Going down south for Christmas 3.0

Image ~ January 15, 2015January 15, 2015 ~ Mandy Monday ~ Leave a comment

It was the the 24th of December, as we said goodbye to Savannah and Forrest Gump (you can read everything about it here), as we hit the road and were about spending Christmas Eve in Florida! That last glimmer of Christmas feeling, that was still hidden inside of me, vanished by the time, we reached Fernandina Beach, a city on Amelia Island, which is one of the southernmost of the Sea Islands. We still had some time until we could check in at our hotel, so we decided, to check out the beach, which was super close to our hotel. It was a little chilly that morning and actually the coldest day during our road trip. It has been a strange but nice feeling, sitting by the beach on December 24th. I was thinking of my family and that they might decorate their Christmas tree while I am sitting by the beach in Florida. So I texted my dad and sent him a picture of how my day of Christmas Eve looked like and he said, that he is very happy for me being able experiencing all of this. So here we were, watching some little birds running threw the water, listening to the sound of the ocean and enjoying this incredible weather. We’re such lucky bastards!

After checking in, we were about discovering Fernandina Beach and surroundings (most of all, we were also looking for a liquor store to get something to drink for the night. I know, it sounds very desperate and you might think, we are alcoholics, but we are really not!). It was impossible to find a liquor store, which was incredibly incredible! But yeah, nothing! Zero (okay, this does sound desperate now…)! So we were just driving around, without knowing where to go, which turned out to be the greatest idea, because we ended up in this cute holiday center, which you could call “The Center Parks of Amelia Island”! Not that I have ever been to Center Parks, but if I am trying to think of a name for this adorable place, I am thinking about Center Parks right away. I am still not sure about what it really was, if we even were allowed to be there, or what the name of this place was, but I know, that it was just beautiful. There have been so many houses, which turned out to be shops, restaurants and a little animal farm. This tiny farm had a parrot, that was sitting on top of a branch in the middle of the room (it freaks me out a little, when I see birds not being in a cage, because I am always afraid, they’ll attack me), some snakes, a baby opossum and a cute little rabbit, which was trying to eat my backpack or maybe just wanted to sneak inside of it to come with us. This entire place spread so much inner peace, with all its trees and flowers, that I felt completely free from worry! It felt like being cut off from the outside world. We were looking for some booze and found a little piece of nature heaven (and a huge Christmas tree)!

Still being stunned, we got back in the car on our way back, exploring Fernandina Beach a little more. As we were strolling through this charming but sleepy little town, we were looking for a nice reastaurant to have dinner at, as we spotted Santa Claus on the other side of the street taking a break in front of the store. It was hard finding a restaurant. Nothing seemed to be good enough. We wanted to have something special for our Christmas Eve dinner in Florida, so we didn’t feel like having Mexican or Italian food (please forgive me, that I just wrote this, motherland of incredible food! I love you!). At some point, we gave up and decided to look for something again later on at the hotel. Now it was time to just enjoy spending time in Fernandina beach. We saw people going to church and the sun slowly setting by the harbor. What I felt that evening was pure happiness and peace.

Back at the hotel, we were figuring out where to have dinner. My friend found a piece of paper with some names of restaurants on our desk and was reading the menus to me. “What would you like to eat?”, he asked me. I always gave him the same answer and I know it always annoyed the shit out of him. “I don’t know. I don’t care.”. He looked at me, with this look on his face, that clearly expressed: “Seriously?!”. I knew, that I’d be on the safe side, because he is French! I mean, c’mon, they have it in their genes, when it comes to great food. I know, this sounds like the biggest clishé, but it’s true! No matter, what places he chose to have some food, it always has been good. He once even told me, that most of the time, when I chose a place, it has been crap. So if you get to hear that, you wave the white flag and let the Frenchman do it! And he always did a good job. And I know, it can be annoying, if there is a vegetarian (that one is me)! So he did that night again. After being turned down at one place, he called the best restaurant, I have ever been to in my entire life. And back then, I didn’t even know then! “I’m gonna call that place called “David’s Restaurant & Lounge”. It sounds good.”, he said and got a table for us. We didn’t have high expectations and we have been proofed better as soon as we got there! I loved the atmosphere, although I usually don’t like abtract decoration, art and mostly anything, that has something to do with abstracts, but I really loved how this place looked like, espeacially the grey stone walls. And thank God, I had to go to the bathroom, because this place was just amazing. “Oh my Gooooood! This bathroom makes you wanna go pee like a million times, only so that you can go back there!!!”, is what I told my friend, being a little tipsy, from that great French (of course!) wine we got. It was delicious! The staff there was incredibly curtouse and I loved our waiter. “He’s so cute, I wanna hug him!”, is what I told my friend. Man, that French wine really got me! Our food was amazingly good, so that both of us almost got unconscious and this time I am not exaggerating! After finishing our dessert and paying the check, we were sad about leaving, because we knew, that this delicious experience has been the first and last time. A big thank you to “David’s Restaurant & Lounge” for this wonderful dinner! No matter when you guys are down there, do yourselves a favor and go eat at “David’s Restaurant & Lounge” (get a table here)!!! You’ll experience how heaven tastes like!

