Happy Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten-- Holidays Abroad

So I know I've been home for about a week now (and I'll be addressing that in a moment) (and by a moment I mean... in a while) but I had been meaning to write this since the holiday season began abroad.

Basically, Christmas? Huuuuuuuuge deal in Europe, apparently. At the very least, the people there have a love affair with decorating. right after Halloween lights went up on trees in Hyde Park, rides and mulled wine and Christmas markets galore.

Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park!

Of course, for us it was a bit jarring because there are more holidays between Halloween and Christmas, right?! Like Thanksgiving and what, Veterans Day or something?

The most American of holidays

But really, the decorations are to die for. Everything has lights, everything has baubles and colors and is all about being safe and cheerful all over the city. On my way to Sainsbury's I'd see lights on the casino across the street and it wasn't just generic casino lights, either, but like legit Christmas lights. Sooooooo pretty. 

Just so you know, these pictures of the Christmas fair were taken the day after Thanksgiving. Yep. It was already up and in full swing by the end of November. I was taking a walk one night when I happened upon it, and by "happened upon it" I mean I saw the Ferris wheel through some trees and went "WTF is that?" and thus inspected it. Every street has something hanging from buildings and lighting up with little trees and lots of flowers and whatnot.

I'm pretty sure even Americans find this tacky.

This is all in Ireland, btw

But the place that really goes all-out for Christmas has to be Germany, hands-freaking-down. We landed in Berlin two weeks before Christmas and you'd think Christmas was a two-month affair. I mean, I guess it makes sense because we stole a lot of our Christmas traditions from German traditions but I've never seen a nation so in love with a holiday. To be fair, I had no idea that they'd be so into the last hundred years of their own history, either, so there's that. But I digress. Decorations and traditions in Germany definitely trump everything I've seen.

Christmas Markets selling decorations that go on for miles

Gigantic Christmas trees in political centers

Uh.... an international Christmas tree, I guess

Sweet stands selling gingerbread hearts that say things

Singing folk songs and carols inside said Christmas markets

Seriously, Christmas markets everywhere. We went to five of them.

One day I'll fully celebrate the holidays abroad, because it'd be amazing. I'm so curious as to what they have in northern Europe and in places like Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Sweden, places that have big Christmas markets and whatnot. And really like celebrating? I don't know what I'm talking about. I know Italy's real big  on Christmas, I'd love to see that. Spain, too, maybe France, and er, I don't know, Switzerland? I feel like they must have Christmas celebrations of some sort because everyone goes skiing there. Who am I kidding I don't know anything about Christmas in other places except for right freaking here. But that's alright because I'm learning, right? Right.

The Art of History in London

So. This is a post I've been meaning to write for a while, but as I sit here alternating between my paper on WWII and my paper on the Great Exhibition, fresh off a viewing of The King's Speech, I felt compelled to write it now.


I came to London, specifically this semester, for several reasons, however there being one central one: The BU London History Programme. Two core classes, one a seminar and one general history of London from 1666, doubled with a 5,000-6,000 word thesis due in less than three weeks' time. It's London, it's old, it's historical, so it makes sense, right?

Pictured: How I pictured 99% of Europe

In the past semester, I've learned more about Britain, the British Isles, Europe, and the world in general than I ever have before. Since I declared a history major at BU I've been slowly and steadily branching out beyond my scope of general American knowledge  and into a world that's filled with the most amazing, incredible things. Learning history in this country, a country that's, what, five times the age of the United States, is so different from studying it anywhere else. It's living history. It's one thing to look at an old painting and think about a house or an alleyway that may have existed at some point in time; it's another to look at said painting, pack up your things, walk three blocks and see it yourself. Everything from grandiose castles and mansions to something as simple as the winding corridors of the East End, still surviving after years of war, Blitz and fire, still seething with dark caverns of mystery and buried under a layer of historical detail.


And don't even get me started on the World Wars. I've always found the World Wars to be interesting, of course; what history person isn't interested in at least one aspect of those glorious, bloody wars? But, obviously, the United States wasn't really involved in the struggle as much as it was over here. Over here being, well, northern Europe. Just a hop skip and a jump from where the bulk of both wars were fought. I'm of the opinion that they're minorly obsessed with the Wars here but, to be fair, they did have a big effect on Great Britain. Going to Belgium and seeing the vast fields of green where thousands of bodies still lay, and seeing the trench first-hand, walking around, smelling it's horrendous stench, looking at the rabbit hole they called a door into a dark, dank corridor beneath the ground... uncertain if they were to ever come out.

