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.

Deutschland? Deutschland!

Germany. Deutschland. When I was accepted into this study abroad program, my first thought was “I’m going to Germany”. I can’t really explain why; I’ve never been particularly interested in Germany before. Even when I started learning about WWII I was always more interested in places like Britain, Poland, Russia, even Austria. Italy I always wanted to go to but I got that done with forever ago. But... Germany?

Well, I finally got to go. I didn’t think I was going to get there, but I really wanted to, and I mentioned it to Katie and the next thing I knew we were booking a flight. The flight was a bit pricey and I really wasn’t sure if I could afford to be there for three days, but we did it. I turned in my dissertation and then woke at the crack of dawn and left for Germany.

And it was so, so worth it.

We landed early in the morning and after a bus and a train checked into our hostel, where we kind of fell asleep on the couch in the lounge. But then we checked into our room and napped forever... and then explored.

One things I always wondered about Germany is how they approach their own history of the last 100 years. I always kinda assumed it was all hush hush, look at all our pretty buildings and let’s pretend we weren’t two cities for forty years. Oh, I was so wrong.

The only thing these guys could say was "photo" we're pretty sure

So, so wrong.

Berlin kind of has a love affair with its own history. There were tons of people wandering around in WWII-era and Soviet-era uniforms posing for pictures with flags, handing out passport stamps and postcards.

I now have a visa to live in East Berlin for 14 days!

 But really. It’s all over the place. Everything in Berlin was either WWII, Soviet Union or Christmas.

Christmas at Brandenburg!

 I mean, it was okay with us because that’s all that we did. We did the Berlin Mauer Museum, the DDR Museum, the Holocaust memorial, and every Christmas market we could find.

It was all wonderful, of course. We spent a lot of time wandering where the wall used to be, and playing around with its old boundaries. So ridiculous.

This probably happened.

I have to say, there’s still a bit of a physical difference between the East and the West. When we went to the East End Gallery, there was just... something different about the area we were in. It was clearly cleaned up but it was noticeably different. I know a lot of the city has been fixed but still. The East End Gallery was gorgeous, btw.

Germany was beautiful and incredibly friendly. The Christmas markets were really fun and had SO MUCH JOY. And the Christmas decorations were just... to DIE for.

Germany knows how to do Christmas. It’s absolutely amazing. And even if we couldn’t understand something (which was most of the time) they ALWAYS spoke English. Hooray for us! Except for one time Katie was trying to order wurst, and the man just spoke in German to her, counted at her and laughed. She was intimidated. ‘Twas hilarious.

But everything was just amazing. Our hostel was gorgeous, everything was cheap and my inner history freak was satiated.

Germany, Germany, Germany is a really really nice place~♫