Frinking In Drankfurt

I arrived in Frankfurt finally at midnight last Wednesday and was happy to see some English speaking friends. Jenni, Satch (a kiwi who I flatted with in Edinburgh) and Janine (Satch's Kiwi fiancee) were at the airport to pick me up. I hadn't met Janine before and was a little apprehensive about turning up to her wedding but she was so welcoming and so lovely that my apprehension soon faded. Satch has been playing rugby in Frankfurt for the past 4 years but this year decided it was time to hang up his boots and retire in favour of coaching. Because it is between seasons most of the players had gone home or away for the summer and Satch had organised us a room three doors down from his house at one of the rugby flats which was perfect. No locks on any of the doors and to open the front door we had to put our arm through the missing pane of glass and open from the inside but he insisted that it was safe. Which it was.

Thursday was Satch and Janine's wedding and although it was raining (apparently the first time in ages) the day was perfect. In Germany everyone has to get married at the city hall to make it legal. Some people have the marriage and then a church 'wedding' but Satch and Janine decided to make this their wedding and then have a party for all their friends on Saturday night instead.

Janine wore a classic white wedding dress and looked beautiful and Satch looked good too in a suit as opposed to his normal attire of shorts, t shirt, and jandals. He scrubbed up well.
It was just a small gathering of immediate family (both sets of parents had flown over from NZ) and a few friends so Jenni and I felt very honoured to be included.

The reception was at the rugby club which was very posh - I was pleasantly surprised. The meal was great and the wine kept coming - I don't think my glass was empty once! Which helped a lot when the waitress dropped my salad all down the back of my dress. Completely by accident but it really wasn't a problem and I had forgotten about it within 2 minutes. For all I know I could have been walking around with a piece of tomato stuck to my bum all night!! It really was a great day.

On Friday our friend PJ (you might remember him from his wedding in a previous blog update last year?) flew in from Estonia. He and his Estonian wife and their little boy are living there for a year and are expecting a little girl next month so he made the trip alone this time. It was good to see him again. We all caught the train into the city for lunch and after a bit of a walk around we found a garden bar and had a few drinks in the sunshine. That night we went back to Satch and Janine's for some more drinks and some more of their friends came over. We sat in their back garden and had a really good night.

Saturday night was the boat party. At 7pm a group of about 15 of us all caught the train into town to the river where the boat was moored to meet up with another 50 of their friends. It was very nice with an upper deck which we sat on to watch the sun set. The boat went up the harbour turned around and went down the harbour before turning around again to go back to the start point. The whole trip lasted about 5.5 hours and on board the boat there was ample champagne, food, and music. It was awesome. By the time we got back to the start everyone was best friends and we headed to an Irish bar in town to continue the night. It's all a bit of a blur from here but I got home safely with the new bride sometime early on Sunday morning. There were a few sore heads on Sunday.

Jenni, PJ, Mark (Satch's American friend), and I made the most of the day by walking down the road to McDonalds for lunch and then heading back to the house for an afternoon nap. Yip, that was pretty much the extent of the day but then we were invited to Satch and Janine's for a BBQ on Sunday night which was yummy. We had to get up early on Monday morning to catch the bus to the airport so it was an early night for us. Luckily the day before Satch had enquired as to who we were flying with. We were all set to go out to the airport we flew in to which was a 15 minute drive away not knowing that the Ryan Air airport is a 1 hour 40 minute bus ride away. Phew! Lucky we found that out!

So now Jenni and I are drying out in Venice. Will update again soon.