Christmastime in Europe

A week before Christmas I decided to head to Paris to check out their Christmas markets. I went to the Champs-Elysées and to Sacré Cœur and Montmantre. There was a huge market lining the Champs-Elysées which was really pretty, but the stands were mainly food. I did get a really good steak and pepper sandwich though. 

Once I made my way up and down the street, I headed over to Montmantre and hiked up to Sacré Cœur. It was so beautiful over there.  A guy was playing music in front of the basilica and everyone gathered on the steps to listen and sing along. I bought some vin au chaud or mulled wine and watched for a little while.

On Tuesday, Dec. 20^th I headed to Braunschweig to meet up with my friends from URI. 

We went to the Weihnachtsmarkt which is their Christmas market and I got glühwein which is their mulled wine. It was really good. I also got a bratwurst sandwich that was almost as big as me! I couldn’t even finish it! Their market was much bigger than the one in Compiègne, much bigger. We also went to an Irish pub, a Mexican restaurant, and a club.

 I met Erin at the train station on Friday morning. She was coming in from southern Germany and would be spending Christmas with a friend who lived in a nearby village. We got to catch up over coffee and tea though, which was really nice. It was great to see people from home.

 Then, on Christmas Eve I decided to head back to France. I took a train from BS to Hannover to Köln and eventually onto Paris. My third train got delayed and I got into Paris late and missed the last train to Compiègne. After having a complete breakdown in the middle of the Gare du Nord on the phone with my mom, I decided to look for a taxi. Seeing as it was Christmas Eve and around 11pm, there were only a few taxis that would travel within Paris. So I was thinking of spending the night in the train station when this nice black man came up and said that it wasn’t safe to stay in the train station overnight and that I should find a hotel. So he brought me to a couple and only one had rooms available. Of course it was the most expensive hotel, but why would it be any other way. I got into my room and was a little nervous because it was my first time staying in a hotel room by myself, but I was so emotionally drained that I passed right out. I had set my alarm so that I would catch the first train the next morning, but my alarm never went off so I woke up 8 minutes after the train left. Oh the luck I have! I ended up heading to the gare and waiting for the next one except it was not for another hour and a half.

I finally made it back to my room around 11am and was so happy to finally be there. I had a bunch of Christmas cards waiting for me and two packages. So I opened up everything and it was like it was Christmas morning! I met up with Grace, Tess, and Grace’s friend (all from the US) and we had a nice dinner. We made quail and it was delicious. We also had artichokes, which was the first time I had ever eaten an artichoke that wasn’t in spinach and artichoke dip. It was good, but after a while, I was sick of the taste. The dinner was accompanied by wine and of course some orangecello! All in all, my Christmas ended up being full of Christmas cheer. I got to skype with my family and with Elena too!

The Dinner Table

 

I didn't know how to eat it

Grace opening up the wine!

Christmas Capital of France

Strasbourg! Yesterday, Wednesday, I got up at 4am and headed to the train station to head to Strasbourg. It is in the Alsace region of France and is right on the border of Germany. I took the TGV, which is the high speed train, and got there in about 2 hours and 20 minutes. No one really wanted to go or was giving me a straight answer, so I said hell with it and went alone. I really wanted to go, so I did!

I went mainly for the Christmas markets, but they didn’t open til 10am and I arrived around 9. I decided to walk around and check out some of the town before heading to the markets. The main town was surrounded by a river which made for a picturesque city.  Rainy of course, but it was beautiful just the same.

After a little while of adventuring, I went to the first market. There are tons of them set up throughout the city and it’s like a scavenger hunt trying to find them. I took a picture of the large map they had displayed in town and used that as my map.  The first market was a German market. Because Strasbourg is so close to Germany, a lot of Germans come here and most of the markets were in French and in German. It was really cool because I could understand some of the things in German!  After that I moved on to the next one and continued on until I hit them all. I am pretty sure I walked every street of Strasbourg. I bought a few little Christmasy things along the way too.

Around 3, I was about done and ready to go home, but my train was not until 5:45, so I went to a local restaurant and ordered an Alsacian beer and a tradition dish. I had smoked pork, potatoes with bacon and onions, and a salad. Altogether the meal was delicious. A little lonely, but these two old ladies talked to me for a bit. It was so sweet.

Once I finished dinner, I walked around one of the markets again and then headed to the train station. The town was all lit up and it made me so happy. I am really glad I went. It was a very long day, but I am definitely glad that I went!

Euro Disney

On y va!!!

Look at all those umbrellas!

On Saturday, Dec. 3rd, my two Argentinian friends, Pipi and Sebastian and I went to Euro Disney along with some other UTC kids. We left Compiègne around 8 in the morning, still dark out and of course raining.  Crazy European weather.  Anyways I was not expecting a lot of people to be there since it was raining, but turns out there were lots of people there. 

Everything was decorated for Christmas and it was all lit up. It was so cool. I have never seen Disney dressed for Christmas before! This was Pipi and Sebastian’s first time at Disney so they were like two little kids in awe of everything. There were two parks there, one similar to Magic Kingdom and another similar to MGM Studios. As soon as we arrived, I took them on Tower of Terror. It’s my least favorite ride, but they really wanted to do it. After that we headed to Rockin’ Rollercoaster, but there was a long wait so we got fast passes and went to see the cars stunt show in between. We headed back to Rockin’ Rollercoaster and Sebas was amazed at how we got to “cut” the line. We sat in the first seat and it was his first time ever sitting in the front seat before. It was pretty awesome. 

and its still raining...

There was not much else there so we headed over to Magic Kingdom. We headed to the castle first. It was Sleeping Beauty’s castle, a pink one, and much smaller than the one in Orlando, but it was fine for Pipi and Sebas. After that we ate lunch and saw the Mickey spectacle which was half in French and half in English. Pretty funny. It was weird to have Sleeping Beauty be the main princess. We don’t even really acknowledge her as a "main princess" in the US. Also, they had the girl from The Princess and the Frog as well as Rapunzel from Tangled perform. Afterwards, we went on Space Mountain and Thunder Railroad. By that time it was pretty late and everyone wanted to buy a few goodies before we left. We went browsing through a few shops in Magic Kingdom, but no one found anything, except for me. I found a 101 Dalmatians postcard. There was lots of shopping in MGM so we headed back there. 

The Spectacle

On our way back though, Pipi realized she lost her ticket therefore she would not be allowed back in. I let her take my ticket because it was her first time in Disney and she wanted to buy her family some things. I waited outside the park while they went shopping. Probably for the better, this way I didn’t spend any money! When they were done, we headed to the bus and headed home. It was a great day, full of rain, but full of laughs. 

Pipi and I hanging out with our new friends