Tagebuch: December / January 2008/2009

Dear Diary,

I remember when my mom, my dad and I went to Switzerland for the first time. I was five years old, and we were driving in the oldest version of an old, noisy VW Golf, that always seemed on the verge of falling apart. We traveled at night, because the car overheated and the cool night air took the edge off.

Even though I was just little, I wanted to stay awake all through night, so I could observe the red and gold lights passing; unfortunately for me, my parents’ whispering, so I could get some rest, was only making me sleepy. I always fall asleep because of the comfort their conversations created for me, some kind of sense that I am completely save with them, and nothing bad will happen.

I don’t remember much of the drive, but I will never forget the lights, which reminded me of Christmas. Even now that I have grown up, lights mean a lot to me, no matter where they are.

And because of my love of lights, I fall in love with Vienna once again every year at this time. Christmas trees and lights and ornaments, and lights and more lights everywhere… It all just makes me happy: I forget about the freezing weather, the bored faces I see passing day after day, the strangers smiling at me in sympathy as I stand with clenched fists shaking with the cold; and most of all, I forget all my failures, all the things I wanted to do in the past year but didn’t achieve. It’s almost like the New Year’s Eve, just more personal; after all, New Year’s Eve is time to party with the crowd, while Christmas is something special, just for me.

At Christmas in Vienna I become a little girl again, that one from the old, noisy car on her first trip to Switzerland. It’s the time when I go out for a glass of "Glühwein" with my best friends, and I bake cookies with my mom. It’s time when I go shopping for presents and spend time with my sister that I don’t see often enough.

It’s time, when I make a snowman on the balcony with my dad, just the way we used to. It’s time when I catch snowflakes on my tongue while I walk along the narrow street.

It’s a time of joy, surrounded by lights, and I feel it coming this year as every year, in the city where Christmas never goes old.