What was Europe in the Middle Ages like

Europe was a pretty bad place during the Middle Ages. There were often short-lasting, smaller-scale famines, there was not much to eat and the life of an average peasant was usually filled with serf work for his lord together with attending the church and that was more or less it (this paragraph was about peasants and serfs). For the nobles and other social groups it was somewhat different. It was obviously the best for nobles and church officials, who could afford different luxuries that peasants and serfs would never dream of.