Christmas in Vienna

---

Christmas time in Vienna is amazing. Aside from the beautifully lighted streets and various Christmas markets with the mouth watering scents of Brutwursts, roasted chestnuts and warm spiced wine, the hustle and bustle of the city on Christmas eve is extremely charming.
On the 24th we walked to the Nasch market (about a 10 minute walk from the apartment), to do our Christmas dinner shopping and pick us a Christmas tree. The Nasch market is a huge permanant farmer's market. The vendors are mostly Turkish and there are Shawerma and falafel stands every few feet. It's a good place to buy vegetables, great cheese and spices. They also have homemade fresh ravioli that we have become addicted to. The Nasch market on the afternoon of Christmas eve was alive and kickin! Vienese had gathered in large crowds and Champaign and Oyster plates were everywhere.



We managed to buy the ingredients to the Chilli Dave was planning on making for Christmas, some great cheese and bread. We checked out the trees and decided to buy one from the guys across from our apt.. it would be a much shorter walk home.



In the late afternoon we walked towards Stephensplatz and heard the bells of the Cathedral ring around 4:30, we walked in stayed for part of the Christmas eve mass.
Christmas eve turned out to be perfect.. I was a little bummed out to be away from my family.. specially since this was Jaden's first Christmas.. and I really would have liked to be there..but it didn't work out this year..Have to look at the positives and being in this beautiful city with David wasn't a bad deal at all 😊 We had our tree but no ornaments..so David decided to pop popcorn.. and yup we sat there and stringed popcorn for an hour or so..Thank god for wine..
We made Chilli, drank lots of wine and beer, played cards..(I got my butt kicked every time) and celebrated the birth of Christ in our own special way.



Hechem and his wife had invited us over for Christmas Day lunch.. We had picked up some pasteries from the Nasch market the day before and took a bottle of wine with us. It was a very nice lunch with Turkey and all it's trimmings. David ate more than I've ever seen him eat before.. and paid for it later than night. We met Hechem's brother and his family and his mom had just arrived from Syria, but the poor woman was soo sick, she couldn't even sit around the table with us. After desert and some hooka smoking, it was time tio go home for some much needed rest. We leave for St. Anton very early in the morning.

---

Photos

Stringing popcorn for our tree
Notice the empty bottles of alcohol behind David

Our popcorn adorned tree and ....
David getting ready for our Alps trip.. I think

Comments

[Dad]

Perfect Christmas
Sounds like you guys had a perfect xmas!! I'm glad. Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us about your adventures and all the incredible sights. We are heading over to see Mom and Dad today and watch some football-- nothing in but all the bowl games. Va Tech blew a 20 pt halftime lead and lost to Ga. Next year lets plan to be together a make it another perfect Christmas. Miss you, Dad and Debbie