Happy New Years - ending the year in Luxembourg

Christmas Market in Luxembourg Ville

I sit writing this at 11pm, at home alone with the kids and already a bottle of champagne down since they went to bed three hours ago. Christmas and New Years have kind of been a non-event for me this year, but I will get to that after I recap what's been going on in November and December, with links to the other blogs posts I've written about events along the way.

Me and Pepi on the train

After visiting Liege, London and the south of Luxembourg, the second half of November was pretty uneventful really. I managed to make it over to Saarbrucken in Germany to visit the Christmas market, and then the last Tuesday of November I had a 'Big Day Out' with Pepi. He'd visited the train station with me and Rogier when I collected my ticket to Strasbourg, and wanted to go on the train so bad that I promised him I would take him the following week.

Pepi on the playground in Noertzange

So on Tuesday when Ollie had gone for his nap we took off, taking the bus to the station and then the train to...who knows where! Despite trying to plan everything carefully, we pretty much just got on and got off at a stop where I could see a playground within walking distance! Pep didn't mind, he was quite excited about being on the train, we could have stayed on there for much longer than we did but I (correctly) thought that we were pretty close to hitting the French border. We ended up in Noertzange, population less-than 1000, resident ice-cream shops less than 1! After watching some diggers and 'Bob the Builders' at work by the tiny station, we walked down to the playground and I chased him around for awhile. By this stage he was getting quite anxious about missing Mama, so I tried to distract him with icecream, which turned into a huge fail as there isn't a single shop selling icecream in Noertzange. So, back on the train we went, and then it was onto a bus, then onto another bus after the first one crashed with a car (he didn't notice a thing!) and finally we reached the city, where the Luxembourg Christmas Market was in full tilt. A ride on the merry-go-round and miniature train later, we brought a scoop of icecream and finally took the bus home, where I collapsed exhausted - he had fun, but hauling a four-year old around in a push-chair and dragging that thing on and off the train and over the overpass is hard work!

cookie scrabble in my french class

I began December with a trip down to Strasbourg in France to see Hauke, but again, the first couple of weeks of the month were pretty quiet. I baked a cake with the kids, dismally failed an end of year French test (as did the rest of the class, and we can all continue, so not too concerned!) and then celebrated Christmas with my french class two weeks running. The french teacher isn't really a professional french teacher but an economist doing it in his spare time, so I think throwing two parties with us was much more fun than planning two more lessons. The first time, we celebrated 'Belgian Christmas' heaps of different Belgian sweets and a kind of scrabble, making french words with cookie letters. The following week we joined with the advanced class, and everyone had to bring something from their country. My pavlova looked like a cowpat both in size and colour, so I made a last minute dash to the supermarket and doled out marmite on bread instead - and yes, I did notice a few people spitting it out into their napkins!

Josh drinking Gluhwine at the Lux Ville market

December saw me meet Josh, an american accountant who has recently moved out here, and we've become good mates. He's introduced me to egg-nog, and led to me heading out to the Christmas market for Gluhwine and to Liquid for Jazz and Blues night a fair few times this month. Through a friend from the Dominican Republic/Spain, I've also met a big group of latinos, mostly Mexicans, who are living here and all party at the local spanish bar. I don't know how I didn't know that they were here until now, but I've since spent several tequila-fuelled nights dancing salsa with them until the early hours of the morning.

Band at the Christmas Market in Differdange

After developing a compulsion to collect Gluhwine mugs from every Christmas market I go to (these things are hideous and too small for a decent coffee, no idea what I will do with them back in NZ! Gluhwine party anyone?), I jumped at the chance to visit Differdange, a town of about 10 000 close to Esch-Sur-Alzette and Dudelange in the South of Luxembourg with a mate Markus from Austria and his greek neighbour. Turns out Dudelange or it's Christmas Market isn't all that interesting, but I scored a bizarre mug with a old guy sitting on a bench smoking on it, watched Markus do a couple of rounds of a fake ski slope, and had a bit of a day out.

