Holiday Tree Adventure

There were several things that we were barred from bringing into the country when we moved here, including vanilla extract (40% alcohol), books or magazines depicting ladies in any various stage of undress (like Cosmo), and Christmas decor.

We had been hearing from fellow expats about how to get a "holiday tree" for some time now.  (Since Saudi Arabia is a theocratic monarchy, we definitely couldn't go around asking for a Christmas tree!)  Our first Christmas in Saudi Arabia, we had this as our tree.

A Christmas plumeria with one lonely ornament.

We moved it outside after Christmas last year because it needed light (our apartment has only 3 windows and gets very little natural light) and water (I forget to water things).  Since it rains in Saudi like 3 times a year--literally--we thought we were being smart by setting it up next to one of the sprinklers.  Unfortunately, we got home from a vacation a few months later to find that our plumeria had been planted by some of the compound workers.   We would need to find a replacement tree for the upcoming holidays (or a big shovel to dig ours up!).

Our former Christmas tree outside our apartment building

When a friend mentioned going to find Christmas trees at a particular store (which I won't name because I don't want to get them in trouble!), I jumped at the chance for this adventure.  Armed with only a vague understanding of how to accomplish this task, we headed off in search of some Christmas cheer.

We arrived at the store and went to the area we were told held the contraband.  Hesitantly, we asked a man sitting behind a desk where we could find the holiday trees.  He grunted and motioned us across the hall.  We were really confused, because the only things across the hall were the bathrooms and a room labeled Marketing.

Sketch!

We stood outside the door for a minute, trying to decide if we should knock.  Finally, we just went in and found, not a marketing office, but a storeroom full of cardboard boxes and a gruff looking man weighing nails.

This was not what I imagined it to look like in here...

Before we could even open our mouths to ask about the trees, he waved his hand, inviting us to come inside and around the corner.  He knew exactly why we were there.  We turned the corner and found... the saddest looking plastic Christmas trees I've ever seen.

Womp womp womp

"It will be a Charlie Brown Christmas for sure," murmured my friend.  "Yep," was my only response before bursting into laughter.

"How much?" asked my friend.  We were told that the trees were 120 SAR (~$32) for the small one and 250 SAR (~$67) for the bigger one.  It didn't hurt to try to make a deal with the guy.  "How much for the big ones if we buy 3?"  He looked at us, slightly confused and then a beat later, slightly entertained.  "250 each."  Oh well, it was worth a shot.

I decided the small one was good enough for our little apartment.  My friend got 2 bigger ones, for his family and a neighbor.  It was clear from the packaging that these trees had been through a lot on their journey to the kingdom.

Poor little tree box... it looked so rough

Next, we had to open the packages to make sure that the trees came with their stands.  It would be so typical of Saudi to not include something so critical, so I'm really glad the man knew to check.  Luckily, all of the packages did, in fact, come with the plastic tree stands.

Next, we headed back to the main area of the store to secure some decorations.  After some serious searching, we were able to find some garland, wrapping paper, and ornaments (all of them were in various corners of the store, tucked away and as inconspicuous as possible).  Both of us already had tree lights, but they had a few boxes of those, too.  The garland was fine.  Lots of choices, reasonable prices.  No complaints there.

The wrapping paper came in two sizes:  tiny and enormous.  Tiny was about $3 a roll.  Enormous was closer to $30.  I opted for 2 tiny rolls, since I didn't anticipate actually wrapping a lot of presents, and I couldn't fathom spending $30 on a single roll of wrapping paper.  They didn't have a lot of options, but there were enough.

Now the ornaments... oh, the ornaments.  These were something special.  These were some Hobby Lobby rejects.

The ones that look like towers of ornaments were actually glued together, and included fake leaves to make them look like a bunch of grapes.  Um...what?

These sparkly apple shaped pastel ornaments will be popular someday... maybe...

Not only were most of them super old, dusty, and weird colors, they were also between $6-10 for a box of about 6 ornaments.  Eventually I found a box of gold and a box of red that didn't look horrible, and begrudgingly headed to the checkout counter.  Clearly this store knew that they had cornered the market on Christmas tree decor, and they had jacked up the prices to match.

