So as you know, I just spent the weekend in the land of Christmas OD: Strasbourg, France. It was the stuff of dReAmZ fo realz ya’ll! If you love Christmas and want to have an overdose on Christmas cheer, then you should probably try to make it a life goal to visit Strasbourg at some point in your life. I want to go back, like now. However I have so many other things to accomplish this winter break 🙂
There are like 800,000,00,000 reasons why Strasbourg was B.A. but I’m just going to list my favorite reasons:
*Crazy Santas… everywhere you looked there were Santas and they all looked ridiculous, usually drunk, and enormously obese. Santas don’t look like this back home and I loved it! I took pictures of as many drunk/crazy Santas as possible
the fat b... "get in my belly" santa... also potentially drunk as well
"why yes i'll take another BOWL of vin chaud!" (drunk) santa
the "i'm going to break into your house and steal all your sheesh" santa
*Evil Elves… apparently evil Elves is like a “thing” in a European Christmas. The Children’s Market had an “evil elf” that would “trick you” if you lost sight of him. Ummm whatever happened to Rudolph? This is like the Miser Brothers (if you don’t know what that is well go youtube it. Its freaking weird but I loved it as a kid) on acid and like scarier.
happy holidays just doesn't have the same ring if an evil elf (in sunglasses) and a bat (?) aren't included
just what you want on your christmas tree, spreading holiday cheer
*Drinking in public… IT IS ENCOURAGED TO DRINK WINE IN THE STREETS. YUP you read that right! Everywhere you turn there is a stand selling “Vin Chaud” or Mulled Wine and it’s freaking awesome. Not only is it acceptable to drink wine in the streets its encouraged… Drink up people! It’s good for the economy!
helping the economy thrive by drinking wine in the streets
*Crazy hats… Not only is it encouraged for people to drink wine in the streets, it is also encouraged that they wear crazy hats while doing it. I’m not talking children, or parents with kids I’m talking full grown adults with no reason at all to be wearing crazy hats wearing crazy hats: polar bears, wolves, crazy Santa hats, birds, and a bunch of other weird things. It’s like a “thing” and I LOVED it!!!
normal
santa strip tease?
*The Lights… My pictures do not do the lights of this city justice. They were AMAZING! Even better was the cute town of Colmar that I visited. Both were spectacular and awesome and well words don’t really do it justice, and neither did my cheap (but handy) little camera.
check out this badboy rockefeller center!
*The food… sausage? Yes preaze! Sauerkraut? Yes preaze! Bread? Yes preaze! Beer? Yes preaze! Crepes? Yes preaze! Pretzels? Yes preaze! Vin Chaud? YES PREAZE… Did I gain an extra 10lbs on this trip? Probably. Was it worth it? I’m not sure yet but that food was DEELISH.
I couchsurfed here with a cool dude who took a lot of time to show me the city and the food and culture. He took me to the town of Colmar to see their lights one night and it was amazing. It was much smaller, quainter and more lovely. It’s like how I went to Toulon when I visited Marseille; the big cities were grand and spectacular but I’m a sucker for a small, quaint, lovely little place.
I spent Saturday with an assistant friend going to all the different markets throughout town (there are like 10, not exaggerating), and then on Sunday I did the same thing just by myself. Also it snowed Sunday afternoon! Talk about Christmas wonderland!!! The only thing that could have made it better would have been if all of a sudden people broke out into song and a choreographed dance in the street and then I met my true love or something like that. You know, typical movie business. Also this all would have happened while it was snowing and I had perfect hair.
Also, while trying to take a picture with Pere Noel (Father Christmas for all you non-frenchies out there), I was PHOTOBOMBED by a child. Look at the lower right hand corner of this picture… and then check out the zoom action.
just tryna get some last minute face time with santa!
PHOTOBOMB
Now, I am on my way to Paris (well when this is published I will have already arrived… but still) for a few days and then it is off to THE GERM aka Germany. I’d also like to point out my absolute inability to pack in a reasonable manner. The guy sitting next to me on the train is probably thinking “what the hell is wrong with this girl? She has like 17 HUGE bags” well not 17 but 2 gros sacs as I like to call them. Sighhh… sometimes I wonder how I make it through life unscathed. (post script: he gave me a super weird look when I attempted to arrange my things to get off the train, which took some serious effort)
2 gros sacs, plein de trucs (2 big bags full of random things)
Anyways, sending Christmas cheer and winter wonderland magic across the Atlantic!
Mego