This has been a perfect Christmas Eve! My friend got even more excited being able to finally open his presents now, while I was just laying on top of our bed. Happy, but drunk. This French wine just has been too good for a little German woman like me. So I fell asleep while Christmas was about to start. The very next morning it was time to leave Florida and hit the road back to Wahsington D.C.! “I’m gonna drive the entire way until home!”, is what I told my friend. “Don’t you think, it’s a little bit too much? Maybe we should stop in Raleigh, North Carolina?”, is what my friend suggested, but I didn’t want to spend another night in a hotel without a Christmas tree, while there was waiting a huge one for me with a fireplace right next to it back home. “Nah, I can do it! C’mon, I am German! I am tough”, is what I assured him laughing. He looked at me, with that kind of look on his face, that said: “Well, if you think so, okay.”. So we hit the road. 10 hours driving ahead of us. It was tough. Very tough. Especially the very last hour almost killed me. For the first time, I experienced, what it feels like driving and being super tired. I wasn’t driving fast. I was driving under the speed limit and thought I was having a race with all the other cars on the highway. My view changed from seing double to seing triple! It was like torture, but I knew, that I would get us home safe! And I made it. After reaching home, turning off the car and sitting on the couch, I suddenly felt, how tired I really was. Once you sit down, you start feeling it. “I never would have thought saying this, but…I am sick of driving.”, is what I told my friend. So it was time to turn on the Christmas lights, the fire place and a movie. And to fall asleep.

Merry Christmas!

Going down south for Christmas 2.0

Image ~ December 29, 2014 ~ Mandy Monday ~ Leave a comment

As we said goodbye to Charleston (you can read everything about it here), we hit the road, to go to Savannah. I didn’t know much about the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia, but there was a very important detail, I knew of and cared about: the “park bench” scene, that opens the movie “Forrest Gump” (best movie ever!!!) was filmed on the north side of Chippewa Square and I had to go there! But before we did that the next day, we checked in at our hotel, which wasn’t that far from the center of the city and really cheap! The first thing, we thought, as soon, as we got there, was: There is like nobody here! I guess, this has been the reason, why the staff there has been so super nice, because they were happy about every single person, that came to their hotel. I have to admit, that I felt a little bit like Jack Nicholson in the movie “The Shining”, because there really was NOBODY!!! It’s creepy and cool at the same time, knowing, that we might have been the only ones at this hotel. But as we figured the very next morning, we weren’t. There have been maybe 5 others with us.

Today was the day: I am gonna be at the same place, Tom Hanks was sitting 20 years ago! I was super excited! On our way into the city of Savannah, looking for a free parking spot, which is always a pain in the ass and almost impossible in the U.S., we actually ended up in a parking garage. As soon, as we started walking towards downtown, the rain was coming down in torrents. And we didn’t have an umbrella. Great! We were standing underneath a roof for a while, to see, if it would stop pouring at some point. It didn’t. So I took my purse, trying to protect myself from getting all soaked. At some point it stopped pouring and it was just drizzling, but reason enough buying an umbrella at the very next CVS, we could find! Lesson learned. After we had some lunch, it was time searching traces! For some reason, we got lost several times on our way to Chippewa Square, but we found it. I was confused. “Where is it?”, is what I was thinking out loud. I kept running in circles around the square, looking for the right spot. There was no bench anymore. They were using a fiberglass prop, which they put on a display at the Savannah Visitor Center afterwards. I was dying to go there and see it, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time for it. By the time, I looked up a picture on Google comparing the surrounding houses in the picture with the houses of my actual view, I started squeaking a little inside! “Here it is!!! I finally found the right spot! God, I am such an idiot!”, is what I was shouting with laughter to my friend, who was seeking shelter underneath a church, because it was raining. Again! I ran into the streets, not caring about any cars or buses, that could have run over me, taking pictures of this magical place and just being happy. “I don’t understand, how you can be this excited.”, my friend said to me, probably bored and thinking, that I am an idiot indeed, for taking so long, but being very patient! Being at the actual spot, where they filmed this famous scene, was more I could have dreamed of and never would have expected to see one day, so I am more than thankful for this moment!

