It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

So my last weekend away from Paris was with my mom! We traveled via train to Basel, Switzerland (where they have the most beautiful money ever) and then to Strasbourg, France. Basically, we good ol' Minnesotans needed a good ol' fashion snow fix with some holiday cheer. And it was also like a grown up version of what we did when I was younger. We would all dress up in our pjs, pile into the truck with some hot chocolate and drive around seeing the Christmas lights on houses in the neighborhoods, but now with the grown up version, we travel somewhere, bundle up with some gluewhein (aka vin chaud aka mulled wine) and go Christmas market hopping. Not sure which version I prefer, but the gluwhein is fantabously if I may say so (both version too, red and white). But back to the weekend with my mom.

First of all, Basel. Where there was real snow, like make-a-snowman-catch-snowflakes-on-your-tongue-and-bundle-up-to-snowblow snow! It was fantastic. The Christmas markets were awesome - and they were everywhere - you could walk a block basically in any direction and hit some type of Christmas market. One of them even had a rotating bar - which I really wanted to go on, except it was uber crowded. We went to the Cathedral and climbed up really old and kind of scary stairs up to the first overlook and decided not to proceed any father when we went to this tiny little door that opened up to a tiny little and very slanted staircase. Only regret is that we didn't find any real Swiss food restaurants to eat at, which was mainly our fault because we never made rsvps or went at a time that we could get a table, so we ate at the Irish Pub and then a French restaurant (that actually had a Swiss flair to it), both of which were great food and atmosphere.

Then it was off to Strasbourg, the capital of Christmas! Where we ate lots of French-German food, all of which was fantastic, especially with the vast amounts of gluhwein we had - the Alsace region is known for their white mulled wine, and it was very yummy. We walked through La Petite France (the French quarter) which is along the Rhine River and was very cute and quaint. Did lots of shopping, lots of shopping. Also visited the Cathédral de Notre Dame de Strasbourg, which was gorgeous, not as jaw-dropping as Notre Dame de Paris, but it isn't something to sneeze at. They had a fantastic nativity scene.

So, basically, it was a weekend full of Christmas markets, awesome food, lots of wine and SNOW!

Basel

More snow in Basel

Overlook in Basel

Cathedral (Basel)

Overlook in Cathedral

Rhine River in Strasbourg (La Petite France)

Rotating Bar in Basel

Cathedral (Strasbourg)

Strasbourg: Capital of Christmas

Christmas Tree

Nativity Scene (Strasbourg)

Lights & Cathedral

Kiss me I'm Irish

Catching up on blog posts. Spent first weekend of December in Dublin, Ireland. And all I really can say is I LOVED IT and have to get back to Ireland soon. Not only did all the food and beverages agree with me (aka, bangers & mash, fish & chips, Guinness, Jameson, Bulmers and coffee), but the Irish are just so friendly and wonderful, plus Ireland is gorgeous - even if we didn't make it outside of Dublin.

Tried to go to Dublin Castle - but it was closed for a big government meeting. Went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was jaw dropping gorgeous! Didn't make it into Christ Church, but did manage to find the Dubarry store (which was next door to the Ambercrombie) but sadly, didn't walk out with a pair of boots. Did the Book of Kells museum - which was so amazing, it is hard to explain how impressive of a book and preservation of it, it is. Wandered up and down Grafton Street, which is like the Dublin version of Champs-Elysées. Visited the Temple Bar - yay Guinness & Bulmers!!

So a trip to Dublin isn't complete of course with out the required trip to BOTH the Guinness Storehouse and the Old Jameson Distillery, with of course, tours and tasting and shopping!! First stop was to Jameson. In order of preference after tasting the big name whiskeys: 1. Jameson 2. Johnny Walker Black 3. Jack Daniels. As smart college students, stopped for a hearty breakfast at the oldest pub in Dublin, the Brazen Head, a perfect pub that I would call a second home - very small and filled with never ending charm. Then it was off to the Guinness Storehouse where we did a tasting and then the Guinness Academy where we got to pour our own pints. I guess if this college thing fails, I can always be a bartender.

