Better late than never?

So this post has been sitting here half finished for about 3 weeks now... I don't know why I haven't made the time to finish it up, but better late than never!  Here's a photo blog about my Christmas/New Years in Germany with my friends.  I spent Christmas with the Schulze's in Leipzig, then I went up to visit Micha's family near Magdeburg and came back to Leipzig for New Years.  I should say now that this is a strange mixture of pictures...

The Medieval Christmas Market in Leipzig- Basti and I met up and walked around the markets.

We went to church on Christmas Eve after drinking Glühwein and singing carols outside the Schulze's.

The Christmas tree lit by candles and the stars Marie and I made.

On Christmas day we went for a walk through a sculpture park.

I took more pictures than this, but really if you want to see pictures of Leipzig at Christmas you can look back at last year's pictures- it was pretty similar except my parents weren't there this year.  The fact that they weren't there made it hard to get in the Christmas spirit- it felt more like just a random school break and not really a holiday- except for the fact that I had 2 Christmas duck dinners.

On the 26th I went up to Magdeburg to meet up with Micha, and stay with his family in Wannefeld. It's rather rural there, and walking around the farm reminded me a lot of Iowa.

In a town near Wannefeld they had this proper fairy tale looking castle- if I remember rightly it was a hunting lodge for  some king!

The next day Micha showed me around a bunch of small towns in the area-  I took the most pictures in Tangermünde though because it's a gorgeous, well preserved old town.  I noticed that in this area of Germany they build a lot with red brick and wood.

This statue is outside the Tangermünde town hall- I can't remember the story  behind the statue, but I think it had something to do with Women's rights.

Inside the castle grounds in Tangermünde.

The Elbe River.

I took about 100 pictures of Fachwerk houses because I love the style, but I had never seen the embelishments around the doors like there were in Tangermünde.

More door embelishments- they're supposed to tell a story through the symbols and colors.

We had lunch at the old school house in Tangermünde.  They had some interesting furniture in there.  You could sit at the old desks, or you could sit on a bed or you could sit in the laundry room (pictured above)- we sat at a booth.

The town hall and christmas tree in the square in Tangermünde.

These statues were inside the watch tower on the castle grounds- they were carved by one guy with a chainsaw. 

We went up into the viewing tower that was part of the castle- this is looking up at the roof from the last level of the tower.

Looking down at the castle and the town of Tangermünde from the tower.

That night we met Micha's parents, brother and his brother's girlfriend for dinner at this restaurant.  Their specialty is trout- which they raise themselves in the ponds around the place.  The building was actually built by a construction company from Poland- they have a very particular way of building log homes, so they brought all their supplies with them to Germany to put this up.

Another specialty of the restaurant is this Schnapps- they bring it in these little pots and  light it on fire.  You have to let it burn for a minute and then you put it out with a little pan.

The shot 'glass' and the pan used to put out the firery Schnapps.

This one is for all you builders out there- a detail shot of the logs and the straw (or something?) that bind them and fill the cracks.

The fire place with a really great metal mantle piece.

Mario and Micha all excited to dig into their massive fish platter!

Micha's dad had a trout.  He was disappointed that I didn't order any fish... but I'm just not a fish fan! 

The Medieval style Christmas market was still up in Madgeburg, so Micha and I went for a Glühwein before I headed back to Leipzig.

We went to an opera in Leipzig the night I got back.

The Leipzig Opera- it's not quite the vintage of Opera house that I'm used to here in Austria, but it was nice.

In the theater.

All the fixings for raclette on New Years Eve!

Raclette dinner for New Years- I didn't take any pictures later, I had to watch the fireworks (incase one flew at me!).

So that was Christmas and New Years!  Now I'm on semester break- I went into Vienna yesterday to do some shopping and I went to the Haus des Meeres, the aquarium.  It was packed with families and small children, and there's really not that much there- so it wasn't really worth it... but now I know.  On Tuesday I'm taking a day trip to Bratislava, and then on Wednesday I'm heading down to Graz!