Imperial War Museum

The Imperial War Museum has to be my favorite place, in addition to all this nonsense. Just the way it walks you through the problems of the 20th century, starting with the Home Front in WWI and slowly adding in more and more nations until it's 1989 and half the world is waiting for the Berlin Wall to fall. And the Churchill War Rooms... that's just amazing. To walk the same hallways that Churchill did, and his generals, and his staff, and running to and fro during air raid sirens to check their maps and try to figure out just what they could do to stop the Third Reich from swallowing Europe whole.

It's just... ugh. Good Lord. I first saw "The King's Speech" in either June or July, randomly watching it with my mother on a rare evening off. I enjoyed it, but I couldn't say I was completely in love with it. I enjoy Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter as much as the next person but I didn't have this... investment in it. I just re-watched it while trying to simultaneously write a paper (I don't know why I always think I'm good at that kind of thing) and... I just felt so much more about it. I understood the context of the time; I've been to the places featured; I've seen instances of the fear, the confusion, and the crumbling facade of the British Empire. It's astounding to just think of all that Britain was going through in the late twenties and early thirties-- hell, my thesis is about that time. It's incredibly terrifying and exhilarating and I spent the entire movie yelling at the screen.


This place, I feel as if I've become immersed in wartime Britain. Considering how much of Europe's history is just carved and shaped by war, I'm surprised I'm surprised but... as I said to my roommate this morning, "History has a way of being very, very depressing, doesn't it?"

“No one has built a hence like that since then!... no one knows what the heck a henge is, but we’ve got one!”

As Eddie Izzard so valiantly put it, yes, England has Stonehenge. Last weekend BU packed us up onto a bus at 8.45 in the morning, drove us two hours south of here, and plopped us in the middle of a field and said “LOOK. LOOK AT OUR ROCKS.”

At least they're nice rocks?

Granted it was a gorgeous day and yes, those rocks are cool. When I told people I was going to see Stonehenge, I got a lot of “it’s just a bunch of rocks” (coughFalloncoughcough) but... it was just one of those things that I had to do. Yes, I’m aware about a gazillion people a day go look at Stonehenge and yes, more people than I can even fathom have been through those rocks. Nowadays you can’t even touch the rocks or go near them; you just kinda watch them from a distance with a rope in front of you. And you walk around them look at them from every angle, attempt to take witty photos—

I'm holding it in my palm. GET IT?

It took us far too long to plan this photo out.

—and then you get back on the bus and go someplace else. For us, it was Salisbury to go look at some churches and eat some delicious foods. But it was still a breath-taking experience. It was a beautiful, cloudless day, you could see the countryside for miles, and since it was so early, the place wasn’t that crowded and we enjoyed a nice wander around the perimeter. There were a lot of sheep and crows hanging around, which was weird. Since the only method of fencing they had to keep people from frolicking in the stones was a thin black rope, we assumed that they were there to attack whenever someone crossed and made a break for it.

But this is a structure that has lasted longer than half the world’s countries have been around. This structure was standing here, presumably in one piece at some point, since before most countries had names. Or national identities. They were just roaming pacts of people who were vaguely different from one another and fought on a basis of “you kind of don’t sound and/or look like me.”

This continent is a lot like high school.

The point is, this is a vital piece of history. I’m sure that someone’s entire life career was formed just because this monument is still standing and we still don’t know what the hell it’s for. I’ve seen everything from aliens built for rituals to it was a farmhouse, and each theory is just as crazy as the last. We were even joking that it was built the way it’s standing now, and it was never one concentric circle.

"HAHA SCREW YOU ALL!" - Stonehenge

 It’s also another piece of the ancient world I’ve always wanted to see. First Pompeii, then the Rosette Stone, now Stonehenge. That’s like... three things knocked of my non-existent ancient world bucket list. (I should really make one of those.) Salisbury was nice though, once we were done marveling at Stonehenge. It had a nice church, an original copy of the Magna Carta (all Americans should be excited about that!) and a little market where Saiya bought a hat. All in all, good day.

I'm smiling so giddily because this is right before I made a break for it.


Not really.