Time between

So what happened after Italy is what you´re all wondering and I don´t know myself in terms of relationships but shortly after our return things took an unexpected turn for the worse and I found myself on a train heading towards Bingen. Everything happened so fast and my grandma had no idea I was coming to visit so soon.

Early friday morning I arrived in bingen and searched for my grandmas house. When I finally found the place I stood there thinking about what to say as nobody knew I was dropping by so soon. Peering over the back gate into the garden I saw my grandma sitting outside reading the paper. I took a long look and thought being 81 I hope she doesn´t have a heart attack when she sees me.`Hey Oma it´s erik´, I called out without thinking that in Germany my name isn´t as uncommon as in Australia and ofcourse she didn´t recognise me. I was getting ready to show her my passport but then it clicked and those wrinkles turned to smiles. Within minutes she was on the phone calling up everyone who could possibly be related to me and inviting them round for a reunion.

I met 3 of my uncles and aunts the same day and ofcourse there were a million questions and having had no sleep for 36 hours I was trying hard to keep my eyes open but it was really cool to see my relatives again. My uncles hadn´t changed at all from how I remembered them last time I was here.

The following day after my arrival I did little other than walk my grandmas dog and check out the town and surroundings. My cousin Rouven came round saturday and took me to a bbq at his girlfriends place. After plenty of beer it was on to the karaoke and we shredded our vocals until 5am. For most of us sign language was the only form of communication the next day but atleast there was no hangover to get over.

The whole week there after my relatives kept me busy. I was starting to get used to having lots of people around me every day and although boredom was almost non existant I started to wonder where all the younger generation were. That was when Rouven called to tell me he was throwing a party on the weekend and I should come with him. Apparently he´d rented a shack in the forest with his mates and they´d planned a three day drink-a-thon.

I bought a 5 liter mini keg of Bitburger but Rouven insisted we had enough beer to last us all until monday. It worked out to be 310 liters of beer plus countless bottles of bourbon and wine. More than enough to keep a group of 30 people tanked over 3 days. Beer bongs were the most efficient means of delivering alcohol to the blood stream fast and all you needed is a funnel and a liter of beer. They leave the beer sitting in the sun for 20-30 minutes until the beer is warm and contains no co2. I can´t say I was a big fan of the warm beer and after the first night had gone by I could say the same about cold beer but everyone else had nothing against turning breakfast into beerfast so ofcourse I didn´t let down the team. The weekend was a total blur and I don´t think I want to drink 3 days straight again but the people I met were all so open minded and easy going which made everything worthwhile.

On tuesday I said goodbye to my home in the cellar as my uncle offered to take me to Konstanz where I´d visit Isabell, who I hadn´t seen since her trip round Oz over a year ago. Cruising on the Autobahn in my uncles work car I noticed everything was moving faster than I was used to and I was having trouble reading the road signs. Thinking it was my poor german I had a glance at the speedo and thought I´d read it wrong at 230! Thats by far the fastest I´ve gone with four wheels on the ground. The only draw back to the Autobahn was that there were only short sections which weren´t speed limited and mostly there´s so much traffic that driving fast just brings you to the next traffic jam a little sooner.