Later on in the week, Brian and I put up the holiday tree and enjoyed our slightly more festive apartment. 

We did the best we could with the materials we found!

We realized we had no tree topper, so in a stroke of brilliance, Brian took the piggy bank I got him from the Saudi equivalent of the Dollar Tree, took out the plug, and shoved it atop the tree.  Perfect.

One last picture for a size comparison.  (And yeah, we were watching Mariah Carey holiday music videos as we decorated.  Don't judge.)

This was a hilarious adventure and I'm so glad I was able to come away with these memories and a shitty looking Christmas tree.

Prague, or "The Trip Where I Drank a Beer"

I know, I know.  It's been awhile.  I wish I could say it's because I've been searching through vacation photos looking for just the right ones for the blog.  I wish I could say that I haven't written because I can't find the words to describe how beautiful Prague was or how much fun it was to spend my birthday zipping around the city on a Segway.  But the truth is, I've been busy.  Busy saying goodbye to old friends and hello to new ones, working on assignments for my two online classes, subbing at the school, experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, and trying to work off the weight that creeps on after 11 days in Europe... So the blog took a backseat for awhile, but I'm back with more photos to share with you all.

Prague, the capital city of the Czech Republic, has been near the top of my vacation list for several years now, so when Brian asked what I wanted to do for my 30th birthday, the choice was clear!  We spent 4 days in Prague and took two day-trips outside the city, before heading to Budapest, Hungary to finish up the trip.  I LOVED Prague.  The city was beautiful, fun, safe, and surprisingly really affordable.  Some things were downright cheap (beer! shooting crossbows! bacon!).

At a cafe overlooking the Vltava River

Commemorating our trip on the John Lennon Wall.

The Czech Republic, then Czechoslovakia, was under Soviet communist rule from 1948-1989.  During this time, the food culture in Prague (and throughout the country) screeched to a halt, as restaurants and grocery stores were told what they could sell and supplies were severely limited.  Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Prague's food scene has been revitalized.  We had some very delicious and traditional food during our time in the Czech Republic! 

Trdelnik, a sweet pastry flavored with cinnamon and other spices, slowly cooked over charcoal.  Best served with chocolate spread throughout the inside. 

Chlebíčky--These little open faced sandwiches are brought to potlucks, birthday celebrations, and office parties.

The Czechs love pork (as do we!), and this sampler plate featured sausage, meatloaf made primarily of pork (porkloaf?), and what we call "cracklins" in Louisiana. 

We took a food tour in Prague that was not only super fun and delicious, but when they found out it was my birthday, they ordered me a special birthday cake with a huge sparkler at our last stop.  So special! 

Goulash was a must!  In Prague, it is traditionally served with bread dumplings (which tasted pretty much like bread that needed to be baked about 5 more minutes).

Maybe not so traditionally Czech, but this breakfast place was amazing!  A pumpkin and feta quiche, an apple and brie croissant, and a latte was a perfect way to start the morning. 

The buildings, and especially the many churches, were fantastic.  There's a reason that Prague is called the City of a Thousand Spires!

Looking out onto the city from the castle

Inside St. Vitus Cathedral, arguably Prague's most famous (and crowded!) church.  For ~$4 USD, you could join a guided tour, which let you skip the line and get more information about the church (as well as several other nearby buildings in the castle complex).  It was worth it just to skip the line, which wrapped around the length of the church soon after it opened for the day.

The stained and painted glass inside the churches we visited was magnificent!

The outside of St Vitus

A view from the front of St Vitus (taken above the heads of the throng of tourists)

 

Cathedral of St. Barbara, in a nearby town

We did visit a few more churches during our time in the Czech Republic.  One was the Unitarian Church in Prague, where we went on Sunday morning and listened to the sermon (in Czech--it's safe to say we didn't get the message that morning).  Afterwards, we had coffee and snacks with some of the members, who were so happy to meet Unitarians from America and talk to us about the history of the church.  This church was founded by Norbert Capek, who created the flower communion (which we do at the Unitarian Church in Baton Rouge during Easter) before being killed by the Nazis during WWII.

Before the war and communism, the Unitarian Church in Prague had a huge congregation.  In the years since, it has dwindled and now the members meet in the basement of the building.  There were around 40 worshippers on Sunday.