Letting Pepi play with my makeup

The end of December saw snow fall a couple of times, but nothing compared to what I expected. Last year there was about a metre on the ground here and in Germany, but this year it didn't stick around for longer than a day, the snowfields within a couple of hours of here are still closed, and the weather forecast for tomorrow predicts 11degrees. Watching Ollie play in his first snowfall was a highlight of the month, as has him learning how to say my name. He can't quite do the whole 'Claire' thing yet, so I'm now known as 'Car', ever since I woke up one morning to him banging on the door wanting me to come and play, shouting 'Carrr, carr, carr' over and over. He sounds a bit like a crow really, but it's so cute, and it gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling to know that I mean enough to him for him to learn my name pretty early on in his vocabulary.

I headed back over to Trier in Germany for an afternoon, to pick up a few things in the shops and check out what I'd heard was a great Christmas market, but again I was kind of disappointed. I think once you've seen one Christmas market here in Europe, you've seen them all, and especially after being at the really pretty market of Gottingen with Hauke and all of his friends, others kind of fall flat.

Lena and I drinking peket at the Christmas Market

I also went back to Liege just for an afternoon, to sort out some visa issues. As of late December, my Spanish working holiday visa has expired, and I am kind of an illegal immigrant. I'm exploiting a loophole that allows New Zealanders to have three months in each of a long list of European countries, rather than restricting us to three months in the whole of Schengen like most foreigners are, but this is kind of tricky considering your passport never gets stamped to say when you arrive or leave each of the countries. Normally you can bluff you're way through this kind of thing, but because I want to apply for another European visa at some stage I don't want to risk any issues further down the line. So, I went to Belgium to ask for a piece of paper saying that I had arrived there.

Memorial to victims of the grenade/shooting attack in Liege

Given my experiences in Spain, I was pretty dubious that it would work, but I rocked on up at the Liege Town Hall with Lena to do the translating, and asked for a Declaration of Arrival, normally only given to those on a real long-term visa. She asked "do you have proof of how/when you arrived in Belgium?", "Do you have proof of a visa?", and "Do you have proof of address?", I answered no to all three, and apart from a scary moment when the fake address I gave her turned out to be an apartment building, she just shrugged her shoulders and gave me the paper anyway - totally unlike Spain! Now I see how Belgium managed to survive over a year with no government! So unless they realise I was never at that address and give my name to Interpol, I reckon I'm safe for another three months! Lena and I spent a little while at the Liege Christmas market, where I scored yet another mug but this time shunned Gluhwine in favour of Peket, a kind of hard alcohol made from distilled grain in Liege, and shared the sobering experience of walking past the broken bus shelters and huge memorial to the victims of a grenade and shooting attack in Liege just two days earlier.

Ollie as a fireman/pirate/princess/spartan

And finally, like I said, Christmas and New Years have kind of been non-events for me this year. Christmas in the Netherlands is celebrated quite differently. There, Sinterklaas, or Santa Claus, sails on a boat from Spain on December 5th (Why Spain? Because centuries ago, Spain was the End of the World) accompanied by Zwarten Pieten, or Black Peters, black men with bright red lips and feathers in their caps that help deliver the presents. Sinterklaas leaves children presents and cookies in their shoes after the 5th - along with various small things, he left Pep and Ollie a toy kitchen this year, very cool!

Princess Pepijn

The night before Rogier and the kids went to join Jacquie in the Netherlands for Christmas I gave them my present, a big box full of dress-up clothes. I'd been planning this for ages, but as usual things didn't go quite to plan, and I found it really hard finding articles to put in it - what I did find I collected in the UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and mum posted me some from NZ! I also wanted to put it in a wooden chest and paint 'Dress-Up' or something on the side, but Ikea has been sold out of wooden boxes for months, so its in a temporary fabric box for now - as usual, the kids are playing with the box as much as with the present inside, so I doubt it will last long! My attempt to use the present as bribery for good behavior for the day failed dismally, with me hauling a kicking and screaming Pepi out of the doctors office at one point. I had to laugh at all of the mothers with placid babies sitting there glaring at me, I was thinking "just you wait, one day this will be you!". The kids seemed to have settled on 'Fireman Ollie' and 'Policeman Pepi' outfits, but initially they were both into the barbie high heels and girlie necklaces, was very cute!

