I just counted that Christmas is approximately 43 days away, but I am quite sure that suddenly it will be upon us this year as well, like every other year. It seems so distant right now, but suddenly time will fly, and we are there. But to be honest, I am actually quite good at doing my Christmas shopping early. That is why I have often taken advantage of Single's Day in China which is today for a lot of shopping online.
However, since I live in Hungary, they have made you pay some import on all products from China (no matter value), and if the value is high, you have to pay the VAT as well. As a result, it is way more complicated and time-consuming, meaning that if I would order something today, I wouldn't receive it before Christmas anyway. And with the additional costs, it isn't even profitable like before.
So, I guess I will skip the singles day shopping this year and go for the local Black Friday sales and also the Black Friday sale on Amazon.de. There are a couple of stores running with some really great deals, and if you are able to catch one of those, you are actually in for a treat. Of course, there will be a lot of junk as well, but I normally know what I want and how much it would normally cost, and thus I am able to select the real bargains and skip the junk!
Some real-life shopping as well!
I am not much of a guy going into actual stores to shop. I buy everything online. But, there is one thing I like doing in real life, and that is to visit Christmas markets and just look around and feel the smells and see the happy people drinking hot wine. If anything is expensive, it is normal eating and buying junk on Christmas markets, but luckily, I don't like to buy stuff there... I just like to watch the event, feel the smell, and enjoy the culture and the atmosphere. And that is why I am happy to read that there will be a Christmas market in Budapest in 2021, which is especially good news considering that the event was canceled in 2020 due to COVID.
Of course, COVID is spreading like wildfire in Hungary, and there were more than 8000 news cases yesterday (and 100 people who died), but life is kind of moving on no matter what, and the best solution against the sickness is the vaccine. And since I am both vaccinated and have had COVID since then, I feel very safe myself, and the same can be said about the rest of the family... We were lucky, and very grateful that COVID didn't leave much trace in any of us!
To visit the Christmas markets in Budapest, a vaccination passport is required. I have got to say, that I truly doubt that there will be guards around actually checking whether you are vaccinated or not, but it might happen... who knows?!