Sadly, this is how the rest of the building is being used.

The other church we visited was in the nearby town of Kutna Hora.  There were several interesting things to see there, including a mine, some other churches, and some cute little shops.  However, the big draw for this little town is most definitely Sedlec Ossuary, better known as the Bone Church.  The basement of this chapel is decorated with the bones of around 40,000 people.

Bones, bones everywhere

Coat of Arms of the House of Schwarzenberg, an important Bohemian family.

The chandelier in the center has at least one of every bone in the human body.

Not gonna lie, this place was freaky!

The artist signed his name in...what else? 

So the Bone Church was pretty awesome.  Also awesome?  Shooting crossbows.  On our tour of Prague Castle, we came across this booth that let you shoot a crossbow 3 times for $2.00.  Obviously we had to try it!

Brian shot it twice and hit the target!

I shot it once and missed the thing completely (hence this face).

A must-see in Prague is the medieval Astronomical Clock in Old Town Square.  Every hour, the clock comes to life, the tiny windows open, the skeleton starts ringing his bell, and 12 sculptures of the apostles march past.  To be honest, it sounds much cooler than it actually was, but this was probably really amazing technology when it was created in 1410!   

The clock tower in the middle of Old Town Square (on one of the only sunny days we had)

The windows are open and you can see the Apostles inside.  The skeleton that rings the bell is on the right, next to the clock face. 

 
Beer in Prague is supposed to be some of the best in the world.  And it was cheap... really cheap.  Definitely cheaper than bottles of water and diet cokes.  Even I drank one!  And I didn't hate it!  Brian had a few.  :)

Proof!  A real Czech pilsner, not a cider.

These pictures were taken on different nights.  We don't often go out in matching argyle sweaters. 

 Not the best in the world?  The random statues we found while out exploring the city. 

These giant babies in the park really spoke to me.  They are also on the side of the TV tower, a fact that the people we met from Prague hate to talk about. 

This one was called "In Utero."  Clearly.

This one is called Piss.  The hips move and the men (there are actually two statues!) are standing--and peeing--on an outline of the Czech Republic.  So controversial!

Also not the best in the world?  The Prague Zoo.  We had a free afternoon and the weather was beautiful, so we decided to go check out the zoo since it was highly rated on TripAdvisor. It was fine; the animals seemed well cared for and the habitats were pretty nice, but I wouldn't make a return trip to the zoo.

I only stayed in the bat area long enough to snap this pic.  When they started flying too close to my head, I ran out pretty quickly!

They had quite a few leopards!

This guy was scary!

The zoo got bonus points from me for having penguins.

In Prague we stayed in an apartment in the Jewish Quarter, which was an area of the town with a lot of synagogues and museums related to the history of the Jews in this area of Europe.  We took a very interesting walking tour of several synagogues, and also took a bus out to a concentration camp about an hour outside of the city called Terezin.  What can I say about the horrors of the Holocaust?   Even spending three days at a conference at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in DC and hearing two different survivor's testimonies did not prepare me for actually visiting a concentration camp.  It was sobering and emotionally draining, but I think important to see so that we don't forget the atrocities committed and allow them to happen again.

Victims names on the wall of one of the synagogues in Prague

A Torah in the Spanish Synagogue

The entrance to Terezin fortress, which says "work will set you free"

The best part of the trip for me was our Segway tour around Prague.  We chose this company since they offered private tours--just me, Brian, and our guide Theresa, who was equal parts adorable, patient, and knowledgeable.  We got to see parts of Prague that we could not have easily reached on foot. 

It was scary at first!

Though it was a dreary and grey day in Prague, the views were still pretty amazing!

It took awhile for me to get used to the Segway, but pretty soon I was zipping around with ease.

We got super cool helmets, too.

Theresa took us to the John Lennon Wall.  I appreciated that there was a dedicated graffiti wall, as it helped prevent a lot of graffiti all over everything else in the city. 

We really loved Prague and thought it was a fantastic city, full of history, beautiful buildings, and beer.  Upon leaving Prague, we took a 7 hour train ride to Budapest, Hungary, for the second part of our trip.  Budapest post coming soon!  :)

Yay Prague!