12.01.2008

The Devil's Sausage

So Germany was rad. The trains ran on time, my homie S was waiting at the station when I arrived in Heidelberg and she had an extra pass for the tram system for me, good for the whole time I was there. During the course of the long weekend, we did a late Thanksgiving (with real imported American stuffing)*, we hung out at the Christmas market, we tromped around the old city and the little village C+S live in, and I spent a lot of time playing with their two year-old kiddo, just the latest in the line of kids of my friends who will be unable to avoid becoming geniuses. Should their sexual orientations end up recommending it, I'm going to make sure he marries the daughter of our SC buddies E+N.

So: the devil's sausage, or Teufelswurst, was what I had for lunch at the Christmas market, along with a mug of Gluhwein, the traditional hot rum-infused red wine. The devil's sausage, it is rather spicy. Keep that in mind should you encounter him it.

I discovered that over two years in California has rendered me useless for actual cold weather. It was around freezing the whole time I was there and I felt like a beleaguered orphan in a nineteenth-century novel whom you're supposed to pity. This had no impact on fun-having, however.

Mostly, I'm coming away from the trip sort of shaken by the niceness of everyone in Heidelberg. People smile there. They make change without getting pissy. They seem relaxed and unselfconscious. It's like the anti-Paris.**

C+S were wonderful hosts and I was sorry to leave. But now it's only two weeks until B's here and I can really, actually start counting down the days without it just making me crazier.

There are a buttload of new pics up on flickr from the trip.

* B shipped them to me in a care package. They totally made the party happen.
** Granted, the teenagers in Heidelberg have really ugly haircuts. When oh when will the euro-mullet die and stay dead?

11 comments:

Leah said...

I bet you and B are counting down the days! Even though I am grateful for our Sunriver tradition, I miss the Weinachts markt every year at this time!

Chrissy said...

Yay for fun having and smiling people and the countdown to B-ness!

Hang in there!

xo

Ransom said...

It's good to see a shot of you where it looks like you're having fun. (Devil's sausage? How could you not?)

I saw the Hanson Brothers (finally) the other night. It was a really good show, but it was one of those times where your absence was really conspicuous. I received a stray fist to the face in your honor, but it just wasn't the same.

another kind of nerd said...

Sausage + Gluhwein = Big Time Fun!

Glad you enjoyed yourself.

Adva Ahava said...

Glad you had a great trip! Sounds like you needed it too. It must have been nice to be around smiling people :-)

Dolce Vita said...

I concur. I'm so glad to hear that you had a good time in Germany.

And (if I may) I predict you'll see Paris in a whole new light after B arrives.

Colin said...

I love the couple in the background checking you out. But what's not to like about a man loving life and holding a sausage. Nothing.

And.

When are you coming back? I want to start my own countdown.

kungfuramone said...

Becky and I return together on December 27. We'll be back in SC a few days later. Expect me to be hugging everything I see (trees, cars, cops, whatever.)

Elizabeth M. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elizabeth M. said...

"Should their sexual orientations end up recommending it, I'm going to make sure he marries the daughter of our SC buddies E+N"

Sounds good. We can start making arrangements. She'll like him if he wears a hat like yours and likes animals. Yesterday day after dinner we watched a video of a giraffe giving birth at the SF Zoo. Her request. Can he be raised to handle that kind of complexity in a woman?

kungfuramone said...

His parents are complex and intelligent people, and he'll be bilingual in English and German by five. I can only hope he will grow up to be man enough to handle a woman like N.