Christmas Eve at Hardy's

So, they all headed off on Christmas Eve, the day when most Europeans actually celebrate, and I spent the day nursing a hangover and trying to sort myself out to head out for dinner. I had dinner with two strangers via couchsurfing, Hardy from Germany and Nicolas from Brazil. Hardy did a great job of hosting us, making salad followed buy wild pork and vegetables, and I made brownies with strawberries for dessert. It was another late night, followed by a 6am wakeup call to skype family back home, so I was struggling with the idea of heading out again on Christmas Day, but I made it to Markus' house for Christmas lunch, a big affair with ten of us, and a massive collaborative meal of lamb, beef, veges and salad, followed by a couple of different puddings and Austrian Christmas cookies. We represented about eight different countries, so it was quite an interesting day. Hardy and I attempted to go out that night, but there wasn't too much happening and we were both quite tired and called it a night around 2am, and then I rounded off my Christmas holiday by spending the next two days obsessively cleaning the house, even washing all of the kids' armchair covers and the inside of the fridge.

Christmas Day at Markus'

I'm not too upset about spending New Years working, New Years has never been my thing anyway, as I usually find it to be quite disappointing. Jacquie and Rogier went to Maastricht in the Netherlands this afternoon, so I spent the rest of the day with the boys, baking scones and building obstacle courses around the house. The went to bed without any problem, and somehow didn't wake during the tremendous noise of the fireworks half an hour ago (its now 1am!) although Pepi has been up since and is now waiting for me to come and sleep in the big bed with him. At least I'm not spending New Years alone...

So I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years in  whatever shape and form, and all the best for the year to come.

And greetings from Pepi..

Strasbourg at Christmas time

Strasbourg - Capital of Christmas

This weekend past I headed to Strasbourg, France, to catch up with Hauke who is there for a year on a study exchange (between European universities it's called Erasmus). Strasbourg is only about 250km away, so two hours on a direct train. I'd been there for a day trip back in March when I'd been visiting a friend further south, in Mulhouse.

Hauke and I before the ball

I arrived at 3pm, and after dropping my stuff at his place we headed to the mall. Shopping usually isn't on the cards when we get together, but we were going to a ball at the university that night and we needed formal stuff. We were dashing from store to store, and kept bumping into another Erasmus student on a mission to find tights, but finally got everything done and after a few laughs at the awkwardness of Hauke trying to ask the lingerie shop assistant for a backless bra for me in french, we headed home to get dressed and have a few drinks before we went out.

A bunch of the Erasmus students

Rita from Ireland and Majorie from the USA came over, and after we were all dressed up and well-watered and had taken the obligatory prom photos we headed in. A lot of people had paid to go earlier and eat, so we were arriving as everyone was already into the swing of things and lost no time on catching up by drinking the cheap beer. A lot of faces of other Erasmus students became a bit of a blur, and while we had a good time, nothing exceptionally remarkable happened, and then sometime around 4am we toddled home with us girls feeling rather sorry for ourselves after a night in extremely high heels.

One of the many squares in Strasbourg

Saturday got off to a slow start, we didn't make it out the door until after 3pm, but we headed into town to see the Christmas Market. Strasbourg has a really famous and large one, which unlike in most cities, is spread all around the place, with many sections having specific themes. Each year they invite a different country to have their own section as a guest of honour, so this year there was a 'Little Switzerland' section with a lot of cheese and watches, including a fondue stand where instead of dipping things into a pot full of melted cheese they had cut massive wheels of cheese in half and had managed to melt the cheese on the inside, so that the half wheel was working as a kind of bowl that they could dip things into.


Hauke drunk some Gluhwine (mulled wine) but I was doubtful that my stomach was prepared to hold that down after what I'd put it through the previous night, and so I stuck to spiced hot orange juice, a nice alternative that I haven't seen before.

