Blog Darkness

Sorry about my recent absence from Blogland. When I embarked on the challenge of writing about German Christmas markets every day, my wise husband suggested that I avoid repetition. Otherwise I might lose my readers! So, the last few days have been relatively slow - Christmas-market-speaking. I feel like Bonn has been trapped in a wet darkness for a week, and going to the market has either been inconvenient, because I've been working on other things, or completely undesirable, as the rain and wind would make the walk unbearable!

Beethoven is getting sick of the rain and long nights too!

The darkness that blankets Europe in winter reminded me that I actually have it better than my neighbors to the north: Scandinavia! As I type this, I am watching a show about Norway (in the summer, so it actually looks amazing!). I also thought of another one of Rick Steves' Christmas clips! I know you all were wondering how one celebrates Christmas in Norway. Check it out!

Today was an important day during the German Christmas calendar: Saint Nicolas Day, or Nikolaustag! Traditionally, children leave their shoes out on the night of the 5th, and they wake up to sweets or gifts in their shoes! As a child, my mom treated my brother and I to this celebration a few times! (This was a definite nod to my mom's German-ish roots.) I decided to celebrate by surprising my roommate with some chocolates and a personalized greeting from St. Nikolaus himself.

Check it out! I still have mad drawing skills, even they are a bit rusty. It reads, "I wish you a nice St. Nicolas day!"

As I was getting some shopping done today, I spotted him! Live and in the flesh! I think he looks a lot like my drawing.

Today I also went to Koblenz, and as I headed further south, I saw snow! It had even coated the ground a bit, and you could really see it in the mountains around the town. Bonn did not have any snow on the ground this morning, keeping true to its reputation as a semi-temperate locale in winter.

This is a shot from my bus stop at the Uni, located near the Mosel River.

 I am really hoping that this preview of snow will be in my near future...

 We have a weather warning for snow tomorrow! All day! We could get 10 cm! I am very excited! To make things even better, I am going to be baking Christmas cookies with a friend tomorrow, and possibly visit a new Weihnachtsmarkt!

Stay tuned, world, things just got a lot more exciting in Blogland!