Fête Nationale

The 23rd of June is National Day in Luxembourg, which means it's a national holiday. Everybody celebrates the day before National day by going to village parties or, in most cases, to Luxembourg city. No matter where you go, you can guarantee that there will be a lot of alcohol, burgers and very loud music and at 11pm they set off fireworks. We usually spend our evening in the village where we live, where they hand out free champagne (and other drinks) until around 9. But they usually play really awful folk music and it's also always crowded, so this year we hopped on a free bus to the city! (Free because of the celebrations, usually it costs 2€ to take a bus to town.) 

I had never actually spent National Day in the city before and didn't know what to expect, although I had been told that it would be incredibly busy and that there was a parade at one point. We tried to book a table at Chi Chis, a Mexican restaurant right in the center of town, but they weren't taking reservations and told us to just go along and ask for a table. Which is what we did and despite the place being packed we actually managed to get a table after a few minutes of waiting. We had cocktails and nachos and watched some of the football match that was on at the moment, before heading to the road where the parade was meant to be. It was empty. After looking on a news website we found out that for the first time in basically forever they changed the route of the parade. So we decided to explore and find out what else was going on. We met up with my sister's best friend and along the way saw a few live performances. You had to look around for one that was your preferred genre of music, as a few of them weren't that great. We found a tiny stage in a courtyard that had an amazing view of part of the city and some really cute garden furniture. They even decorated the tree with multicoloured lights. 

We wandered around a bit more but didn't find anything particularly interesting so we decided to head home. Despite not actually doing much in town, it was still a fun night because of the company! We got the bus just as the fireworks started and were able to watch them for a few minutes while on the way home. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any decent photos what with being in a moving bus and all. Then we spent the rest of the night watching the Portugal vs USA match and eating ice cream.