Christmas decorations in a pedestrian alleyway in the centre

The Christmas decorations in Strasbourg are really hard to convey through photos, just the shear volume of stuff decorating each tiny alleyway and each shop made it hard as photos where too noisy for you to be able to recognize individual decorations, and photos can't show the atmosphere or how packed the place was. It really was incredible, I thought the Christmas markets and decorations that I've seen in Germany and here in Luxembourg were amazing, but they have nothing on Strasbourg. One street even had a row of actual chandeliers encased in glass or fabric boxes suspended down the middle. The council's electrical bill must be massive, as would be the amount of money poured into buying and installing the decorations, but I guess they get it back from all of the tourists. I also didn't take so many photos because it was just too damn cold to seriously consider taking my hands out of my pockets!

Woman serving Gluhwine

The sun is currently setting before 5pm here in Europe, and it was really windy in Strasbourg, so while I think it was a lot warmer than Luxembourg, with the wind chill it was really freezing and we ended up sitting inside the massive Cathedral for quite a while just to try and keep warm! We had another quick gluhwine with a guy Hauke knew from highschool and some of his own Erasmus friends, the three of them had come for the weekend too, and then headed back home to warm up again!

Dinner at the Mexican place

We'd planned the night before to go out for dinner with some of the other Erasmus students, so we met them and went to a mexican place that Latin-American-born Majorie insisted was awesome. Unfortunately it was so awesome that it was really full, so we ended up going away for a beer and not getting to eat until 10pm! Luckily it was really worth the wait, everyone enjoyed their quesadillas and fajitas, and Hauke managed to eat his own 'plate full of different meats' (just meat. Big hunks of fried meat. Crazy!) meal and then finish off two of ours' as well!

Wandering around the city

We'd wanted to go out that night, but everyone was so tired from the previous night and so full from dinner that no one was really up for it, and we kept having issues with bouncers and places being full. After one last attempt to go to the University nightclub, a random place above what I think was a small shopping mall in amongst all the uni buildings, we called it a night and went home to bed instead.

We again didn't make it out of bed before lunchtime the next morning, and in the afternoon headed back into town. There probably is more to do in Strasbourg than either of us realise, but with me having been there before and it being so cold and christmas-dominated, we mostly just kept wandering around. We did manage to climb to the top of the Cathedral, which was cool but not as impressive as it once would have been, having climbed up church towers with similar views in most European cities that I've visited!

View of the rooftops from the Cathedral

Finally, we met up with Rita for a little bit, got our photo taken with a random drunk Russian, and headed back to the warmth to watch a movie before I headed to the train station for the evening train back to Luxembourg.


Photos are here, or even better ones from the last time that I was in Strasbourg are here.

Saarbrucken's Old Christmas Market - Germany

Saarbrucken Christmas Market

Two Saturdays ago I went to Saarbrucken, a German city of about 175 000 people and capital of the Saarland region, on the border with France. It takes just over an hour to get there by bus from Luxembourg. The Christmas market begins in mid November and runs until Christmas, but on one weekend every year they have an additional market set up on the other side of the bridge from the main market.

Stall selling Christmas wreathes

Christmas markets originated in Germany, the bordering Alsace region of France, and Austria, and were a street market and celebration during the four weeks of advent, usually set up in and around the market square. They have rides for children, the nativity scene, shops selling crafts and Christmas stuff, different types of food stalls, and boothes selling Gluhwein, hot mulled wine. Normally they put on some kind of nativity show at least once as well for children. The food I've seen sold includes a huge variety of sausages and grilled meat, waffles and crepes, gingerbread and candy, popcorn and roasted nuts, and usually there are regional specialities and the occasional asian or italian stall as well. I visited the Gottingen Christmas market last year but didn't write much about it on here.

The Gingerbread house

The Christmas festivities began right near the train station, so I walked down the big pedestrian street and shopping zone in the middle of the city, taking in all of the Christmas stuff and ducking into the occasional chain shop on the way past! I reached the main market in the square first and stopped to have a good look around. I really loved the Gingerbread House stand selling gingerbread hearts. They have things like "I love you" written on them, and you're meant to buy them and hang them around the neck of your sweetheart - the only person I saw wearing one was a middle aged man, quite funny!

