Happy holidays from Wunderbarland

I must apologize as my holiday greetings are a bit belated! I had a very busy few days between returning from Spain and prepping for Christmas! Regardless, I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas, or frohe Weihnachten as they say in Deutschland.

My first Christmas in Germany was lovely. In the days leading up to Christmas, I was beginning to feel quite anxious and sad about spending Christmas away from my family for the first time. However when Christmas eve finally rolled around I found I was quite relaxed and felt happy to be spending the holidays with my boyfriend and his family. I certainly missed my family and all of the traditions I have grown so accustomed to - stockings, Terry's chocolate oranges, waffles with strawberries for breakfast, turkey and potatoes romanof for dinner - but I was happy to adopt a few new traditions into my Christmas routine. Especially duck. Duck is always a good thing.

Here's one thing I do not understand about Christmas in Germany, all the presents are opened on Christmas Eve. I realize this is a pretty common tradition but here's where I take issue: if I was a little kid, I would throw a great big fit if I had to wait all day to open my presents. Since I'm 20 now, I'm pretty mature so I only had a small midday tantrum - kidding, kind of... There was a fair bit of whining going on. Anyways I held it together and waited until after dinner to open my prezzies but I don't plan on making a habit of this presents on Christmas Eve business. I'll stick to tearing open gifts at 7 AM before I've even brushed my teeth thank you very much!

Since Christmas, I have developed a cold which is quite awful so things have been pretty low key. I am in the best of hands though! Yesterday, Max's mom made me home made chicken noodle soup! And I have been loading up on tea, apple juice, and various medicines that could be tic tacs for all I know as the labels are all in German. Oh well, I am actually feeling a bit better today and plan to rest for the remainder of the week in hopes my cold will retreat by New Years Eve. Luckily for me, Max bought himself a projector for Christmas and it has been great to watch movies on while I'm sniffling away. When I am sick I always want to watch movies I have already seen about a hundred times and know that I love (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Lost in Translation, and The Devil Wears Prada to be more specific), however Max does not share my enjoyment of watching the same ten movies over and over again so I have seen a few new ones this week. I will now share my favourites with you! Because there are few things nicer than curling up on your couch with hot chocolate and popcorn to watch a good film while it's snowing away outside.

So here are a few of my favourite films I've watched this week. Ahem...

1. Black Swan: This movie is spectacular, it is a dark and sometimes frightening story of a ballerina who is losing her mind. When this movie ended I almost cried because I wished it would go on for another two hours. I believe it is in theatres right now so go and see this movie!

2. Mary and Max: An animated film about Mary, a young girl in Australia who becomes pen pals with Max, a 44 year old man in New York. Based on a true story, quite sad at times but overall a lovely film.

3. Annie Hall: I am so glad to have finally seen this film. It's very much a Woody Allen movie so if you don't like him you won't enjoy but I happen to be a fan and found this movie delightful! I also adored the styling of Diane Keaton's character Annie and am thinking of buying a hat.

4. Somewhere: The new film by Sofia Coppola about a depressed movie star spending a week with his eleven year old daughter. Quite slow but I really enjoyed it. It's a nice, quiet film - good movie to watch if you are feeling blue.

Well look at me go I'm like a regular movie critic aren't I. Perhaps I will make this a weekly feature on my blog or something... Now that I think about it, you probably will be hearing a lot more about movies lately as Oscar season is fast approaching and I tend to get really into the Oscars (However I have tentative plans to boycott if Inception gets a best picture nom - am I the only one who thought that movie was garbage!?). Anyways, it's actually due to my mother and her love of the Oscars, so if I start writing full on movie reviews on here in a months time just take it up with her.

Keep an eye out for my next post where I will list the reasons why Inception sucked! I'm only joking of course I will try and keep things travel-y as planned but it is always nice to watch movies over the holidays.

Anyways it appears I have gotten way off topic and can't really remember what I had planned for this post to be about. Oh yes, Christmas. Well I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas and are gearing up for an even better New Years!

This post seems rather text heavy so here is a photo of some Christmas goodies I took in Spain. Tschüss!

Also sorry the comments weren't working. I have switched the settings around a little bit so you should be able to post your loving and kind remarks now! If not, take it up with Google.

Our trip to Barcelona and my return to blogging

Hola blog readers!

I have returned from my trip to Espana with loads of pictures and stories to share!

Max and I had a wonderful time in Spain. We visited four cities over a ten day period. And it may not seem like it but ten days is quite a long time to travel, and I am rather exhausted from our grand voyage. Needless to say I have tons of goodies to post on the blog but I think squeezing the entire ten days into one mega post would be a difficult feat so I am going to do this thing one city at a time. Our first stop: Barcelona.

First of all, let me start by saying Barcelona is by far my favourite city I have ever visited - my apologies Paris and New York! We got to Barcelona at around 9h30 in the morning and I was immediately thrilled because it was so sunny! I hadn't seen the sun in a long time thanks to the dreadful weather in Germany. We headed to our hostel in a very sleepy state as we had been up all night save a few hours sleep on the airport floor - bleh. Check in wasn't until two so we dropped our bags and headed out into the streets of Barcalona! We were staying in the Gothic Quarter of the city which features a lots of narrow, winding streets filled with lovely architecture. After grabbing some breaky and doing a few hours of exploring the neighbourhood we were able to head back to the hostel and take a very much needed nap.

