Wherein Chris bums off (very) distant relatives, is treated most generously, enjoys foods which his palate was not sufficient to fully enjoy, and consumes more alcohol in a 24-hour period than he ever partook of in the United States.
Despite this being my first Christmas outside of the United States and away from my parents and sisters, I still manage to spend it with family, albeit family very distantly related through my grandfather. I spent most of my time with his cousin and his family, and visited one of his sisters and her daughters a few times. At least I had met them before, once when I was in seventh grade and my grandparents took me to Germany for the 95th birthday of a great-grandfather and great aunt and again before beginning my semester in Munich.
I am convinced that Moni, the wife of my grandfather’s cousin Georg, was a maid in a previous life but a bad one and her punishment was to shuffle back on to the mortal coil and do the maid duties but this time because she wants to, and she has dragged her family into it. They were incredibly generous and refused to ever believe that I had eaten enough. Quite literally I felt like the fiancé in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. “Hast du Hunger?” “Nein.” “Möchtest du dann ein bisschen Tee oder Brot mit Käse?” “Nein, danke. Ich bin sat.” “Lebkuchen? Plätzchen?” At least I could understand their Frankish dialect better this time around and actually keep a conversation in German.
Anyway, the schedule is hectic. I arrive late on the 23rd and basically go straight to bed (after tea, bread and cheese). By the time I get up Christmas Eve morn people are rushing to finish preparing for the many dinners that are coming and still checking to make sure that I am perfectly all right and all possible needs and wants are satisfied. Family and friends come for a visit, and other family and friends are visited by us. Thus begins the drinking. Evening comes up, and we attend a Lutheran service and head out to another relative’s for Christmas Eve dinner. Hang out there for a while, enjoying their Super-Bio, homegrown everything, before tagging along with younger cousins to a club. Have my first Cuba Libre and sips of a Vodka Bull, terrible drinks, and get to bed around 4:30. Wake up on Christmas, and this time we’re serving lunch. In total, the drinking amounted to six glasses of champagne, a glass of 1988 red wine, schnapps, and the aforementioned long drinks. I guess the rum balls count, too, but I don’t remember how many of those I had.
By the end of it all, I’m exhausted. Good thing the general energy level dips then. I wander Cadolzburg some, my grandfather’s hometown, and shoot some pictures. It’s a very cool town, small enough that you can circle it in an hour or two and the streets in the town center, built around a castle dating back to the 30 Years' War are cobblestone.
Funny(ish) story. On the 27th, Moni gives me a ride to Nuremberg, so I can catch a direct train ride back to Munich. Wandering around after buying a ticket, I see that there is a train leaving for Munich a half hour than the one I originally intended on taking. I jump on. Unfortunately, it arrives a half hour later, cutting my already limited schedule to unpack, wash laundry, repack and recheck my flights before leaving to catch the plane to Istanbul down to two hours. It was a rush, of a sort.
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