Celebrating New Year's Eve in different countries

We wish all our readers and friends a Happy New Year 2017! By the time you read this, we will have celebrated the new year at Wallmans salons in Stockholm, together with our friends Lennart and Beata. We hope to report and show pictures from the celebration tomorrow, but reporting at 06:00 the next morning is a bit optimistic. Instead, you'll have to make do with a little cavalcade of memories from our previous years, when we celebrated New Year's Eve in different countries - from clubs in Ukraine to beaches in Asia.

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2006/2007 Restaurant in New Zealand

We did a real adventure trip around New Zealand in a campervan with Peter's two sons, then aged 10 and 18. It was the first time in our lives that we travelled by motorhome and you know what happened next. Yes, we went and bought our own motorhome!

We celebrated New Year's Eve in a small, simple and cosy restaurant in Wellington, on the North Island. Afterwards we went out on the streets where it was full of life and celebration. The next day we continued on to new adventures including kayaking, whale watching and a boat trip on a glacial lake...

2007/2008 Guest house in Mombasa

Perhaps you have read Peter's story about our dramatic journey in Kenya? We celebrated New Year's Eve at the Le Petit Paris guesthouse with a Dutch and an Italian/New Zealand couple, while the unrest continued outside the walls.

The French owner served a fantastic French multi-course dinner and we went round the table with everyone telling us what they wanted to do in life, which we started with "If I survive..." Yes, it was that anxious. And yet, a nice New Year's Eve that we will never forget!

2008/2009 Dutch friends in Stockholm

Exactly one year after we celebrated New Year in a troubled Kenya, Linda and Marlon, the Dutch couple, came to visit us in Stockholm. We took them to everything from museums and restaurants to visits to Sigtuna, and on New Year's Eve they accompanied us and our friends Lennart and Beata to Wallman's salons. It was great to meet again under different circumstances!

2009/2010 Nightclub in Kiev

A few days before, we booked tickets to the luxurious golden Avalon nightclub in the Ukrainian capital. This was done by going to the club, hanging out, getting a tour by a "manager", going through the menu, ordering wine and paying a deposit. Despite very careful booking, most things went wrong - but we still had fun!

2010/2011 Wine cellar in Budapest

We booked the New Year celebrations by phone from Sweden before we left - or so we thought. In fact, they probably didn't understand anything we said. However, when we arrived at the Nador Botterem wine cellar, they showed us to a table, so everything seemed to be in order.

When we got the first glass of wine, we thought it was something they offered before we saw the menu, but three wines and three starters later, it was not the time to ask anymore. We were served probably ten different dishes with accompanying wines. The dinner was accompanied by live music, and it was not so expensive that we had to stand and wash the dishes either ...

2011/2012 Another nightclub in Kiev

We fell in love with the idea of New Year in Kievso we took Peter's son Robin and his girlfriend (now wife) Alexandra with us. We started by checking out a large outdoor concert organised for all Kiev residents in the centre of the city and then went on to the Arena City entertainment complex.

We had tables (with food and champagne) in the nightclub, which were looked after by guards so we could move freely between floors, dance floors, (strip club) and bars.

2012/2013 Beach in Malaysia

For 100 ringgit (just over $200) per person, we got a buffet, fire, lanterns and fireworks at the Oasis restaurant in Langkawi. The most pleasant surprise was that Linda HammarbergLudvig and their children, from Mary of Rövarhamn, joined us along with another Swedish family. A very nice New Year's Eve on the beach at long tables!

2013/2014 Restaurant in the Philippines

In the days before New Year's Eve, I was really sick, so I couldn't eat as much of the whole grilled pig buffet at Toko's restaurant as I would have liked. We still had a nice New Year's Eve in Sabang on the island of Mindoro.

Afterwards we went to the Swedish-owned restaurant Tamarind for a chat with the owners. At midnight we celebrated in a bar full of pool-playing British divers, Filipino prostitutes and she-males.

2014/2015 Blogger family in Portugal

Now we had managed to go on our trip around Europe with the motorhome! We froze in December in northern Spain (problems with gas) and had no plans for New Year. Then we got an email from Åsa, with the (fantastically funny and well-written!) blog. Bortugalwho asked if we wanted to celebrate New Year at their home outside Lisbon.

Wow, what an invitation from people we have never met before! It was an incredibly nice and cosy New Year's Eve, and soon it felt like we had known each other all our lives.

2015/2016 Family dinner in the archipelago

Last year, we were lucky enough to be invited to the exclusive new year dinnerwith seven courses, at the home of Peter's niece Dessi on Blidö in the Stockholm archipelago. Better than the best of restaurants, and in good company of course!

Over the years, we have celebrated New Year's Eve in different countries, but most recently it was on the Wallmans in Stockholm. How did you celebrate the new year yesterday? Do you or your family have special traditions, or is it different every year? Have you celebrated New Year's Eve in different countries?

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