too and alcohols (in cans / non glass packaging) are only permitted for personal consumption volume (ie: you can only bring a small amount for your own drinking pleasure).

So that’s all about the Fireworks. Although I spent the day counting down to new year alone, I was still excited and overwhelmed to see people hugging and kissing their loved ones as the clock strike 12 as I thought of my lovely family back home. It was also a bucket list checked so I’m really happy! 😀

And oh, on a side note, if you’re in London and haven’t visit the Winter Wonderland, it’s the last chance for you to do so as it’s the last day of the event tomorrow (2/1/17)! Winter Wonderland is the annual Christmas market in London and is also one of the biggest in London and UK. There are loads of nice foods, game stalls and even theme park rides in mega scale which really impressed me alot and definitely worth visiting if you still have the Christmas feels. 🙂 Some pics that I took during my visit to Winter Wonderland:

Anyways, thats officially marks an end to year 2016. I hope this new year 2017 is an amazing one as I anticipate what surprises it will give me. Once again, Happy New Year and may all your new year resolutions for this year will come true! Take care and see you all again next week.

Love xx

Adeline