A Christmas market in Berlin
Being away from home for Christmas might seem like a depressing idea. But when one is lucky enough to have some family members on the same continent, it’s not depressing, but downright exciting. This year for Christmas, I was extremely lucky: instead of going home to America, I visited my brother and sister-in-law, who are living in Berlin this year. I was able to explore Germanic Europe, which, up until my trip, had been a complete mystery to me.
The Bavarian Alps
Christmas itself, and the week leading up to it, was spent in Berlin – more specifically, my family’s fabulous apartment in East Berlin. I truly could not have found a better city in which to spend the holiday season. With the 60 Christmas markets, French horns playing “Ave Maria” outside the National Art Museum, and the entire city covered in a sleepy blanket of snow, I kept having the feeling that I would see Santa Claus himself every time I got off the U-bahn. I tasted plenty of mulled wine, caramel apples, delicious giant pretzels, bratwursts, and other innumerable delights. As I strolled through the Christmas markets, I’d people-watch as people twirled on ice skates and others drank beer convivially around cozy fire pits. Of course, the best aspect was that I could share this experience with my family. It’s quite impressive that a city like Berlin, with such a dark and grungy image, could be so cheery and bright in the midst of such terrible weather! But with so many good things to eat and so much company to enjoy, it’s not as surprising as it seems.
Delicious “Bretzeln”
Next, we drove seven hours south to Tirol – the northern, Bavarian region of Austria – where we would spend the next week. We stayed in a little yoga retreat/bed-and-breakfast , snuggled in the small Alpine town of Fernpass. After having spent so much time in cities in the fall semester, it was so relaxing to finally get some quality time in nature. The Alps were so beautiful, snowy, pristine, breathtaking – truly an ideal spot to welcome in 2013. What’s more, it must have been the healthiest vacation of my life. Even though we ate loads of wienerschnitzel and drank lots of Austrian and German beers, the hours of hiking and snowshoeing each day left us feeling quite fit. We also got to visit the famous Neuschwanstein castle, which served as the inspiration for the famous castle of Walt Disney. We even snowshoed halfway up an Alpine mountain, alongside a fresh glacial stream. We tired ourselves out, we once almost fell off the trail and died (literally – as in off a cliff), but overall we had a blast. It seemed to me like the exact definition of a vacation in “Winter Wonderland.”
Neauschwanstein castle
We even had a couple hours on the way back from Austria to visit Munich. We ate lunch at Hofbrauhaus, a 400-year-old classic Bavarian brewery. We had a delicious lunch of weisswurst, bretzel, schnitzel, and other Bavarian delights – not to mention the best beer I’ve ever tasted. With the lederhosen-wearing musicians blasting away on their horns, our new rowdy drunken friends at the table next to us, and smiles on our faces, we had a great New Year’s Day. It was the perfect meal to end a perfect Christmas vacation.