Friday 29 November 2013

Oh I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day

I am almost weeping with joy. Today marks the first day of the Bautzen Christmas Market. I have been watching it gradually take shape every day on my way to and from school, and every day it became a little more magical, and I became a little more elated - and now I am a pure ball of elation, floating on a cloud of happiness, about to burst with Christmas bliss.

Bautzen being one of the smaller Christmas markets, it has a rather cute quality about it - as they say, the best things come in small, compact packages like Bautzen Weihnachtsmarkt. I fully intend to spend the run-up to Christmas making the most of the all the Gluehwein, Lebkuchen, and Currywurst that are on offer practically on my doorstep, and get most of my Christmas shopping done there. Of course, I also intend to visit the bigger one in Dresden too - one can never get enough of a German Weihnachtsmarkt!

Also getting me in the Christmas spirit was the snow we had this week. I was walking through town minding my own business and suddenly, out of nowhere, was assaulted by a flurry of little white hailstones. It was not an unwelcome moment. The mornings have been frosty and my heart has been sinking in disappointment every day upon waking up when I look out of my window and find everything is not covered in a thick white blanket. However, I am still in Germany for another three weeks until I go back to England, so there's still time. It was a bit disappointing that it rained today and washed away the only smidgens of snow, ice, and frost that there was, but I'm hoping this dreary weather won't be too frequent in the upcoming weeks.

Ah, and I did mean to give a little review of 'Mein Fuehrer' - the comedy about Hitler that I mentioned I was going to watch in one of my previous blog posts. The long and short of it was - it was a disappointment, and I was not sorry to hand it back to the Bibliothek. Although it was amusing in places, it failed to keep me engaged for the whole one and a half hours. The film was repetitive, didn't seem to go anywhere, and seemed a lot longer that it actually was. I have read some reviews that claimed it was distasteful - but I would disagree with that. In my opinion, to its credit, it did not cross the line between laughing at Hitler and disrespecting his victims, but it was just unfortunately a little boring. I was quite saddened to learn that it was the last film that the excellent German actor Ulrich Muehe made before he died that year (if you've seen 'The Lives of Others' you'll know his face) as I do think that with his talents he deserved to finish on more of a high.

So, onwards and upwards - tomorrow, a walk in the Saechsische Schweiz a (apparently) beautiful National Park near Dresden, before going to the Dresden Christmas market - I can hardly contain my excitement.

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