T̶w̶o̶ One p̶e̶r̶p̶e̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶a̶t̶s̶ immigrant settling into home country number five.
My trip to New Orleans happened to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day, and thus the St. Patrick’s Day parade. This holiday in the French Quarter is much like it is in other cities in the US, with green beer, green clothing, green kilts, and green drunks. The parade is nowhere near the grand scale of … Read more
I don’t have anything particularly profound to say about Strasbourg, since I only spent about 6 hours there this time around. It was nice to see it without the massive crowds that were there for the Christmas market. Strasbourg definitely has its charming side, and I wouldn’t mind going back another time. We attempted to … Read more
After last year’s lackluster parade in Zurich, I was beginning to think the Swiss just didn’t know how to do carnival. I mean, a correct carnival celebration does involve a certain amount of coming out of oneself, public silliness, and, (gasp!) messiness. Oh yes, I’ve heard about how in Basel there is ‘craziness’ in the … Read more
Despite the rain, last night we ventured out with the rest of Zurich to go see the New Year’s fireworks display over the lake. After dinner at home (restaurants in Zurich get even more expensive on New Year’s Eve, with set meals starting at around CHF 80, not including alcohol), we headed to the tram … Read more
From Berlin, we took a train down to Dresden for a day in the deep east. Dresden is a beautiful city even when it’s not decked out in its Christmas finery, and it drew us in with its promise of the Oldest Christmas Market in Europe, which is in its 572nd year. That’s a lot … Read more
The last couple days of Glühwein tourism brought us back to Germany – specifically, Berlin and Dresden. I’m pleased to report we had great success in both cities, which offered up a variety of hot, seasonal beverages in a variety of Christmas markets. First we headed to the ‘nostalgia market’ at Gendarmenmarkt, a relatively new … Read more
OK, so I’ve noticed that I’ve been getting a lot of traffic from people searching the web for how to say things such as “Merry Christmas” in Swiss German. I thought I’d help you out by posting this little nugget of information, but then I realized that I didn’t know the answer. So I had … Read more
We spent the weekend Christmas-market-hopping around our little corner of Europe. On Friday I introduced fellow blogger Ali and my mother-in-law to that most delicious of Christmas treats, Glühwein (hot spiced wine, for those who haven’t been following along). This took place in the courtyard of the Landesmuseum, a large castle right next to the … Read more
We went to a second Swiss Christmas party last week, thrown by my husband’s company. The owner of this company loves to force his employees to endure spring surprises on his employees, even though the Swiss ones (ie, everyone except my husband) seem to not be too fond of being surprised. I, on the other … Read more
“Sorry dear, I didn’t get you a present this year. It’s… it’s… those damn Christmas lights on Bahnhofstrasse! How was I supposed to get in the Christmas shopping mood with those ghastly things overshadowing the whole scene? They totally ruined everything. Next year, I’ll buy you something in Chicago. Promise.” And so the Great Zurich … Read more