Laura and I still made the best of it, however! I decided to take her to see Colmar, a tiny town in Alsace about a half-hour train ride away. Having never before been to Colmar, I wasn't sure it was the best day trip idea (what to do there?) but Ella had been there with her family a few weeks before and recommended it.
We were not disappointed. Strasbourg is beautiful, of course, but Colmar is smaller and is somehow a little more magical. One thing that definitely made it even better was the fact that Colmar is basically ready for Christmas: there were lights strung across the city streets and little Christmas trees in all the streets, along with garlands of pine decorating the outsides of all the stores. It was so cheerful and festive, and it made us smile.
Another great thing about Colmar was that nearly all the stores and restaurants were open, despite it being a holiday. This was great news for us: Laura and I wandered through festive, sweet-smelling little gingerbread stores and cute shops selling Christmas ornaments for a while before walking by the cathedral and into a café. I was so happy to be able to show her a bit of the café culture in France, since it's a big part of my life here (I spend a fair amount of time in the lovely cafés of Strasbourg, most notably Café Michel and Paul).
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| Holiday Gingerbread store |
Wandering the cute streets after much-needed hot chocolates, Laura and I stumbled upon Little Venice, which is Colmar's version of Petite France: lots of beautiful old half-timbered houses set on a river. Colmar's Little Venice is much more colorful, though, as all the houses are painted blue or pink or yellow or green, and it's quite lovely. This area of Colmar also stretches a lot farther than Petite France, and it was great to stroll through it, fully enjoying our time.
We ate a late lunch (quiche lorraine and charcroute--aka sauerkraut with potatoes and three different types of sausage) at a pretty tavern, and after one last stroll through Little Venice, we headed back to Strasbourg.
Monday night, Laura and I went to see a movie at Strasbourg's huge cinema. Luckily, France usually releases movies very fast after they come out in the U.S., and without adequate time to dub them in French, many movies in the cinema are version original (their original language) with French subtitles. This was exactly the case for Ender's Game, the movie Laura and I ended up seeing. Based on the book, Ender's game is a really cool sci-fi film, and I loved it. Now I'm really excited to read the book, despite Laura's warning that the book differs a bit from the movie.
Laura had a 6:01 am train back to Paris (followed by a flight to London) on Tuesday morning, and I was sad to see her leave. I hadn't seen her in a while, and it was extremely fun showing her around my new city. I even ended up doing things I hadn't done before in my months of living here--like visiting Colmar and climbing to the top of Strasbourg's cathedral.
However, while I might be living in a fairytale city, life here is not always a fairytale. After Laura left, the spell broke and I had to get back to reality: writing essays, signing contracts for my job (I start tomorrow!!), finishing up a 15-minute research presentation (in French, of course), and going to my mandatory medical exam that I needed to do for my visa (otherwise, I might've gotten kicked out of France...). As the seven dwarves sing "Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go!"
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