Three weeks have passed since I landed in Germany and I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by.

The first week my husband was here with me, but unfortunately he could not take a longer holiday. I would have loved to spend Christmas here together instead, but since he had to renew his eAT (electronic residence permit) he had no choice but to come early and spend Christmas working while I get to enjoy spending time with my family – mean, I know.

Of course I also wanted to visit my friends while I’m here, so on planned a round trip from Düsseldorf to Mainz, Frankfurt, Heidelberg and Stuttgart. This also meant, that I got to see some lovely Christmas markets and the lights and especially the “Glühwein” (mulled wine) never fail to put me into the Christmas spirit. Looking through the album on my phone I realized just now, that I didn’t take as many pictures as I thought, which might be also attributed to the Glühwein and Jagertee (spiked tea)…

The Christmas market in Mainz spans the whole inner city and yet it still was crowded everywhere.

Frankfurt really is the only city in Germany with a Skyline, though it doesn’t look that impressive if one has seen Shinjuku. Nevertheless the city is quite beautiful with its many old buildings.

In Frankfurt we took a stroll through the city, had great Indian food and ended up at a Ü30 party. But let me explain the significance a little more in detail. This year the last of us turned 30 and we made a promise about a decade ago, that we would celebrate this birthday by attending a Ü30 party – a party for people older than 30 years. With our move to Japan this wasn’t possible and it bugged me to no end. Fortunately one of the girls heard about the party on the radio and we decided to go. It – was – awesome! Why did we ever go to a normal club? There the party doesn’t start until midnight and you get home around 3 or 4 am. Absolutely exhausted and tired the next day.

The Ü30 party was planned to start at 8 pm, we were there around 8.15 pm and were dancing with cocktail in hand at 8.30 pm. The place wasn’t very crowded, so there was enough space to dance, the DJ played 80s, 90s and party music and took requests. We thought that this kind of party wasn’t so popular after all (though we didn’t want to complain about not being smothered) until we saw the waiting line downstairs. Though the venue could have easily fitted another 30 to 50 people, they decided to limit the number and give everyone more room. We did not stop dancing until 11.30, when we went home absolutely satisfied and happy.

Spending time with friends? – Check.
Walking over Christmas markets drinking Glühwein? – Check.
Fulfilling decade long promise to party? – Hell yeah. (Check.)