Jolly Old St. Nick visits Bermuda, France and Greece for their Holiday Traditions

A little Christmas cheer in Bermuda - Nicola escaping the Canadian snow

Welcome to the second edition of Robyn’s New Wanderer!

Every Saturday Nicola will be regaling you with stories from her trips, how to study abroad and all sorts of fun tips on travel!

This week? Well this week I finagled a piece from her on Christmas traditions as she boarded a plane for a very new tradition: Christmas in South Africa!

So Nicola, a Bermudian who swims on Christmas Day (!!!), tell us your Christmas tales:

We are racing towards Dec 25^th (Christmas of course!) at light speed and palm trees decorated with Christmas lights now make Hamilton our own version of a winter wonderland…

Well, winter in the sense of wet & windy, not white, although we do have a few sunny days too! Thanks to the Gulf Stream, Bermuda is free of frost, snow and ice, but as a ‘sub-tropical’ island we still have chillier temperatures than the Caribbean.

Bermudians swimming at this time of year are few & far between, except for the brave ones who take a dip on Dec 25^th or Jan 1^st… myself included, I may proudly add.

As a recent university grad, living at home has meant that I have FINALLY been able to partake in pre-Christmas Bermudian festivities since I am no longer taking refuge from the Canadian blizzards to study for the usual onslaught of December exams. Yay!

What sorts of things make up a Bermuda Christmas season?

– The lighting of the Christmas tree at City Hall, with carols and Santa’s visit

– Christmas Pantomime, which always gives the audience a good laugh

– National Trust Walk-About in St. George’s with entertainment and snacks

– Late Night Shopping in the city of Hamilton on Fridays

– Santa Claus reading the children’s Christmas letters on the local TV channel

Plus, as I was delighted to learn myself this week on a visit to Dockyards, the Bermuda Rum Cake Company makes special edition Christmas Rum Cake…  now is the time to sample and “Buy Bermuda”!

But Nicola has not always been in Bermuda! Nope. She’s also “done” Noël in France:

The majority my Christmases have been celebrated in Bermuda, although I have spent some memorable holidays in France and Croatia.

Even though I was on Rotary Exchange in Lorraine, France in 2004-2005, I remember the Christmas season very well!

Europeans celebrate the feast day of St. Nicolas on December 6^th, and in Lorraine there is a town called St.

Magical candle ceremony at St.Nicolas-de-Port in France, December 2004

Nicolas-de-Port.
Our Rotary district had 25 students and we were all invited to the weekend ‘Fête de St. Nicolas’… with a Christmas market and candlelight church service. We all had long, white candles that we raised during the refrain of this song:

Saint Nicolas, ton crédit d’age en age,

a fait pleuvoir tes bienfaits souverains.
Viens, couvre encor’ de ton doux patronage
tes vieux amis les enfants des Lorrains!

[Saint Nicolas, from age to age your favor

has rained down supreme blessings.
Come with your gentle protection to cover still
your old friends, the children of Lorraine.]

(As a side note, in France my name always causes excitement as the French pronounce the masculine name “Nicolas” as “Nicola”, with a silent ‘s’… so I tended to surprise school teachers with the morning roll call, and had mail addressed to a Mr. Nicola Arnold… bah humbug!)

Last week, I mentioned that my family and I are jetting off to Europe and ultimately to South Africa to spend the holidays with the Arnold grandparents and relatives who reside in Johannesburg.

We are backpacking, as luggage would be a drag with all our flight connections. To my great delight, my father will be travelling in a kilt. Yes! A Scottish kilt… Why, you might wonder? That is a whole different tale… look out for that posting, as I shall be including photos 😉

Nicola and her sister Katie on the beach in a chilly Crikvenica, Croatia - Christmas 2008

I cannot yet speak of Christmas in South Africa, but to paint you a picture of South Africa, we are looking forward:

– a warm summer sunshine in this beautiful ‘Rainbow Nation’.

– in Cape Town, we hope to have an excursion up Table Mountain

– Cape Town boasts beautiful beaches, perhaps we will visit Camps Bay

– The Arnold family will celebrate and catch-up most evenings around the braai (barbeque in Afrikaans… which I remember writing in my school journal in Grade 4, that my family had a bry [sic] last night, with the teacher being quite confused!)

– we shall try to squeeze our favourite South African chocolates, such as Peppermint Crisp and Chocolate Log, into the sides of our backpacks

– with any luck, I hope that World Cup vuvuzelas do not become the new, creative instruments to festively wish people a Happy Christmas

Christmas in South Africa will be new for me, so I look forward to sharing the traditions and experiences with you upon return… and look out for special “postcards updates” during my Christmas trip!

Thursday? Wanna go to Greece?

Athens by Night

For the two of us there were four beds. We thought we had struck a deal with the ticket lady in Venice.

“Sure, sure you can have a private room.”

Now we faced four beds. We were two. We had 48 hours until we landed in Piraeus, Greece and being the backpackers we were we had hit the grocery store for our food.

We spread-out. Opened our food and ate our dinner. But I was sure. I was sure any minute we were going to have another two people knock on our door and demand their trundle beds in the prison-size ship room.

We made it to Piraeus, but it wasn’t pretty. We barely got sleep with zero space. We had a shower that sprayed the entire bathroom. So why not do the trip pretty? Why not live in a luxury that supplies designer soaps, aromatherapy scents and handmade chocolate paired with a chilled bottle of French wine?

And why not make the trip with Silversea Cruises which offer just this luxury with the combination of Venice, Trieste and Rimini in Italy with Dubrovnik, Croatia, Corfu and Athens in Greece? If you book with CTravel before August 31 you will save 60% on your fare and received $500 in onboard credits!

Not fancying Venice? Want something a little less Mediterranean? Silversea Cruises also offers a trip from Bridgetown, Barbados to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 24 for 16 days. This cruise will hit St. Lucia, Grenada, French Guiana and multiple posts in Brazil before finishing in Rio! If you book this before August 31 the total trips will cost $5,798 before airfare from Bermuda.

River cruising more your style? Looking for a vacation for next year? I mean it is August already! Well Tauck Discovery has the gift of time for their European River Cruises in 2011. For previous Tauck clients they will receive two free nights in a hotel at the beginning or end of their trip OR one on each end. New clients will get one free night!

French River Cruising

Of course you have to book before September 30, 2010, but how can you not when the chances of resting gently down the stream through French Vineyards could be a reality? For ten days at $4,490 Tauck travelers can visit Paris, Lyon and Avignon to say the least!

So what are you waiting for?? It’s CTravel Thursdays and it’s the chance to book your next amazing trip cruising in style in the Mediterranean or Carribbean…..river boating it through France in 2011!

On top of that, if you contact CTravel for your next trip you can save!