After this exciting experience, my friend wanted to go see Savannah’s City Hall. On our way there, we went through a lot of Savannah’s famous squares. There are 24 (some sources of information say 22, some say 24) and most of them are named in hornor or memory of a person, or historical event and most of them contain monuments, statues, water fountains and etc. It was really nice walking through all these little squares, that actually looked like tiny little parks and I never had the feeling, of them all looking the same. Each one of them had its own character and charm. The city hall of Savannah was decorated all Christmassy, with a Christmas tree and Christmas flowers, which I loved! We sat down for a while, resting and enjoying the Christmas spirit inside the city hall, before we continued our tour through the streets of Savannah. We went down some alleyway, that lead us to the port by the Savannah river, where we saw a huge container ship ( I know, these ships are huge, but I’ve never seen one this close before) leaving the port. The River Street right by the Port of Savannah, reminded me a little bit of the Warehouse District in Hamburg and this is where I spotted “River Street Sweets” (klick here, to get to their homepage), Savannah’s world famous pralines! Right next to the entrance, we were able to see, how they were making all kinds of candy, such as salt water taffy, toffee apples and chocolates. I loved how their shop, where you can buy all of these goodies and the cashiers were dressed as elves, was blending with the actual factory. I wanted to buy all of it, because everything just looked and smelled so delicious, that it was hard making a decision. In the end, I bought two pieces of chocolate, which were amzingly creamy and everything else but gross, because usually, I don’t like American chocolate (sorry guys, but your chocolate just sucks!). The taste of it, always reminds me of chocolate coating, which doesn’t taste good at all! But this time, it was different! Thanks to “River Street Sweets”!

After discovering one of Savannah’s hot spots by coincidence (We are just so good at this!), we kept walking through the squares and streets, enjoying the lights and houses in Savannah’s historic distirict. Savannah also has a high number of churches. The oldest standing church is the First Baptiste Church, which was built in 1833 and is located on Chippewa Square (I guess, that was the one, where my friend was seeking shelter, when it was raining). Another historic one, we passed by and actually wanted to enter, but it just has closed its gates, is the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. I loved the almighty look of the church in the dawn. For only having a few hours of exploring Savannah, we’ve seen a lot and only because, we did everything by foot again. It is a quiet and lovely city, which is definitely worth visiting, especially for Forrest Gump fans!!! It was a bummer, that it was raining almost the entire time, but it didn’t do any harm to our visit! It has been another city, we never would have payed attention to and maybe never would have visited, if I wouldn’t have found out, that parts of my all time favourite movie was filmed here. Even better in the end it was to get to know this southern pearl and oldest city of Georgia, as we already had to say goodbye, to set out for our next destination: Florida!

Going Down South for Christmas

Image ~ December 26, 2014December 28, 2014 ~ Mandy Monday ~ 1 Comment

When I’m thinking of Christmas, I’m usually thinking of snow. A lot of snow! Unfortunately I didn’t have a white Christmas in years! Okay, there has been a little bit of snow here and there back in 2012, but that didn’t really count, because it melted shortly after it touched the ground. At some point, I gave up hoping and especially this year it’s just depressing, because it’s like 10°C outside (what the!?!)! But compared to my last years Christmas, it’s really cold in Germany, because I’ve spent it all the way down south in Florida!

