Wigilia

I'm spending Christmas in Krakow this year with my parents who arrived last Thursday (after 24 hours of travel, and one missed flight). In preparation for my first Yuletide outside of Canada, I've been quizzing my colleagues about their traditions for the last few months, and am hoping to experience as many of the Polish Christmas events as possible.

Today, December 24th, is the day that Poles celebrate Wigilia, the traditional Christmas Eve supper. Wigilia is a meatless meal (yippee, although it does include fish, which I don't eat), and typically includes twelve dishes. Since I can barely cook one Polish dish, I decided that it would be best if my parents and I went out for dinner. So tonight we are off to a hotel that promises to serve a traditional Polish Wigilia meal.

According to tradition, we should be starting to eat when we see the first star in the sky, which would be about 4:30 pm here. Apparently that's when all my colleagues will be eating, but I didn't know this until after I made reservations for 7:30 pm.

After dinner we plan to visit several of the churches (there are literally dozens within walking distance of my apartment) to see the nativity scenes, including one with live donkeys and sheep.

Then, if the oldsters can stay awake, we plan to attend midnight mass. Since we aren't Catholic, and my parents don't understand any Polish, I've opted for mass at the Dominican church, as several sources have stated that " the Dominicans put on a good service."

I'll fill you in on the details sometime in the next few days.

Wishing you all a very peaceful and happy Christmas wherever in the world you may be today.

Nutcrackers

Nutcrackers were everywhere in the Dusseldorf Christmas markets. For unknown reasons I am not a huge fan of the traditional soldier nutcracker, but I couldn't resist purchasing a small Bishop nutcracker.

In flight

I've taken close to 40 flights this year, most of them around Europe. There was a time not so long ago when I didn't like flying on smallish planes, but these days that's my usual mode of travel. Note the propeller in the picture below. I've been on more than a few prop planes this year.



On my trip to London a few weeks ago I was rerouted through Vienna, which turned out to be a good thing. I was glued to the window throughout the whole 50 minute flight, entranced by the beauty below. This was taken somewhere between Krakow and Vienna, most likely over Slovakia.

Christmas market mania

Dusseldorf is definitely a town that gets into the Christmas spirit. The city is sprinkled with 6 Christmas markets, each with its own theme. My friend Y and I hit them all last Saturday, as well as many, many stores - Dusseldorf is also the fashion capital of Germany.

If you love Christmas, you'll love Dusseldorf. Although if you love architecture, old or new, art, or shopping, you'll also be enchanted by Dusseldorf. Like Ljubljana and Bratislava, Dusseldorf makes it onto my little known but highly recommended cities to visit list.

Home for a rest

In the last 10 days I've been in London for 48 hours, back in Krakow for 5 days and a 60 hour work week and then in Dusseldorf Germany for another weekend trip.

The trips were action-packed, full of sightseeing, art gallery going, shopping, eating and lots of lovely time spent catching up with friends.

But I am ready to hibernate for a while or at least until next weekend when my parents arrive for Christmas.