Christmas in the Land of Beer and Chocolate

I figured this was going to be the most difficult time of year for me.
Living an ocean away from home, I'd be missing my family’s Christmas Eve to-do, the lazy family Christmas Day spent with chocolate and overly violent or dark movie marathons (Saving Private Ryan and Eastern Promises, to name a few titles) and Boxing Day with my second family at the Hender-Hut.

Moving to Europe so late in the year meant a trip home for the holidays was pretty expensive and untenable. So I resigned myself to a Christmas on my own in Europe. 

Before I left Toronto my friend Alison mentioned she'd be in Germany for Christmas to visit her boyfriend, Oliver. This would be also her first time away from her family for Christmas. We decided to meet in Europe. 

This was an 'Over-Beers' Idea, which are not usually followed through. But we both leapt at the chance to see a friend over the Holidays and worked hard to see it through. The plan was come to Dresden, stay at Oliver's apartment and we’d figure out the rest after I arrive.

I took the night train (yes, like the Journey song, more European) from Budapest to Dresden and spent Christmas Eve in a bouncing couchette compartment. I arrived Christmas morning exhausted with train bed-head and was welcomed to Oliver’s mother’s home for Christmas lunch (my first Christmas Goose!).

The next four days were a fantastic blur of beer, chocolate, sightseeing, and remedial German language lessons. When it was finished, I caught a train to Prague, where I met a work-friend, who had earlier offered up a ride to Budapest.

I'm not a fan of writing blow-by-blow accounts of my adventures (ugh, so much writing), but blasting through the Czech countryside to Budapest I got thinking. The couch and bed I slept in were offered up by my new German friends. I was treated like family at the Christmas lunch. The chocolate, the beer and the healthier food was given to me. My embarrassingly painful German lessons were provided for by patient people I had just meant those days I was there.

I was treated to incredible generousity and kindness while I was there, and it seems like a disservice to simply chalk it up to "Christmas Spirit." These were great people at their best.

It's a tired cliché that Christmas can be a lonely time of year, but it was one cliché I didn't want to test. It was a joy to spend it with a good Canadian friend, but my new German friends made it an incredible Christmas to remember.

To all my Dresden friends, thank you for everything. Später alligators!

Familiar faces in strange places