“We should go somewhere for Christmas, if we’re already off!”, is what my best friend and I thought, so we were figuring out, what we could do and especially where we could go. After thinking about all kinds of possibilities, this huge and amazing country had to offer and realizing, that we weren’t able affording any of these (living the good old life as an “Au Poor”!), we came up with the great idea, to just go on a road trip all the way down south. I’m not sure about whose idea it was, but I could imagine, that it wasn’t mine, because I’m the one with the snow and stuff. So we knew, what we wanted to do, but still weren’t sure about our destination. I told my host mom about our amazing plan and she said, that we should go to Charleston, South Carolina. “It’s beautiful and the food is amazing!”, is what she told me and to be honest, I wasn’t convinced. Charleston. This has been a destination, I never thought of going before. It has always been about New York City, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and so on. Big cities, everyone knows and I really wanted to go to. I didn’t know anything about Charleston, so I haven’t been interested in this city at all (really cocky, I know!). So the next thing, I did was, looking at some pictures of Charleston and doing some research on Wikipedia. What I saw was really nice. “Well, why not.”, was what I thought. For some reason, and that is another thing, I don’t really remember, I found out about Savannah, Georgia. This has been the place, where they shot the famous bus scene in “Forrest Gump”, my favorite movie of all time. From one moment to the other, I got all excited and we had to go there! My best friend also wanted to go to Florida, which wasn’t far from Savannah. Our road trip down south was a done deal!

Unfortunately my memory got lost over the past year, so I’m not sure about what day we actually hit the road, but I think, it has been either December 20th or 21st. Well, it doesn’t matter what day it was, because the things, that matter where about to happen. So here we were in our little Honda Civic (thanks to my host mom, that she trusted me that much, that she gave me the car and we didn’t have to rent one!), all excited and ready for another adventure! I had a ridiculously huge suitcase, filled with a bunch of clothes, I didn’t need (such a stereotype of woman…), while my friend was packed with a lot of Christmas presents, he was so excited about, that he kept saying: “Oh my Gosh, I wanna open them!”. I kept telling him, to just open them, if he can’t wait and his answer always has been the same; “Nah, I’m gonna wait until Christmas!”. This was about to be a recurring conversation for the next 4 or 5 days. Eventually, he opened one, before I even started the car.

During our drive, you would have been able watching a German woman struggling with temperature difficulties. Well, you can’t call it being difficult, if it’s getting warmer outside, because warmth is suppose to be a pleasure and anything else but a struggle, but to me it felt like a menopause! As soon, as we’ve reached warmer temperatures, I got crazy and turned up the AC. Shortly after that, it was too cold, so I turned it off again and became hot. I was fighting my own body: AC on, AC off. Window up, window down. I’ve never experienced something like this before. Maybe I was just extremly excited. Besides suffering from crazy weird temperatures, my best friend was playing the English teacher and taught me and also himself a lot of English words, phrases and grammar. What a sophisticated trip. After about 8,5 hours, we finally reached Charleston! We’ve booked a room at the Hampton Inn on Meeting Street, that reminded me of an old Russian barracks or at least a prison (no harm meant, folks!), so I was a little worried about having unwanted guests called Mr Cockroach or Mr Grasshopper. As soon, as we entered the hotel, which was decorated all Christmassy and we finally came to our room, all of my concerns turned out wrong and we had an amazing room with an even more amazing bed! Jackpot! I should stop having this absurd imagination. After we refreshed ourselves, we were about to paint the town red! Not far away from our hotel was a park with a lot of palm trees, that have been decorated with Christmas lights and were looking just beautiful at night! The southern type of Christmas tree. Hungry as bears, we spotted a cute little French restaurant called “39 Rue de Jean” (if you would like to get a table, click here), where we were sitting outside, enjoying some great wine and even greater food. After our delightful dinner, we headed back to our lovely prison hotel, to get some rest for a fully packed sightseeing tour the next day!

Only a few more days until Christmas, as we started our day in Charleston with summery temperatures and a blue sky. It didn’t feel Christmassy at all, which was confusing me a lot in the beginning. It felt like vacation, which it was, but if someone would have told me, that Christmas was about to fall through, I just would have shrugged my shoulders and said: “Alright.”. Our first stop has been the tourist information, to get a summary of things to do in good old Charleston. After my best friend got all kinds of maps and organized, I was being the one, who was just taking pictures again. “Don’t you wanna get a map as well?”, is what he asked me. I told him, that I wouldn’t need a map, if he already has one, since we’re together. Besides that, I hate carrying maps with me, when it’s a little windy and they’re getting all crumbled up and are annoying the shit out of me, until I throw them away and get lost afterwards. So I can get lost right from the beginning. But thanks to smartphones and google maps, there is no getting lost anymore. He looked at me smiling and said: “Well, maybe I am gonna continue our vacation without you.”. “I have the car.”, is what I told him and he just mumbled a “Damn!” and we both laughed. On our way downtown, we spotted a lot of backyards, residental gardens, which Charleston is also known for and which are beautiful! One prettier than the other. My favorite one was the Calhoun Mansion garden with its water fountain surrounded by a lot of plants and trees. And as I found out afterwards, part of the movie “The Notebook” has been shot inside the Calhoun Mansion.