After our little snooze it was time to get ready for dinner. People in Spain usually eat dinner around ten at night, which is an odd adjustment to make but once you taste the food you realize it was well worth the wait! In Barcelona the main types of food are Tapas and Catalan food. Our first night we went out for tapas and I had the best calamari I had ever eaten! It was truly amazing.

The next day, Max and I thought it would be a good idea to rent some bikes and ride up to Park Güell. In theory, this was a lovely idea. However, it turns out that there are not many streets with bike paths in Barcelona and there is loads of traffic! So at some points I was just too nervous to ride the bike and had to hop off and walk it on the sidewalk. For the most part though the bike ride was a lot of fun! Park Güell is definitely a Barcelona must see, it is full of lush greenery and some zany Gaudi architecture. Here are a few pictures from Park Güell - in a slideshow I am becoming so tech savvy!

After Park Güell we rode our bikes around a bit more, stopping for some tasty sushi for lunch and then to see some more Gaudi! Here are a few photos of Casa Batllo and La Pedrera.

By the time we turned in our bikes it was nearly six o'clock so we headed back to the hostel for a little rest before dinner. We met a family friend of Max's who is living in Barcelona and he took us out for some delicious tapas and lots of wine. We went to a few different restaurants and bars throughout the evening and had a great time! We stayed out until about three or so which was quite late for me but is very tame considering the clubs in Spain stay open until about eight in the morning.

The next day we headed to la Mercat de la Boqueria, which is one of Europe's biggest and busiest markets. You can buy all types of fresh fruit and veggies as well as meats, sea food, and loads of olives - my favourite! Side note: my mouth just started watering because I was thinking about the olives in Spain. Anyways, going to the market was a great idea, it was full of people and yummy foods. We bought bread, cheese, fruits, and olives and then went down to the board walk and had a little picnic! A great afternoon.

The rest of our time in Barcelona was spent wandering the streets, marvelling at the architecture, eating lots of tasty tapas and traditional catalan food (think Paella with prawns and scallops and a thick tomato stew with monkfish and potatoes), and drinking loads of wine.

Gertrude Stein once said 'America is my country but Paris is my home town.' I believe this is how I will one day feel about Barcelona. It is an incredible city and I hope to return there one day soon and stay for a while! In the end I was terribly sad to leave but onward to Valencia we went.

Also, I feel a bit dishonest for just dropping intellectual quote like that in there, because I am not really a Gertrude Stein enthusiast but rather I heard that quote in The Devil Wears Prada. Say what you will, that movie rules.

Details on Valencia, Granada, and Madrid to come soon! In the meantime, here are some more pictures from the rest of our time in Barcelona. Enjoy!

Preparing for Spanien!

So I have been doing some major slacking on the blog postings as of late, my apologies! Anyways, all is well in Deutschland! Things are getting really Christmas-y now which is lovely! Last week I did some Christmas shopping and picked up a few German trinkets to send back to my family in Canada. Max's mom also sent us a package with a wreath and some Christmas socks for me - yay! Tomorrow we are heading to Bergzabern to visit Max's madre and decorate the Christmas tree and make cookies, yum.

We will also be dropping Fredo of there for an extended visit as Max's mom is going to babysit him while we are in Spain. I am a bit nervous about that because Fredo has become quite the terror... He is a very sweet little kitten but he loves to play and he is pretty aggressive! I have acquired many a war wound from play fighting with the little guy!

Max and I are leaving for Spain early Thursday morning... And by early I mean our flight is at 6:30 so we will have to leave in the dead of night to head to the airport bleh. I am getting quite excited about Spain, I have been planning outfits in my mind for like two weeks now. I will not bore you with my outfit choices however I will fill you in on our travel plans!

First we are flying into Barcelona, we have booked a really neat little hostel in the Gothic Quarter of the city where we will be staying for three nights. There hasn't been much discussion about what we will do in Barcelona yet, we will definitely be visiting the Park Güell which is supposed to be wonderful and is full of Gaudi. I also really want to check out Carrer de la Riera Baixa which is a street filled with record shops, vintage clothes, and tapas bars - best! After Barcelona we are taking a bus to Valencia where we will stay for two nights. Then it's off to Granada to visit our dear friend Zena! Zena has suggested to we go Alahambra while we are in Granada which looks amazing. Then, we are heading to Madrid for three nights before we have to catch our dreadful flight back to frigid Germany - wah! Now that winter has arrived I think it's safe for me to assume I am going to want to stay in Spain forever.

In the midst of my pre-Spain outfit planning and hostel booking I have also been singing this song over and over again. Poor Max.



So long for now precious blog readers! I will try to squeeze the odd post in from Spain but chances are I will be too drunk off sangria to type. Adios!