Christmas in Vienna

OK, so Christmas here is really cool.

They have these things called Chriskindlmarkts all over Vienna. You can buy cool touristy items or cool novelty items, jewelry, scarves, hats, etc. At the one in Schönbrunn, you could buy little shots of different types of alcohol. I saw a table piled about a foot high with them to the entirety of its diameter, about 3 feet. And there were 4 totally wasted people around it. A policeman went and talked to them about the noise, not how much they were drinking. Very interesting place here, haha. You can also buy this stuff called punsch, which is a hot tea, sugar, and juice mixture with rum. I tried it, but I don't like it. Its too sweet, combined with too much alcohol.

Anyway, they celebrate the 4 Sundays before Christmas by lighting 4 candles, one per Sunday. Gabi threw cookie eating parties for two of the 4.

Then Christmas came, and I got my presents from home the day of. Unfortunately, I did not find out until I arrived, because we were banned from the house from the 23 until 5:00 on the 24, when the Christkind was finished decorating and laying out presents. Then we opened all the presents, and ate Christmas dinner.

It was really fun, and I almost cried when I got my presents from home. I have no idea why.

But anyways, belated Merry Christmas everyone!!!