Charleston is known for it’s historic buildings, which are pouring on an unbelievably colonial charme, that made me wanna buy a lot of houses again (It’s really annoying being “poor” sometimes). What I liked about the houses the most, were these huge balconies, which were stretching from one side to the other. Some of these mansions even had two! Me and my friend, we kept gaping about this amazing arcitecture and have been a little bit jealous of these lucky bastards, that could call these houses their home! The luckiest of all, are the ones, that live right at the Battery of Downtown Charleston, the southernmost tip of the Charleston peninsula, where the Cooper River and Ashley River meet. A view, that makes you forget about all of your sorrows. We conquered the city of Charleston by foot, because it is the best way of exploring an unknown city. You are about to discover places, you never would have discovered, if you’d have taken the bus or the metro (besides there isn’t even a metro). It indeed is exhausting and at the end of the day, you have the biggest desire to just drop dead, but it’s worth the pain! Another thing, I enjoyed, was that little market, that we found by a happy coincidence and hasn’t been far from the water. The market took place in different little houses, that reminded me of old warehouses, which they probably were and they used to stock all kinds of things back in the days, when Charleston still has been one of the most important harbor towns in the United States of America, or to keep their horses and carriages there. I just love strolling along those kinds of markets. You can find the strangest and rarest things, artists and people from around are making themselves, to sell it. I could spend the entire day, looking at all these pieces of art, exploring things, I won’t ever see somewhere else again, because they are all so unique. Besides well-preserved arcitecture, Charleston has to offer a lot of distinguished restaurants and if we did something very well, it has been dining. My host mom told me, that we had to have crab sandwishes, crab cakes (looooooove these!) and every other kind of seafood. I love seafood, so I couldn’t wait, to try all of it and I really had a hard time making a decision, because it all sounded so good! It was also hard making a decision of where we wanted to eat. Good, that we had some coupons for a restaurant on King Street, the place to be, to shop until you drop and one of the main streets besides Meeting Street, so we got a table right outside the restaurant, where we could enjoy the weather, the food and watching people passing by. I love watching people, imagining, where they are coming from and how their lives might be. I know, it sounds creepy, but to me it’s fascinating.

Charleston definitely casted a spell on me! I fell in love with this gorgeous place, I rejected with a shrug of my shoulders in the beginning. I am for sure not a fan of beaches, but I love waterfronts and harbors and I just adored Charleston’s waterfront, its beautiful park with that funny pineapple water fountain and these swings, we were sitting in and swinging at night, enjoying the sea breeze. I have to admit, that I didn’t feel the Christmas spirit at all, which seemed confusing to me in the beginning, but didn’t matter to me at some point anymore. This place has been special in it’s own way, so it has been a very new and special kind of Christmas spirit to me! From this moment, I’ve learned to pay more attention to all the unknown places, besides the mainstream! It’s not all about these big places, we see on a map right away and everyone knows about, because sometimes, we don’t even know, what kind of small and irrelevant places are out there, which become relevant only because of us. I’m more than thankful, that my host mom suggested me to go there. We would have missed out on a lot of beautiful places and memories! So I said goodbye to lovely Charleston after two days, because it was about time to leave and go to…

Savannah, Georgia! Forrest Gump, here I come!

Goslar – Going back in time

Image ~ December 22, 2014January 16, 2015 ~ Mandy Monday ~ Leave a comment

Goslar. A city situated in the low mountain range called “Harz” and known for it’s mining of ore back in the days, that has such an incredibly huge medieval charme, like I’ve never seen before and immediately fell in love with. So this stunning fairytale place deserves to be written about!

So when a friend of mine told me about Goslar’s Christmas market, I just had one thought on my mind. “I wanna go there too!”. I haven’t been to a Christmas market this year so far and there is just no Christmas without going to a Christmas market! I was picturing it all exaggerative cheesy, but in a romantic way, with a lot of lights and a lot of snow. I can’t say, why I was picturing snow, because there is just no way, that it will snow this year, because the global warming is being way too aggressiv again. I wouldn’t be surprised, if there would be any palm trees in Germany at some point. I could convince my friend going to Goslar with me again and I’m sure, she has been thankful. “Last time, I couldn’t enjoy anything at all, because I felt sick and all I could eat was a pretzel. Do you know, what torture it is passing all these food stands, smelling this piece of heaven, but you can’t get anything!?!”. Oh I could very well! And that’s what we did, as soon, as we entered the Christmas market: we ate the entire time! But before we got there, I got lost in the historic city of Goslar.

