An Alternate Christmas

Originally published: December 9, 2016 

Türkenschanzpark, Vienna (Austria)

If you're in a bit of an eerie, Nightmare Before Christmas kind of mood and are already getting bored of the same old (albeit classic and beautiful) Christmas markets around the Vienna city center, then I can recommend going to the one at Türkenschanzpark! There's barely anything there, but it's more just about the atmosphere: the park itself is one of my favourites and there's a whiff of abandonment in the air, like everyone belongs to a secret brotherhood of which the sole purpose is to stand around drinking flaming absinthe and eating various potato offerings, while the likes of Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Michael Bublé serenade you into buying jewelry you may or may not end up wearing. Or maybe it was just the fog. It's a toss-up.