Embracing Different As My New Normal: A Traveler’s Christmas In Europe

I went into the holidays this year feeling a bit nostalgic and alone, despite the fact that my brother would be traveling with me. I spent the last month under the Southern Italian 55 degree sun, where if it weren’t for the Christmas markets, I wouldn’t have known it was the holiday season.

I was craving the cozy, cultural traditions of my favorite holiday back home with family, but instead, I spent the holidays traveling Europe somewhat aimlessly. I know, “cry me a river,” but hear me out. I feel like an outsider as a traveler over the holiday season. It’s such a family-oriented time that it seems to highlight the fact that I’m homeless and alone. That’s a hard pill for anyone to swallow.

Part of the giant leap that I’m taking right now is embracing alternatives, facing fears, and remembering that every time life feels difficult, I’ll come away even stronger, so I try to focus on the positive. With that mantra, my brother and I set out with backpacks and Eurail passes, on a quest to get the most out of our European Christmas Holiday Adventure. Not only did it not disappoint, it has completely filled me in a way I wasn’t expecting.

We went from Germany to Austria, back to Germany, and on to Switzerland, all in one week.

I got my fill of cozy on the streets of Munich. The Christmas market stands are all made out of wood, like tiny chalets in the streets, decorated with lights, and smelling of mulled wine (Glühwein), sweet treats, and cooked meats. The main shopping street in downtown Munich was completely full of people, lights adorned many of the buildings, live choirs performed under the Glockenspiel, and everywhere I looked, people huddled around small standing tables sipping Glühwein and eating Kaiserschmarrn. This was the Christmas spirit I had been missing down south!

I got my fill of culture in the elegance of Vienna. Even though it is a small city, Vienna feels very grand. Even the Christmas markets there were fancier than the casual, chalet feel of those in Munich. These were either white or black, with gold trimmings and bright white lights.

The highlight of our stay in Vienna was watching Star Wars visiting the Schönbrunn Palace, where we ate a traditional Viennese dinner and then saw a live orchestra perform Mozart’s music. I don’t think it gets any more Viennese than that. Sipping Glühwein at the Christmas market in front of the palace added the perfect, traditional holiday touch to the whole experience.

I got my fill of family in Germany. When I was a senior in high school, my family hosted a German exchange student who is my age and really became my sister over that year. In 2005, my brother and I spent our first Christmas abroad at her family’s house in Germany, and that’s where we found ourselves again this Christmas, 10 years later. The family has grown, and the house was full of love and chaos for the 24 hours that we were there.

The next few days blew me away.

I got my fill of contentment in the Swiss Alps. It hasn’t snowed here lately, but the Swiss Alps without snow turned out to be an amazing Christmas gift for me. I don’t love cold weather or skiing anymore, and the only Snow I’m interested in is Jon, so the mostly dry mountains with 45 degree sun that we found in Verbier excited me to my core.

We went hiking! We ate cheese fondue at a Swiss mountain chalet! We also went “skiing,” which consisted of a leisurely morning, gondolas galore, incredible views of the Matterhorn, Mont Blanc and surrounding Alps for miles, a long lunch with typical Swiss cuisine and beer, about four runs (way high up where there was just enough coverage) and plenty of smiles and sunshine. Now THIS is my type of skiing. I was so filled and felt so blessed and so alive in those mountains, and ultimately, so happy to be right where I was that I couldn’t even recall the nostalgia I’d been feeling just a couple of days before.

Travel is about differences. It’s about experiencing and embracing the New, the Other, the Alternative, both externally and internally. In this case, it was about experiencing Christmas in an unfamiliar way and still finding so many positives.

This Christmas may have looked different for me, but different seems to be my new normal. As I embrace that, this last week leaves me feeling grateful, and that, in the end, is what Christmas is all about.

Today is New Year’s Eve, and I’m on a train to Zurich. Tonight, I will start the New Year off quite literally on the right foot, as I participate in the famous Neujahrsmarathon (New Year’s Marathon), running a celebratory 10K that starts at midnight. You may call my brother and I crazy for doing it, but I honestly cannot think of a better way to ring in the new year than doing one of my very favorite things with one of my very favorite people, in a country that has long been on my bucket list.

Here’s to a New Normal, and a New Year, Lord knows I’m ready for it.

Thanks to Eurail for making all this train travel possible. As always, all opinions are my own.