Finished that night off with a trip to the National Leprechaun Museum. Go ahead and laugh all you want - it was AWESOME. Actually, the real highlight of the night was watching a REAL AMERICAN FOOTBALL game at Quay's bar - didn't know I missed ESPN/sports that much until I was actually watching intently a game of football. For the first time in a VERY long time, pulled an all nighter - so went from the bars to the bus for the airport and slowly made our way back to Paris.

Christmas trees everywhere!

Trinity College

Dubarry & Abercrombie

St Patrick's Cathedral

St Stephen's Green

Definitely the poster I got

Yay Guinness!

360 degree No Gravity Bar

Bangers & Mash

Lights all around

Best fish & chips

Christmas cheer done right

Oldest pub in Dublin

Breakfast at Brazen Head

Graduate of the Guinness Academy

Leprechaun Museum

The infamous Temple Bar

Over and out - more global warrioring soon - Strasbourg & Basel up next.

Santa Claus is comin' to town with PIEROGIES!

Beautiful Park

Artsy-fartsy Picture

Warsaw Christmas Market

So, remember in my Morocco trip post how I kept a list of life lessons learned? Well, earned several more to add to that list, but from my weekend in Warsaw. So, I guess here goes, the list of life lessons learned in Warsaw:
#1: Pierogies for breakfast, lunch and dinner are not frowned upon, but encouraged.
#2: Chocolate in all shapes and forms makes a good meal replacement as well.
#3: Pay for the more expensive hostel because it will definitely be worth it.
#4: Christmas markets are the best thing EVER, because it is the most wonderful time of the year.

Hold on, no worries, I get that all three life lessons require some explanation. So, here it goes. Basically pierogies are all over the place and come in so many different varieties that it is often hard to choose, but one can never go wrong with the classic russian version: potatoes and cheese. Here is how it goes at the pierogie place: Walk in to a warm cozy restaurant filled with yummy childhood-memory-inducing smells. Get all happy. Find a menu. Try and figure out what the words in polish mean, actually, just try and find the one that looks like 'russian' and go with it (or if it has an english menu, then pick whichever you want). Order, pay, sit down. Wait. Food arrives looking and smelling awesomely and it literally screams 'EAT ME!' to you. And even though you have that intense urge to gobble up all the pierogies at once. Stop. Don't. Take a picture of both your plate of food and any label bearing restaurant name (extra points if it has the restaurant, pass go and collect $200 if a map is included). Now you may eat the pierogies, but make sure you savor them because they disappear quite quickly. After you leave the restaurant, fear not, less than a block away you will for sure pass another pierogie restaurant if you have a hankering for more.


As for chocolate, well, Warsaw is home to the Wedel's original chocolate shop. Now, I am not a picky chocolate person, so really, any chocolate will do, but OMG, not sure any chocolate will do now that I have been to Wedel's. It is pure magic. You walk in and are hit with this warm fuzzy feeling of being literally covered in the smell of melted chocolate just begging you to spend wayyyyy too much money, it doesn't help that you walk in right into the counter filled with chocolate goodies. But, then, you sit down to order something to drink and eat and see all these tables with various chocolate creations and you start to feel overwhelmed, well, it doesn't stop there, because the menu comes out and it is way more than a menu. It is like an illustrated novel where every single picture is begging to be ordered and if you don't pay attention, ordering more and more and more could just happen. But, I ended up not spending all my money at Wedel's and got the Trio of hot chocolate and the apple pie à la mode. They were both good choices, actually, amazing choices. I think my hankering for real Thanksgiving apple pie played a role in my choice even though I also wanted a chocolatey creation, but I guess I will just have to go back.

