Christmas Markets in Strasbourg

In early December, I took a train to Strasbourg with two friends, Emily and Hannah.  Emily was / is very excited about Christmas, and Strasbourg is the (self-proclaimed) capital of Christmas!  And it has the tallest natural Christmas tree in Europe (over 30 meters tall)!

It was lots of fun wandering the streets of Strasbourg – the architecture was interesting, the people were friendly, the markets were exciting, and there was lots of mulled wine.  It’s such a popular town to visit in December that most of the hotels were booked, so we ended up spending two days there but just staying one night.  It’s part of the Alsace-Lorraine area, which has been traded back and forth between Germany and France, so there are a lot of influences from both cultures.  The medieval buildings lining the river flowing through the city made the city quite picturesque.

Strasbourg has a beautiful cathedral in the center of town (I got some nice night pictures of it) with a huge astronomical clock inside.  Emily, who studies astronomy in Paris, and I went to a presentation of the clock so we could see the figurines move (and learn some of the history).  The first clock was built in the 1350s, the second was completed in 1574 when the first stopped working, and then the current clock was finished in 1843.  (Facts from Wikipedia)  

The presentation was actually a little depressing...it kept emphasizing how we're all on a slow march towards death.  And the clock (and our time on Earth) is ticking away. There was also a creepy grim reaper who rang a bell at 12:30, and then an old man figurine came out of the clock and then the grim reaper tapped him with a bone, and then he disappeared into the clock. To die! (Of course, he comes out at 12:30 the next day though.) 

In the markets, I bought lots of exciting things that I didn’t need.  Like candy, nuts, chocolate mousse, ornaments, egg liquor, beignets.  Hmm that’s mostly food.  I took a lot of pictures though.  While I may have come back to Paris with more things than I left with, I lost a mitten!  I tried wandering back through the markets for it, but I pretty much knew it was a hopeless cause. 

We also went to a few concerts.  We saw an Italian bag pipe (perhaps it was a zampogna?) group playing in a church.  It was an older crowd (not sure how many people choose to spend their Friday nights at an Italian bag pipe concert), but the music was very pretty and unique.  The next day, there was a choral concert in the center of town where the group sang Christmas carols, and the crowd sang along.  I could sing to Alleluia, but otherwise I didn’t know the words to the songs.  There was a song called “Il est ne, le divin enfant,” and I sang “il est ne, le petit enfant” the whole time.  Then Hannah and Emily told me it was the “divin enfant” which made more sense.   Kids are very small when they’re born though. 

Anyway, even though Strasbourg may be very touristy in December, I had a lot of fun!  And it’s a beautiful town in general that I’d love to visit again.   

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26879303@N03/

London

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I know; I’m so behind.  I went to London for Thanksgiving to spend it with my aunt, uncle, and cousins.  Nasir’s niece lives in London with her family, and my aunt and uncle were going to a wedding in Scotland right after Thanksgiving, so everyone decided to meet up in London.  It was really nice to be with family!  I was feeling a bit homesick too, so it was especially good to spend time with them. 

They rented an apartment in Eaton Square, which is a central area in London.  We did lots of fun tourist things like going on the London Eye, shopping / eating at Harrod’s, drinking beer, and going to museums.  I also walked around a bit on my own to see Buckingham Palace and St. James Park.  My uncle was super jealous that I got to see the guards wearing their “bear hats” because they weren’t wearing them the day before when he took photos.

I also met up with two friends who are living in London now, Guillaume and Laura.  It had been a while since I’d seen them, but it was fun to hang out again.  Laura wanted to see the Ian Hamilton Finlay exhibition at the British Tate, so we got coffee and walked around there for a while.  There was also a band playing in the museum, and it was interesting to look at the art while listening to live music.

But another museum I went to (with Betsy, Nasir and Nicola) that I liked even more than the Tate was The Somerset House.  I loved the Tim Walker photography exhibit!  I had never seen his work before, and it’s really provocative and creative.  There were also installations of the objects he used to create his photos, and it was very cool to see them side by side.  See some examples here: http://timwalkerphotography.com/recent_work.php

And as for Thanksgiving, it was lots of fun! We went to my second cousin’s house and had drinks and dinner.  They ended up cooking Indian food…not very traditional, but it was very delicious! And being with friends and family is what’s really important anyway.  And my mom promised we’d make pumpkin pie when I’m home.  I can’t believe I’ll be back so soon! I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone! 

Here's a link to photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26879303@N03/

Fontainebleau

More castles!  I went to Fontainebleau in late November with a friend from my program.  It was good to get out of Paris, and it was very pretty because there is a huge forest, and the leaves were still changing colors.  The castle was also cool to see, though if I had to choose a castle to live in, I’d go with Versailles.

It only took about 40 minutes to get there by train, so it was a great day trip.  Make sure you validate your ticket before getting on!  No one checked on the way there (so I’ve got an extra if you need one), but on the way back we were told we should have validated.  The conductor was very nice though and didn’t charge a huge fine!

We walked to the castle area from the train station so we could go through the town, and the town was really dead…it seemed a little depressing.  There also weren’t many tourists at the castle.  Maybe I was expecting it to be more packed because of my experience at Versailles.

We had some trouble finding the entrance (it was difficult…we’re not just stupid), but eventually we did.  There was a lot to see inside, so it took a while to make our way through all the rooms.  At the end, there was a girl who stopped us and asked if we speak French, and I said yes because I thought she had a question.  Then she said asked if we could fill out a survey about the castle, so I said that we don’t speak French well enough to do a survey.  And she said she had it in five different languages and asked which one we wanted.  Trapped!  

It was a very amusing survey though…pretty poorly translated.  I wish I could remember the questions…one was “Are you aware of handicapped people?”  Yes, I am aware!  (It was followed up by questions about how handicapped accessible we thought the castle was.)  And then some options for our overall experience were a bit strange…like “enlightening” or “amazing”…some people say I’m a pretty enthusiastic person, but I probably wouldn’t select those choices for the visit.  It’s interesting how difficult it is to really master the nuances of a language.  I can understand French pretty well, but I know I’m saying / writing all sorts of awkward things where it makes sense to me to translate it like that, but a native speaker wouldn’t say it.

After seeing the castle, we walked around the gardens, which were also very pretty.  I saw a massive duck who had a very loud quack…he was at least two times the size of a regular duck and quite scary.  I didn’t get a good picture though.  We eventually found our way to the forest and went for a walk / hike, which was fun.  Good to be immersed in nature (for a limited time…I don’t like bugs)!

Sadly, I've uploaded too many photos on my blog and am over my Picasa limit.  So, I'll be posting them on Flickr from now on.  Here's the link: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26879303@N03/