People drinking Gluhwine outside a stall

Gluhwine is normally served in mugs that have a logo with the name and year of the Christmas market on the side, I took one from the Gottingen market last year and decided to keep the tradition going by stealing another one this year (they take a $5NZD deposit for the cup so it's not really stealing!). Last year I couldn't stomach the Gluhwine at all, and although I've been learning how to drink red wine while travelling around Europe and found the taste a little better this year, I still hid in an alleyway and tipped most of it out so that I could throw the mug into my bag.

Mistletoe, sold by the Lions club

I then followed the crowds over the river, to the additional part of the market. Here, the market winds from a church at the bottom, along a long inclining and curving road, up to the Saarbrucken Castle. The Castle isn't much of a castle, its just like a big administrative building. This part of the market was mostly dominiated by stalls selling crafts or wares, international foods, mistletoe, christmas wreathes, and charity organisations selling or doing various things as fundraisers. It was quite cool to see the mistletoe there for sale, as we don't have it in NZ. I'd spent months this year trying to work out what all those balls were in the trees until someone in France told me what it was.

Schnitzel on a stick

I tried rostwurst, one of the many varieties of German sausages (German sausages are one hundred times better than those back in NZ) and a massive schnitzel skewer thing, three pieces of fried crumbed schnitzel on a stick, handed to me in a piece of bread. There were also a lot of casseroled mushrooms, bread spread with what looked like herbed cream cheese, and deep fried balls of something that I saw a lot of, I think some might be regional specialities, and I saw a couple of stands selling the Schneeballen that I saw for the first time in Heidelberg. I quite liked going to the market alone, so that I could stop and look at whatever I wanted without feeling guilty, but it meant that I didn't have anyone to explain all of these foods to me!

View of the end of the market from the Castle

By now it was getting late and I'd spent enough money finishing off my Christmas shopping, so I headed back towards the train station, detouring past part of the river and the town hall and into a few more shops. Arriving back at the train station was scary, there were police cars everywhere (I counted 21 before too many were arriving and I couldn't keep track) and there were police all over the place, stationed in a ring outside and at the entrance to every platform, as well as those waiting in vehicles or just milling about. Police in Germany are a whole lot scarier than NZ police as well, they wear dark clothes and army boots and carry huge guns, and these guys had what looked like riot gear on, complete with different numbers on their backs to identify their squads. At first I thought there was a bomb in the station, and then I noticed what looked like drunk right-wing skinheads standing around or talking to the police, but then someone said it was just because there had been a football match and they were preventing riots (I guess drunk right-wing skinheads and German football fans look pretty much the same!). It was pretty intimidating though, and really reminds you that you're not enveloped in the safety of New Zealand anymore, these are countries in which bombs in train stations and riots or shootings by far-right terrorists occur every so often.

The bus ride back was uneventful, and then I spent several hours wrapping the Christmas presents that will cost me a fortune to ship back to NZ. I really feel in the Christmas spirit now and can't wait to visit Strasbourg in France and their huge Christmas market next weekend.

A Winter-white German Christmas

Merry Christmas! or Frohe Weihnachten!

Hardegsen

I felt much better after a good sleep, and so on my second day here we set off to visit some local villages and castles. Unfortunately the weather didn't want to play ball, and many roads and buildings we closed due to the snow and ice, but we visited a little village called Hardegsen that had a wee castle and a lot of amazing buildings. It is really crazy to see houses that are older than New Zealand, and the narrow streets and old slanting and warped framework really amaze me. They are all two or three stories tall, so quite different to most of NZ where houses are mostly one story but sprawled over a bigger area (excluding Wellington!). Hardegsen has a thing about donkeys, so all around the town are these lifesize donkey statues, all painted differently. I made a bit of a dick out of myself trying to climb onto one when it was covered in ice, lucky for me Hauke was on hand with the camera to capture all of that! During the night it had rained but frozen as soon as it landed, so everything was covered in a layer of ice. Things like plants and flowers look amazing encased in ice, my camera is really getting a workout!

