The first Advent weekend.
It is a long-standing tradition for me to spend the first advent weekend with my little sister. It's our special us-time when we get all festive and kick off the holiday season in style.
On Friday evening, we went to a Christmas tree switch-on in front of my sister's school. The lights are a bit unfortunate but the atmosphere was amazing. They had some really good mulled wine and also apple strudel, which is my favourite, the kids sang Christmas carols and it was all very festive and friendly.
There were also teacher dressed up as St. Nicholas, angels and devils. They were actually a week early as this is celebrated here on the 5th December, but why not!
On Saturday morning there was the annual Advent market. I was a bit disappointed this year, though, because there were very few stalls. They didn't even have proper advent wreaths there, the selection was really poor. It was much better last year!
Loved the Christmas tree, though.
There were some workshops inside as well. In one of them you could make candles like these, which I really liked.
I was very happy to see that the bloke with the vintage Christmas ornaments was there!
Look at those adorable owls!
Next stop: the shopping centre in my hometown. They have this little Christmas shop there right by the entrance and they always have some gorgeous wreaths and decorations.
Posing with anything that's lit up is a family trait.
This year's decorations are cute crazy snowmen.
My sister really loved the tree this year as well. She loves purple and silver decorations so this tree was right up her street.
It's our traditional photo-op.
And one more with my dad.
When we got what we needed there, we went for a short walk around my hometown. Even though I no longer live there, I have very strong ties to that city. It was a beautiful, sunny, nippy day and I was so happy to walk around the familiar places again.
They were just putting up some stalls for their advent markets. And there's apparently and ice rink this year, too. *hearts in my eyes* I wish I could go!
This square is only a couple of minutes walking away from where I used to live. I love it there.
There's also a very good cheese shop in that square. I approve of that wreath!
The building on the right is the City hall.
I used to walk there every day when I was a child. Me and my sister used to take a trolleybus to school and this was the way to our stop.
I've always loved this street.
And this is the above mentioned trolleybus stop.
There's a park opposite the trolleybus stop I used to go to very often.
This used to be a huge marketplace we'd go to every single weekend. It is apparently still a marketplace but back then, every single place was taken and they had amazing amounts of fresh produce. It seemes somewhat less lively there now but maybe it's just because it's the winter.
The park again.
There's another park with a castle in it right behind the marketplace.
Winter mornings are stunning.
An old shopping centre. When you step inside you feel like you've just time-travelled to the 1990s.
I posed in front of the Baťa skyscraper.
We had parked our car in the shopping centre so we could take another look at the Christmas tree.
And the snowmen. :P
We spent the rest of the day watching Christmas films and talking about our plans for this Christmas. Overall, it was truly a magical first advent weekend.
What did you do last weekend? And how's your second advent weekend so far?
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