The Fox’s Tail: A Christmas to remember … 2007

Blog — By fox on January 4, 2012 3:08 PM

Editor’s note: This post is the first in a series about my trip to the World Juniors in Prague in 2007/2008. I went with a large group, about 350 Canadians, and spent time with them in Vienna and Prague before venturing to visit family in London.

The Fox’s Tail is a blog featuring a hockey perspective from a girl working with a hockey team in Canada.

By Fox

(I had been wanting to get to this earlier, but was having a hard time tracking down the photos I needed — and now that everyone knows I’m alright with a camera, figured I better find some art.)

This is a story about a Christmas I didn’t spend with my family. But that’s alright, because this one was willing. And I did get to have dinner with my family before I left … for Vienna! If I haven’t made it extremely apparent to you yet, I absolutely love Christmas, and if there is one thing to say about European Christmas, they sure know how to do it right.

My story starts on the evening of Dec. 23, when I headed to Pearson International to board my direct flight to Vienna on Austrian Airways, which was definitely a different experience than flying Air Canada. The colours inside the plane were all red, yellow, green, and the flight attendants were dressed in red! We were served a traditional European supper with schnitzel and shortly after supper we were supposed to sleep. I watched some weird movie with Joseph Gordon Levitt called “The Lookout” about a bank heist, then tried to catch some zzz’s. In the morning, we were served a nice Euro breakfast of granola, yogo, fruit and pastries.

When we arrived in Vienna, we collected our bags, got on a bus and headed to downtown Vienna where we were staying in a hotel attached to a very large mall. The first thing I noticed when we were driving through the beautiful cobbled streets, lined with stunning buildings was the REAL Christmas trees everywhere. Every store and building had a real tree, with lights and pretty decorations. They say that Christmas trees were popularized in Germany in the 1500s, as were many other traditions we consider synonymous with Christmas, like gingerbread houses. (I once made a house, entirely from scratch, for my German class in Grade 11. I got an A.)

After we checked into our hotel, it was Christmas Eve

and the mall was bustling with shoppers. I was itching to get to a store and pick up some of my European favourites. When I was younger, my Uncle (who just retired from the air force) was stationed in Geilenkirchen, Germany, close to the Dutch border at a NATO base. We were lucky enough to go visit and were also sent plenty of Euro goodies like Birkenstocks, Lindt chocolates and two things I dashed out to buy as soon as I arrived. That and a big bottle of Fanta. They have Fanta here, yes, but it’s not the same.

That night, we all went out to dinner at a traditional Viennese restaurant. After dinner, we toured the streets, which were full of beautiful trees, lights and decorations. That evening, we headed to St. Stephen’s Cathedral where we attended Midnight Mass. I was particularly interested to hear the choir sing, which was beautiful. The service was delivered in Germany, French, English and Spanish, and had screens up so the people in the very back could see and hear what was going on. Our little programs for the night included lyrics to some Christmas carols, many of which were sung in the traditional languages (German and French). I was sitting with an older gentleman who was from Kitchener and a die-hard Rangers fan, so we had plenty to talk about, since my good friend’s younger brother was a Ranger at the time, and my high-school crush boy had also played there, winning a Memorial Cup with them in 03. The only bad part about that night was the church is not heated … running shoes on stone floor for hours in the middle of winter make for verrrry cold toes.

That night, we all headed back to our hotel, and pretty well cleaned out the bar. Around 2 a.m. we asked our poor bartender if he wanted to go home to his family, after he had explained that in Europe, it’s traditional for the big celebration to be on December 24. (My European side of my family has our dinner on the 24th as well.) Our bartender said he was happy to stay as long as we would like, because in Europe it isn’t customary to tip and since we were all tipping him every beer he poured, he said his wife would be more than happy to let him stay late with the extra hundreds of dollars he would bring home.

The following day we went on a bus tour of Vienna and stopped at the Hundertwasserhaus, which is this crazy-looking apartment building with all these different colours painted on it. This crazy building, which was completed in the 80s,  has a garden on the roof and trees apparently inside the apartments.

That afternoon we toured around the cobbled streets where we were able to do a little window shopping, and attend the Vienna Christmas Market. I bought a couple ornaments, and we tried a mulled wine drink similar to the Quebecois Caribou. (These markets are very popular in Europe, and we attended another one once we left for Prague. I also got the chance to visit the one here in Toronto this year at the distillery. If I still live here next Christmas, I’m definitely going back!)

That night, we enjoyed a Christmas dinner at our hotel, with turkey and all the fixings and went to bed early … the train was leaving at the crack of dawn on Boxing Day to take us to Prague, and that afternoon, the tournament was set to begin.

I packed my things, laid my Team Canada jersey, Team Canada scarf and hat out on the table to stick in my Team Canada backback in the morning and excitedly went to sleep.

Stay tuned for more from my voyage overseas.

- Foxy

Question, comment, chirp? Get at me … Twitter @hockey_foxx or e-mail me at redline_blueline@hotmail.com .. For girl stuff (and hockey) check http://hockeyfoxx.blogspot.com

 

Oh, and one more thing …. Welcome to Europe, the beers are HUGE!