Romantic nights and lights - Christmas Market Munich

German style Christmas markets seem to be a "a thing" recently. Even in the UK I was surprised when Chester, Liverpool and Manchester sprouted off a "German" Christmas market. "Bratwurst" and "Stollen" on hand, they served sweet and savory dishes alongside a Chinese take away booth.

 

In front of the Munich town hall, they always choose the most massive Christmas tree. I think it's a real show-off but at least it makes lots of people happy. That tree must get photographed  more than Britney Spears this Christmas. 

Anyways, for now, let's imagine that we, you and I, will stroll together over the Munich Christmas market! Just take it as it is for now! And rule number one is, that a Christmas market is the most romantic when the lights are on! Now let's grab our bags and go!

Traditionally, if you were strolling with me over the markets, we would stop at a booth and get a "Glühwein" which is a mulled wine, or a "Kinderpunsch" a non-alcoholic punch, to warm us up. Steaming hot in cute decorated mugs we will wrap our hands around the hot drink and make some comments about how cold it is. But a couple of sips of the hot liquid will make us forget the cold anyways.

The lights around us are too inviting anyways to just stand around. Returning the mugs to the stall, we can now look for cute little crafted items to buy as presents for our families and friends.

You might point at something and say "What's that?!" and I will try and explain. Well that is, if I know what you are pointing at.

You might find items and say "Oh so cute!" and I will join you in exclamations. If you have a sweet tooth, we could go and get "Lebkuchen" a spicy German gingerbread, or we could buy different kinds of sausages.

Since they are different kinds, I will offer you a bite of mine and I will be really happy if you offer me a bite of your dish too.Chatting about this and that - we will always stop to stare and marvel at new sights and cute things, and how crafty some people are. Even if the crafts might be too expensive, we will just have a great time browsing and walking through the romantically lit streets of Munich, while people of all cultures around us spend a lovely evening as well.

If our feet get too cold in the end, we will say our goodbyes. Maybe we will take a little gift home that we bought for someone or ourselves. Maybe we will still have ketchup or mustard at the corner of our mouths without knowing. But surely, we will have taken some pictures and a bag of memories home from our stroll over the Christmas markets.

I wish you all a lovely winter time. No matter if you celebrate or not: Enjoy the merry season!

Best winter wishes, from a merry
Cat

Christmas - yet not - St. Nikolaus Day

There are a few funny traditions around Christmas in Germany. To be honest, most things are a bit crazy around that time of the year. Once Christmas season starts, there is a sheer endless stream of special Christmas sweets, biscuits, cakes, candies and traditional baked goods such as Stollen, Lebkuchen and Vanillekipferl. Well and then there are vast amounts of mulled wine, that bring more "merry" into the merry season.

Now right before Christmas there is another puzzling tradition - that of St. Nikolaus Day.
St. Nikolaus is like a Santa Clause, just that he comes earlier. Wait, what?
In order to get the goodies, Germans who celebrate St. Nikolaus will have to follow these steps:

 

1) Be a good girl/boy/transgender/furry/nyancat/...
2) Clean your boots. Ideally select the largest boots you own because large boot = more space
3) Place the cleaned boots in front of your door on the night of the 5th of December
4) Hope nobody steals said boots, therefore ideally place them in front of your living room door
5) Sleep until the morning of the 6th
6) Voila, if you have been good, there shall magically be gifts inside your boots

or 7) If you have been bad, be careful not to get hit

I tried this magical ordeal and indeed, Saint Nikolaus has not forgotten me and I got sweeties. Funnily enough, I think he doesn't deliver to abroad, I don't remember getting anything when I lived in the UK or Japan.

 

Upon looking around Wikipedia, for this post, I actually found out that some traditions of Santa Clause actually revert back to the Saint Nikolaus. Therefore, you can see St. Nikolaus as a pre-evolution Santa. He gives goodies to good kids, and punishes the bad. Apparently he was supposed to hit bad kids, a less-thankful job. So in some parts of Germany and Europe that job thus got done by someone else, the "Krampus", a crowlike dark figure that punishes kids. A bit like the Grinch, just a bit brutal. On parades, those Krampus will still go around scaring people, like it's Halloween. Maybe a Nightmare before Christmas took some inspiration from that.

