Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly sequence wherein NPR’s worldwide workforce shares moments from their lives and work around the globe.
This was the 12 months I lastly made good on a five-year-old promise to my husband that we might go to Christmas markets in Europe. It was necessary to us to expertise these markets as a result of we actually get pleasure from Christmas festivities, and the combination of tradition and historical past is tough to search out wherever else.
We walked about 10 miles a day in a packed schedule via a pair dozen Christmas markets in Hungary, Germany and Austria. No two had been fairly alike.
The market at Vienna’s 18th century Schönbrunn Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Web site, was among the many most particular. After I first noticed this enormous lit-up star archway with its message of welcome, I gasped. The market, within the palace’s grand courtyard, was stuffed with sights together with an ice rink, ice inventory video games (like curling), a Ferris wheel, carousel and tons of meals and craft cubicles.
We made a degree to attempt native specialties like Käsespätzle (a German macaroni and cheese) and Glühwein, or mulled wine. Most Christmas markets throughout Europe serve Glühwein in collectible mugs with the market’s emblem or formed like Santa’s boot. You possibly can pay a deposit and return the mug or preserve it as a memento.
What I cherished most was the sense of group at these markets. They will get crowded, however everybody’s there to benefit from the meals, wine and enjoyable. You usually find yourself chatting with strangers or listening to about one other stall to take a look at.
On the Altwiener Christkindl Market, additionally in Vienna, we talked with an artisan a few New Yr’s custom, Schwein gehabt, which suggests “had a pig” and symbolizes prosperity. In Germany and Austria, proudly owning a pig meant wealth. Round New Yr’s, folks present pig-shaped charms as tokens of excellent fortune. I picked up a number of!
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