Lost in Translation

Boarding the train back to Paris on Saturday, I had a somewhat surprising experience. I was waiting in line for the, well, loo when a confused-looking blonde girl approached me, hesitantly, and said, "Bonjour...?" I replied in French and, following a huge sigh of relief realizing I could speak her language, we had a brief conversation about the vacancy status of the toilets. Not incredibly interesting, except that, in some way, I felt the same "relief" as her. Finally, someone I could understand! Maybe the English just mumble, but I swear I didn't understand fully any of the interactions I had in London.

That being said, what a great city! Matt had planned the trip back in December, as a birthday present for me, but also a nice vacation for the both of us. We stayed in Shoreditch, a hip east London neighborhood comparable to the Lower East Side of New York. We felt very much at home.

Maybe it's because I've had a few weeks off from touring, but I was amazed at how much I was able to do in one day without getting grumpy. The first afternoon, we did our own walking tour of the neighborhood, saw some of the highlights, went to Tesco. The second day, we spread out a little and headed west. We went to both the Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery and after a long tour of the ritzy neighborhood, we sat down to afternoon tea and scones! Matt ate all of his clotted cream, which I didn't think was possible...

Our last day, we spent some time at Broadway Market, perusing the endless stalls of exotic foods and produce. Everything looked so delicious, but we had a brunch reservation right up the street. Matt finally got his "full English" and I had a vegetarian version! I didn't know beans on toast could taste anything more than non-offensive. These were extraordinary.

Christmasland

We've just returned from our two-week vacation in the Netherlands and Germany! I'm not really sure, though, that we did all that much vacationing. From Amsterdam, to Hamburg, and the Westerwald to Berlin, the trip was sort of non-stop. But, it really fulfilled all of my Christmasy wishes! And a lot of my Jewish ones as well.

First, we were in Amsterdam. We stayed at the most adorable little hotel right on the Singel canal. We had a room with slanted floors, canal views, and there was even a cute Dutch breakfast. Matt ate cheese and soft boiled eggs, I always had a crumpet! Above, a picture of hotel. I'm in the window, can you see me?

Oh, hello! (This picture was Matt's idea...)

Amsterdam was really so cute, (they call this gezellig). Despite all the signs of sin, there are cozy restaurants and cafés everywhere, and that is coming from someone who lives in Paris. Nothing ever appeared too big or pretentious. We also went to the Rijk Museum and the Anne Frank House, both of which were pretty fascinating, but in the end, I think I enjoyed just walking around the most.

We spent the holidays with Benny and Laura in Western Germany. We met them in Mainz, where I saw the sights for the first time and we attended one of the cutest Christmas markets, where we all drank Glühwein and I ate many, many Kartoffelpuffer (latkes). Then, we headed to the Westerwald to spend Christmas Eve with Benny's mom and family.

After the Westerwald, we traveled to Laura's family's home for Christmas day. We had a traditional German meal and then went to the Opera in Gießen. They took us to see La Bohème! It was a really lovely, but small, production. The music was wonderful.

Finally, we arrived in Berlin. I of course had never been there before, which made it quite overwhelming, because there was so much I had wanted to see, but we were pretty sick of being tourists at that point. Some of the most impressive things I saw were somewhat spontaneous, like the Jewish cemetery that Matt had heard about. Most of it was "destroyed," but they preserved the destruction under ivy covered trees. The juxtaposition was breathtaking (see above).

This is us at the Weihnachtsmarkt in Mainz--glowing with wine!