We parked right in front of the “Kaiserpfalz”, which is the emporors house and parts of it were built in 1005 already. We got up that little hill and had an amzing view over Goslar’s historic city. As soon, as I saw all these tiny houses and was blown by this amazing arcitecture, I wanted to lose myself at this magic place. That’s where our medieval journey started! We entered the streets and felt like being thrown back in time. I couldn’t stop marveling and kept saying “Oh my Gosh, look at this house!!! That’s so cool!”. I told my friend, that this is another place, where I’d like to have a house, besides all the other 100 places, I have been to and was amazed by. “Well, I guess, we’re too poor for this.”, she faithfully said to me. Unfortunately we are. But at least we are able to dream. Besides all of these pretty houses, that I would like to buy, there are a lot of churches in Goslar. I’m not quiet sure of how many there are, but there are a lot (I think, I remember the number 43!). As compared with the population, there are quiet many! During our little trolley ride, my friend convinced me doing and I am actually thankful for, I spied my all time favorite house: Der Weberturm! It was part of the city fortification and people now live in there. Unfortunately I wasn’t able taking pictures, because the lighting conditions have been too bad. But you guys should google it! I can imagine, that one or the other has the same thought as me: “I wanna live there!”.

The weather hasn’t been our best friend. It was raining off and on and at some point, it was hard moving my fingers (it was very cold), so we got some mulled wine, with rasperries. I was hanging on to it like a little kid to it’s toy, because it was nice feeling some warmth and my fingers coming back alive. After having a little drink, we started with what we kept doing for the rest of our stay in Goslar: eating! “If somebody is gonna ask us, what we did here, the only thing we can say is, eating!”, is what I said to my friend and we both started laughing. I started having some yummy mushrooms with onions and a creamy garlic sauce. And if that wouldn’t have been enough garlic, I got a garlic bread with camembert and cranberries on top. Welcome to the garlic Christmas market! We ate so much, that I felt sick for a while, until I smelled some different kind of delicious food again and thought: “Hmmm, I could eat something.”. We weren’t hungry anymore. We thought, we were, but there was no way of being hungry anymore after consuming all of this food! “I guess, that’s what we can call having an unhealthy but good appetite.”, is what I told my friend. She kept talking about some tiny pieces of cake covered with powdered sugar, she has to have before we leave! “I have to get it, because I can’t leave a Christmas market without it!”. What she got is called “Schmalzkuchen” in German and actually sounds disgusting, but doesn’t look like it at all and tastes very yummy. “Well, I guess, I’ve reached the 20.000 calories today!”, is what she said to me, after she almost finished the entire bag of it. We thought about all of the people on earth, that are hungry from hunger and felt bad. A second later, we were thinking about stopping by at good ol’ McDonald’s on our way back. What a cruel line of thoughts…

To bridge the time, until we were able enjoying the Christmas market at night, we took a ride on that little trolley, I’ve mentioned earlier. It took us through the entire historic city, those little streets, we’ve passed on our own before already (Ha, we just know, where the hot spots are!), that amazing Weberturm house, a cool castle way of looking hotel called “Der Achtermann” and tons of mansions, that were built by business men of Berlin back in the 20th century, to escape from the tainted air, which has been really bad there back in the days. After our 35 minutes ride, we got off the trolley and I felt like, I’ve entered Winter Wonderland (but without any snow. Unfortunately)! Lights everywhere and it was the most beautiful thing, I’ve ever seen. “Well, that’s what I call a Christmas market, man!”, I said to my friend. With all the beauty of this fairytale place, all of the other inhabitans came out of their warm and cozy houses, to have some mulled wine, tons of food and fully enjoy the fourth Sunday of Advent, the final one before Christmas! So I guess you can imagine, how crowded it was! Too crowded! I took some pictures, was trying to enjoy all the Christmas lights, until I was ready to leave. Stuffed like a Christmas goose, which we actually saw walking across the Christmas market, we were waddling back to the car. Tired, but happy!