Step Into Christmas In Old Europe

The festive season has turned Old Europe into a beautiful winter wonderland. Cosy lodges with glowing windows peep out from under the thick blanket of snow covering their roofs. The deep crispy snow also lays on the roads and pavements glistening in the pale winter sunlight. The little Victorian style shops along the main thoroughfare make you feel that you are shopping in days-gone-by when times were gentler than today. The central square boasts an enormous ice rink surrounded by twinkling streetlights where couples and singles can ice skate and have some fun throwing snowball at unsuspecting passers by. There are two ways you can take a tour of the sim, firstly you can hitch a lift in a pretty sleigh. The sleigh takes you up over the rooftops and around the spires of the grand castle and down past all the comfy homes huddled deep into the snow swept valleys. Or if you wish to remain at ground level, you can take to your ice skates which will take you along the frozen river to see all the sights, skates are free by the way! It’s worth trying both of the tours as they are truly breathtaking! Of course you can always walk around the sim to take in the lovely atmosphere, and don't forget to visit the magnificent castle high up on the hill, which is a must!

Janey Bracken

From Cartoon Trees to Classic Beauty

Looking through showcase in the search menu I found a sim that looked interesting to visit, promising a classical city set in the 1900’s, and by the little picture on the landmark it looked stunning. I’m not going to name the sim here, as perhaps there is something I don’t know, maybe it’s not finished or maybe it is some sort of artwork that I don’t understand, but I landed in a dirt brown area with a bandstand in the middle and the whole place looked like a cartoon. Something for me seems to have been lost in the translation! I don’t get it, I thought SL was suppose to mimic real life, although of course, it doesn’t have to, it depends on what the land owner wants it to be. To make matters worse I was approached by someone who told me he had a thing about feet, he loved ladies feet and asked me if he could be my ‘footslave’. I had to politely decline his offer, but I hoped he would have a happy SL and find some nice feet on his travels, if that’s what he wanted.

I saw my friend Drax Ember come on line, so I called him over to ask his opinion about the trees and landscape of the sim, he agreed it was very cartoon like and he could not make it out either.

From there we went to perhaps one of the best winter sims in the whole of SL, it’s called Winter Village In Old Europe and it is truly beautiful with snowy streets and twinkling Christmas lights. The fact that there are people there all the time shows it has captured the right atmosphere for the season. You can ice skate or just wander around, and if you play the music, it will add to that Christmas feeling.

A stark contrast between two sims, but maybe I missed the point with the first one, I am a bit of a traditionalist I must admit, but the cartoon trees and sidewalks in the first sim are the most unusual I have seen in SL.

Janey Bracken