Christmas market

In the evening we put up the Christmas tree (it has candles on it instead of fairy lights!) and headed back to the Christmas market to catch up with all of Hauke's old school friends, the place was packed with people all bundled up and drinking mulled wine. It was great to see Anki, a friend of Hauke's that I got to know when she visited New Zealand! A group of us then went for dinner at a modern Italian resturant, and then headed to a club. The Savoy is inside an old prison, with three different bars on different floors. It was quite cool to hear Belgian, French and German songs that I've known for a long time like Alors en Danse in a club. Hauke's friends were all really friendly and welcoming, I really appreciated the effort they put into making me feel comfortable, like finding me an english version of the menu and even those that only had a little english would come over and chat if they noticed I was standing alone.

Opening christmas presents

Christmas Eve is the main celebration here in Germany, so after we woke up, admittedly quite late, we went to collect Hauke's grandparents from another town. They are really delightful, they remind me quite a lot of my own grandparents and were so cute trying to communicate with me! She had baked four different cakes and made a desert, so we spend the afternoon eating cake with coffee; I was full a long time before dinner began! In the early evening we walked to the tiny local church for an informal service where the children re-enact the Christmas story. Hauke and his brother Arne went to great pains whispering to me what was going on, giving me the giggles at their stating the obvious "well they just went to the stable because the inn was full". My attempts at singing German Christmas carols got a few laughs in return!

driving on christmas eve

After church we tucked into dinner: barley and egg soup, followed by wild pork, potatoes (mashed potatoes rolled into balls and cooked again), red cabbage and salad, with berry pudding and a bottle of kiwi wine. Gifts were opened after dinner, and I was really touched to be handed a sack of presents to open first. Hauke's grandparents gave me a handcrafted traditional mug, specially made for me with my name on it - I am so appreciative that they took the time to organise this before I came, and among other things Hauke and his parents are giving me a trip to Austria for skiing. They had me in tears, I feel truly blessed at how welcomed and cared for I am. Hauke's dad Georg is always explaining things and asking how I am, and his mother Karin has an amazing sense of humour, she is always laughing and is always trying to make me feel comfortable in subtle ways. We skyped with my own parents and grandparents, everyone here in Germany thought dad sitting at the piano in his pijamas playing Te Haranui for them was hilarious!


The return drive to drop off Hauke's grandparents was amazing, it was snowing again and it was almost impossible to tell where the road ended and the fields began as there are not roadside fences here like in NZ. I am really impressed with Hauke's driving skills, as the conditions are absolutely terrible. Overall, it was a really lovely Christmas, the snow and -7degree temperatures really give it a different feel to Christmas in NZ!

Hann Münden

Today has been quite relaxed, we went to see Hauke's uncle and their family where I made a complete idiot of myself falling down their internal stairs! 'Fail' has become a big word between us, and as I fail at both walking around outside in the snow and walking around inside Ive been told by Hauke that I fail completely at remaining upright in Germany. Skiing is definitely going to be interesting. We detoured past a castle in Adelebsen, its amazing to see them exactly as you imagine, perched up on the hill with high walls, towers and spiral stairs. We also visited Hann Münden, a really old city with amazing buildings that are hundreds of years old but five or six stories tall. We had coffee in one and I walked up to the fourth floor. Coming from New Zealand, the warped and buckling floors and stairs are quite scary when you think about what would happen in an earthquake! Our attempt to find another castle using the GPS system was quite funny, we ended up firstly in a carpark and secondly in a dead end road where we struggled to turn around! We headed home on the autobahn again, it was still quite dangerous going really fast but even 180km/hr amazes me!

preparing for skiing

Tomorrow we are going to Austria! I have been kitted out with snow clothes, skis and woollen socks handknitted by Hauke's grandmother, although I feel like I've eaten so much since I got here that I will be rolling down the hill rather than skiing down them! Hauke told my family on skype that he was taking me skiing, and I think their laughter in response showed him that I really wasn't kidding when I said it would be quite entertaining! We just had a big meeting about it around the table to go over all of the planning, I love the way they include me even though I don't understand a thing, still have no idea what's happening, and am just going to go with the flow. I do know that we get up early and take a train to Munich, and from there to Rauris in Austria, but after that, no clue! It will be interesting!