And I guess now, I have to discuss our hostel. Not even sure where to start, except that you get what you pay for, I guess. Where to start. Well, the wifi was shit - not only was it only the lobby, but it didn't work on the iPhones, which wouldn't really be an issue because there were computers in the lobby to use, but someone was ALWAYS on them and would be for way more than the 30 min. time limit. UGH. Then, oh dear Lord, the bathroom. THE BATHROOM. There was 1 per floor, which meant that it was shared by like 20+ people. And it wouldn't have been too bad, hell yes it would have, no need to try and glorify it, I mean come on! There was mold crawling up the walls, the grouting was crumbling, there was a consistent supple of standing water with the same crumpled up wet "towel" on the floor during our whole stay. There was a sporadic supply of toilet paper and hand soap. And there were creepy crawlies all over the floor. And it smelled, and I have been living in Paris with the Paris metros, and it smelled WORST. So, definitely will not be giving Nathan's Villa Hostel a good review and will for sure, choose the more expensive option when confronted with cheap vs. cheaper vs. cheapest.

And finally, back on a happier note, the CHRISTMAS MARKET!!! It was fantastic, and the only thing that could have made it even better would have been if there was snow and all the lights were on. But, we had lots of fun from getting real candy apples to chocolate-covered fruit to doing some shopping for winter clothing essentials (i.e. hat and scarf). I wish I could describe it to its full glory, but the pictures will have to try and do it justice.

Well, that is this week's blog. Look forward to next weekend: Salon du Cheval and Dublin!

Over and out, your Global Warrior, Caitlin.

Restaurant name and map!

PIEROGIES!

Christmas Tree 

Warsaw, POLAND

More pierogies

Beer, chips 'n' guac, pollo en mollo

Candy apple from Christmas Market

It's Christmas time at Wedel's!!

E. Wedel's Chocolate Shop

Apple pie & trio of hot chocolate

Twinkling Tree

Köttbullar, Dalahäst and Kungsträdgården...

Y'all are all probably what the heck my post title means. Well, all I have to say is that this Minnesota girl, born and raised on steak and potatoes, shoveling snow and enjoying windy walks to the ice rink, fit right in in Stockholm, Sweden. So, if that isn't any tip off to what my title means, I'll lay it out for you: it's Swedish for meatballs, wooden horse and the garden where the ice rink was located.

So the big thing about Stockholm is it is expensive, which means broke-studying-abroad college students can't afford to eat out every meal and end up eating at fast food joints and I'm not saying I'm against that, but I'm a big believer that if you are going to travel somewhere, and that somewhere being somewhere when who knows when you will be back, then you should probably spend the time, money and effort to eat typical Swedish plates. Alright, rant over.

Narrowest alley way

Trolls!

Royal Castle guards

Found a horse in the castle!

Future Princess

Nordic Sea

The Vasa

Swedish Meatballs

Ice skating 

Gingerbread Pig Cookies

Reindeer!!

Yet again, found my Dalahäst. 

But, besides wanting to eat really good food - which we did get to have good hot chocolate and swedish meatballs - did lots of museums! Went to the Royal Palace and did the Royal Armory Museum - which was really cool - makes me want to actually be a REAL princess and have my own gold carriage pulled by dapple grey ponies. We also went to the Vasa Museum, which houses a HUGE old viking ship, the Vasa, which sank in 1628 just off the shore of Stockholm. It was salvaged in 1961 and is the only preserved vessel from the 1600s. Then we went to the Skansen open air museum on Djurgårdsslåtten which was really cool, kind of kid-orientated, but lots of fun - we went to an old fashion bakery and got really really really good gingerbread cookies. Also went to the children's museum where I got to hang with a reindeer!!

Being abroad means that I am missing out on a lot of important things, and the big one being: HOCKEY (NHL due to the lockout, and college and high school because they don't stream over here and forums are blocked). So, if you know me at all, any opportunity to do anything hockey-related meant that it had to be done (same for anything horse-related). So ended up going to Kungsträdgården to go ice skating! It was awesome.