No matter if you celebrate this year, or if you celebrate the Winter season at all, there are lots of interesting traditions in different countries in this time of the year. If you have some friends from abroad, it's always great to ask them what they do, and what traditions they have.

Thanks St. Nikokaus! You need to sort out your abroad deliveries though!

I wish you a lovely winter season! Don't get caught by any Krampusses.

Oh dear, that sounds really wrong.

Merry winter time!

x

Cat

 

Nymphenburg Palace:Meet the German Loli girls!

Finding new Lolita fashion friends can be a tricky task!
Where to find them? The German Lolita community has a platform called "Bittersweet" that is members only and the waiting list is quite long. So how to appoach them then?
Go out and find them yourself!
That's what I did and I got lucky, fishing for Lolita fashion girls! I met several ones at the Japanese Festival in Munich. I was invited to join three German Lolitas for a meet at the beautiful Baroque Palace of Nymphenburg, and with their help I hope we can make a bigger Lolita fashion meet next month. We went to a beautiful Baroque Palace, which is located withing the city of Munich. I was even allowed to film inside and the staff even had fun watching us giggle and prance about on the premises. Also, a point I really appreciate, the German Lolitas tolerate my craziness and even joined with some of their own crazy! Good times! The video result is here:



I hope this video will inspire those of you, who say they can't find Lolita friends or can't find a community, to not give up and keep looking for friends who like what you do.
I know it's not always easy, but I hope you will find friends too.

Furthermore, we are doing a Lolita Meet in Munich on Sunday 15th, that's already next week! Eeeep! I hope some girls will be able to come to the meet and join us! We will be browsing the real German Christmas markets! And if you are living too far away, in the USA, UK or wherever, I will bring the day close to your hearts with a melting warm video once we spend the day.

Lots more happening, please keep tuned and best of luck for your friendship adventures!
I've been travelling lots the last days, so at this point I will grab a big fluffy bag of sleep.

Love
x
Cat

Chic, colourful & fair - alternative fashion of Berlin

In winter its hard to see the colours of life. And i don't mean nature. In Germany, once it gets cold, everyone seems to hide under thick black coats. I had planned to do a video on the cool fashion people of Berlin but was heavily disappointed. Everywhere: black winter coats.
I had to give up on the video idea and move it to a time when Jack Frost is not making all people hide underneath goose feathers.
Today, when i went to the Modern Graphics comicbook store, i decided to browse down Oranienburg street and suddenly stopped in total suprise. Colours, cuts and cute designs! I stood in front of a store called Chapati.
Now alternative fashion is usually quite pricey but the sale sign seduced me to come inside. There i was greeted by a comfy coffeeshop corner and a cute brunette shop assistant who was open for a chat when i asked her about the fashion. Chapati is a Berlin fashion label who specialises in fair trade and organic materials. When you think "fair trade" you might instantly associate the label with hippi clothes and random dye. However, the store contained a great mix of clothes for different styles. Elegant, cute, alternative, practical and comfortable, there was a sheer abundance of colours patterns and material. The store was much larger than i thought and the variety of styles made me spend about 3 hours on browsing. The sale made even the cozy and warm winter collection affordable and they also had a section for "second choice" clothes upstairs. What i also found exciting to see, was their section on unique clothing items. If you pick one item of the unique selection you are the only one with that item on the streets. Fashion like that is usually unaffordable for a student like me, but at the store those pieces were mostly priced like the regular collection. I also liked their "click and go" skirts. You can adjust them to different sizes and even wear them inside out. I must have tried on their whole collection and am still considering if i should go back tomorrow to get my favourite one.

Three hours later i had spend my money on a long skinny short coat  for €19 (original price €75) out of soft and velvety cotton and a second  white coat that had caught my eye for €29 (original price €75). What i find especially charming is that both of them have pointed hats that end in a little bell. Not loud enough to annoy you when walking but definitely setting a unique accent. The zip is a little heart too. The white coat even has some lace at the sleeves and torso so i think i might see if i can wear it with my lolita fashion dresses.

