Christmas has come and gone just as fast as my money (I always seem to be broke after the holidays). However, this year was a really great Christmas! Not only was it my first Christmas as a married woman, but it was also the first Christmas trip with the hubby. For our first Christmas trip, we decided to make our way up to Helen, Georgia, which is only 8 hours away from Orlando, Florida (my current location).
The trip up was exhausting. My hubby had to work, while I ran errands on Friday preparing for the trip, and that same day we left for Helen, Georgia. Although we took turns driving, we both felt equally exhausted, but as soon as we set our eyes on the bright lights decorating the stores and houses in Helen, we were both in awe.
We made our way to the hotel and fell asleep for a good 4 hours before we decided to get up to enjoy the city. It was hard for me to wake up, but after strolling around the city, I had plenty of energy.
One of the first things we did while we were there was to explore. The city is full of hotels with a cute area full of stores and restaurants. For being a city in the U.S. it sure felt like I was in Germany somewhere.
We didn’t make many stops as we walked around the stores and restaurants, but when we did we were very surprised at the friendliness of people and the great customer service. One such place that offered superb service and amazing Apple Cider is Yonah Coffee Cafe. This cafe not only makes amazing hot chocolate, coffee and Apple Cider, but they also have awesome decorations as well as friendly staff.
Another great place is Hofer’s bakery, which is full of delicious desserts and homemade bread (yes, they make their own bread!) They had so many different German desserts, including one of my favorites – apfelstrudel (Apple Strudel). Okay, so this is more of a Viennese dessert, but this is a dessert you see quite often in Germany.
We tried at least 3 different restaurants and out of all three, I found Bodensee Restaurant to be more authentic. I had the Sauerbraten (German pot roast) with Spaetzle (egg noodle) and Red Cabbage. It was absolutely delicious and if I would have had any room left for the dessert, I would have gotten one.
Aside from the restaurants and shops, we went on a 2-3 hour hike on Mount Yonah. This was a bit of a hard hike because of all the steep paths and I wasn’t wearing any hiking shoes…However, I had a good time hiking and though I didn’t make it to the top to see the amazing view, I did get a thrill out of it all.
Although the trip was amazing, there were a few times I got scared. Helen has steep roads that can cause some nervousness, if you do not have good tires for these roads. That’s right folks, I did not have good tires on my car, but somehow we managed to go through the steep roads and made it to one of Helen’s highest peaks – Brasstown Bald. This, however, was a bad idea…not only was it foggy, rainy and cold, but when I got to the peak it was so foggy, I could hardly see my surroundings. I do not recommend going up to Brasstown during a rainy, cold day.
We were only there for 2 days, but we got to do plenty during our stay. Before we left Helen, we did make a stop to the Nacoochee Mound and took some amazing photos of the area. Needless to say, I had an amazing experience in Helen and can’t wait to go back when it’s not too foggy!
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