My goodness I’m really behind on my blog. I’m so busy living my life I don’t have time to chronicle it. A good thing, really. Since its stale date is quickly approaching, I think I’ll start with New Year’s and then fill in the other days later.
New Year’s Eve is called Silvester here in Austria. The big party in Innsbruck is outdoors, with 3 stages around the inner core playing various music, both live and canned. The main stage is in front of the city bridge and powers out pop tunes from Austria, NA and Italy (lots of Italians at the celebration.) The two hosts called out in 3 languages to keep everyone involved. We (Ryan and Renata, Catherine and Katherine, Markus and I) got to this location early, as Markus knew that they close access to the main area around 11:30. Of course, in Austria drinking on the street is completely acceptable, so we enjoyed Glüwine and Orangen-punsch while munching on tasty pizza. At around 11:00, the (C)Katherines went back to the apartment to watch the fireworks from the balcony with Rebecca, who had offered to babysit Annie.
I was feeling pretty tired around 10:00, and wasn’t sure I’d make it, but perked up at 11:00, especially when the crowds really started rockin’. There were about 30,000 people around the area, so it certainly was a good party. Luckily, the night was clear and not too cold.
Although the official fireworks don’t start until midnight, regular folk can purchase fireworks, (and here I thought they were a dangerous fire hazard), so there was one shot off every few minutes for over an hour, with the rate increasing the closer to midnight we got. After the countdown, the city fireworks started. Incredible! First there was a display on the mountain at Seegrube, about 2000 meters above sea level. Every time a blast went off, the snowy mountains were lit up as a stunning background. These lasted about 10 minutes, and then the fireworks from the bridge in front of us started and continued for another 20 minutes. I’m used to pretty modest displays in Victoria, so these ones blew me away. So many stunning designs and huge explosions. A very special time.
Here are some pictures of the evening taken by Cams, Renata’s camera, with my first try at posting a blog video of a couple of minutes of the fireworks from the bridge. I hope we all have a happy, successful and healthy 2009.
Silvester Fireworks 2008 from Hillary Samson on Vimeo.
WOW!
New Years Eve rocks in Innsbruck.
Great video.
Happy New Year!! to all
Hello my dear,
u really had a nice Silvester night in Innsbruck. I enjoyed your video a lot. In Switzerland it was absolutly different. No fireworks, not even the people on the streets. Bern, which is so beautifull old Hauptstadt and meine beliebte schwizarische town, had no atmosfere at all (: Wir hätten in Innsbruck blieben sollen! So, from yesterday we are in Seefeld again. We are going for skiing the rest few days, and I am waiting for your call.
Deine Ana,