Reading the bilingual catalogue now one sentence stands out for me "Chapati design contributes the (to?) making life colourful, through our joy in colour and fairer through responsible trade, and as a result of these to making people happier."
Fair and fancy, i enjoyed my spontaneous shopping experience at the Berlin fashion label.
And once i got back home i could snuggle up in my velvety coat, read my new yuri manga and just be happy and warm, knowing i bought something good.

If you are curious the webpage to Chapati is www.chapati.de
Thanks for reading.
Hope you are warm and snuggly too.

Love
X
Cat

Blog Challenge Successful!

A month ago i set myself the challenge to not only start blogging but also to post one blog post a day for the entire November.

This task turned out to be far more of a challenge than i bargained for. I bogged in Japan, i bogged during plane journeys, i bogged during train journeys, i bogged in Munich and today i am blogging you from Berlin after a 7hour car journey and a big family feast. I learned how to set up my first page, how to blog from my phone, from a strange pc, from home and on the go.

Blogging has become a little journey in itself.  I think this blog also made me realise how many things you can do in one mere month. It's fascinating to see how much life you can squeeze in one day, week, month. I love seeing that. And i love hearing from people like you, that you enjoy my random scribbling that i put up on cafe harajuku.

Setting myself this challenge also made me realise, HEY - i like this! I didn't know i could do it, and i still got lots to learn but hey, it is a great experience that i otherwise would not have had. And that's how it goes with most of those challenges that you set yourself. You don't  know where they take you, but they will definitely give you something new and make you grow.

Cutting my speech short, i love this blog and i hope you enjoy reading it, because i will keep doing it. Had! No escape! You can't stop me nooow *queen music playing*
From how on, i might not post every day but i will try and post at least every Thursday and of course on Sunday. But then i will probably also try to post about random things that i find between so its definitely with checking back ever so often to find new delicious things on my daily menu.

Sooooooo
Write a blog post every day - CHALLENGE SUCCESSFUL!!!!

THANKS FOR READING!!
PLEASE come back for more and keep checking!!!
Thanks for.joining my challenge and I'll catch you tomorrow for my next video!!

Love
X
Cat

Why bad English is cute!

On a journey through Japan, you will have that situation when you look at a sign and stop for a moment. You will read the letters on the sign again, and it will still say the same thing, to your surprise. There is the "Preped Card" for your phone or the sentence "why to use this sensible notbook!" sentence on your stationary.

Let's fun!

It's those little wrong English words, that really brighten up my day.
I am not the high-baron of English usage, I still make my mistakes, and you will probably have picked up on some of them already if you have read this blog or watched my videos. I still cannot distinguish when to use save or safe, and after a month away from the UK my German "W" accent comes through. However, seeing wrong English printed officially on signposts, leaflets and maps, always surprises me a little. It's that certain innocent usage of wrong English in an official way that makes it so cute in my eyes. I'd rather have a wrong English signpost than one who doesn't even bother trying.

My favourite one was in a game center in Shinjuku. On the top floor, where the Purikura photo sticker machines are, there used to be a sign stating: 

"The man who is not taking the women,

cannot enter by this floor"

What it actually needed to say was, that men are not allowed on the Purikura floor, unless they are accompanying a lady. This was invented to avoid awkward chat ups in a "firls only" area. Boyfriends or friends of girls however are allowed to be there. Unfortunately that sign wasn't there anymore when I went to check for it this year.

Now some of these wrong English usages sometimes make you question your own sanity for a second before you re-read the message and go "no wait that's wrong". 

My absolute favourite this year was the automatic "SOUP dispenser".

I read the sign, stopped, looked at the picture. No, that cannot be for soup. It clearly states a hand. I've seen those things in the ladies loo. Did I read that right? But maybe they made a  clever invention and created a dispenser for soup?

Checking closer, the Japanese also clearly states that it's a hand soap dispenser.

How awesome a typo is that? 

I am not really making fun of the wrong usage, I really think it's sweet.

I rather have people trying to speak another language than not bothering! Making the first step is important, no matter if it's wrong. My Japanese/English was terrible when I started speaking it.

However, that company should probably have gotten a proofreader or double checked their translators before printing the packaging.

But then, what do I know?

Maybe tomorrow someone will invent the first hand-washing soup dispenser!

And I will be gutted because I had the inspiration, but didn't invent it myself.

Now go invent something awesome kids!

Thanks for reading this sensible blooog!

x

Cat