Officially: Christmas mood on!

Personally for me Christmas never bore a sacral meaning: in our family it is usually associated with my mom being a godmother and inviting her children to get presents either on January 6 or 7. It gradually turned into parents-children-family celebration and required both much preparation and cleaning.

That’s why, when I had my Erasmus Master’s Exchange in Belgium last year, I didn’t mind switching to West-European tradition and celebrating it earlier in December. To tell the truth, I didn’t even mind skipping it at all. My girls were planning their trips to Slovenia, Germany and Poland, I was already too old for getting presents from my Ukrainian godmother, and I literally had no plans for Christmas.

But here is the trick: when you expect nothing, something amazing happens. And it happened. It all started with a Christmas market popping up in the centre of Leuven: nice winter decorations, the smell of hot gluhwine, the house of Santa and most important – Christmas mood created by hundreds of happy faces everywhere, Christmas discount fever in shops and impatience all around. It seemed that everyone was waiting for a miracle despite the fact everyone knows it doesn’t exist))

It changed in a moment for me: my skepticism turned into happy anticipation and obsessive idea of visiting Christmas markets all over Europe: in Leuven, Brussels, Luxembourg, Maastricht, Bratislava and even the capital of Christmas – Strasbourg. You should know that in Ukraine it’s not typical to organize this kind of markets with hot wine, advocaat liquer and mushroom soup, hot dogs, sausages and pancakes, music, fun, souvenirs, and even fireworks. Once you’ve experienced it, you keep coming again and again. Surprisingly enough, Bratislava Christmas market amazed me most, and still reminds me of perfect winter time we had there.

Self-understandable, this year I was pretty sure my Christmas mood would knock at the door as soon as I smell hot wine and see first decorations in the center of Zagreb. That’s why, my going-out-for-amazing-ćevapi thing turned into tasting Balkan version of hot wine (which has no difference in comparison with its Flemish version) next to Ban Jelačić square and choosing cute from-Zagreb-with-love souvenirs to send home.

An interesting thing about Zagreb is that Christmas markets and stages are literally everywhere starting with Zrinjevac park and European Square in the centre, fuliranje kod Uspinjače near city funicular, the main Christmas tree with Sveti Nikola on Ban Jelačić, an open skating-rink in Tomislav park and other attractions who knows where else: this is something to be yet discovered. It’s not only about drinking hot wine, trying ‘special’ hot-dog that we call French in Ukraine, tasting typical palačinke and fritule (sweet stuff), but good reason to go out in freezing winter evening and meet your friends and dear people for a drink and talk.

You might say November 30 is too early for Christmas shopping, but Black Friday discounts and me being a girl forced me to go to the biggest shopping centre a little bit on the outskirts of Zagreb for a new dress (I still have 2 dresses I never wore in Zagreb and really need new winter shoes more, but who cares: Christmas mood is already on and out-of-control). The dress was successfully worn on Christmas Syncro party (that was forbidden to be called Christmas) and added to the collection of black dresses for all cases.

The last thought to share is that Christmas in Vienna was my dream. It somehow happened that Austrian capital has this special connection with Christmas for me: Amsterdam is a sin city, Brussels – European capital, Paris – romance, art and high prices, Zagreb – already second home, but Vienna…Vienna… Instead I got an invitation to celebrate my next Christmas in Germany, and surely, accepted it immediately)) Sorry, Vienna, probably, next year. As I say, some dreams should stay dreams for some time, and with time they will inevitably come true.

P.S. And yes, if they don’t give me my Christmas Schengen visa, I’ll meet Balkan Christmas in Montenegro, or Albania, or Serbia…who knows, what other Christmas surprises will December bring!

Kisses and hugs, Juliya.