We departed from Braunschweig, Germany on the Saturday before New Years. Two red VW vans, one car, 14 people, and loads of luggage, and food set off for a 5 hour drive (including 1 hour on a ferry) to Faaborg, Denmark. Maya, Thorsten, Thorsten's friend Maike and I were in the car. The time passed quickly - all of us chatting (in German), singing along to music, and car dancing. We arrived in Faaborg, picked up the key to our lovely little house (pictured below), unloaded the cars, and then Maya, Thorsten and I set about making dinner.
One of Thorsten's friends - Henning - is a master organizer/planner and he had planned everything from the traveling to the cost to the shopping list. One of his ingenious ideas was to break us into cooking groups and each group be responsible for one night of cooking. The first night ended up being my groups turn - which worked out well as we made pizza (only with Fladenbrot, a Turkish flat bread so as not to have to mess with pizza dough).
After dinner we all sat around chatting and playing games. This was in fact how we spent most of our time in Denmark; eating, chatting, playing games, a little bit of tv watching, and during the day in order to enjoy the sunshine and the warmish weather we walked along the beach, and hit some golf balls. Overall it was very relaxing and a good way for me to improve my German language skills - total immersion.
In terms of the games we played, there were the typical card games like speed, Egyptian rat screw, BS, and poker. Then we played some German favorites like set (where you compete against people to make sets of cards based on rules), phase 10 which is sort of like Rummy only the requirements change each round, Cranium (which exists in the U.S. - this was incredibly difficult for me though. Difficult in English as it is advanced vocabulary and imitating celebrities, etc. but in German I'm afraid I was no help at all to my team), and then my personal favorite: Werewolf. I have found an explanation of the game at this website: http://www.eblong.com/zarf/werewolf.html and feel that it is a better explanation than my own would be.
So since the activities were mostly the same for the 3 days I was there, I feel that I can move on and describe our wonderful New Years celebration. Our celebration was traditionally German. The night before New Years we gathered around the Feuerzangbowle (pictured above). The Feuerzangbowle is basically a bowl of Gluehwein but then a metal tray is placed across the bowl and a solid cone of sugar is laid atop the metal tray, doused in rum, and then lit on fire. The fiery sugar melts and deposits itself in the bowl of Gluehwein - delicious! Most Germans celebrate the holiday with Feuerzangbowle and there is actually even a famous movie that is called "The Feuerzangbowle".
On New Years eve we had Raclette (pictured directly above) for dinner. For Raclette everyone gathers around grill objects and gets their own personal pan. Chopped vegetables, cold cuts, eggs, cheese, and whatever else one desires is all laid on the table and everyone then goes about creating their own little pans of food that are then cooked on the grill and eaten. It was a truly delicious item - but as with so many other holiday dishes it did encourage overeating. For dessert we had chocolate fondue. It seemed to compliment the Raclette well - both items containing primarily chopped produce that one makes less healthy by adding cheese (to the veggies) or chocolate (to the fruit).
After gorging ourselves - we settled around the TV to watch a British film (that is apparently loved in Germany on New Years - or Sylvester which is the German word). It is called "Dinner for One" and it lasts about 15 minutes. The movie is about a 90 year old woman who is celebrating her birthday. All of her friends have been deceased for at least 20 years, and so her butler assumes the role of all her friends for this special birthday dinner. Of course that means that he needs to drink for all 4 friends and offer a toast each time a new drink is poured. What follows is that the butler then becomes incredibly intoxicated and does some silly things like continuously trip over a rug, etc. It was entertaining to say the least.
When "Dinner for One" was over it was nearly midnight. We all headed outside to countdown the New Year. After counting down we popped open some champagne, lit sparklers, and wished each other a Happy New Year. Then we went down to the beach and lit off more fireworks. The entire night sky in Denmark was lit up with fireworks . It seemed that nearly every person in this small town was lighting off fireworks in celebration.
Once the fireworks were finished we headed back inside. There we participated in Bleigiessen (The tradition of melting lead over a candle and then dumping it quickly into cold water. The resulting object is supposed to be a "fortune" for the upcoming year) and my object looked like nothing that could be described - who knows what that means in terms of my next year. Once the Bleigiessen was finished we turned our attention back to playing games - all good fun.
Overall it was a New Years to remember. Now of course I am in need of returning to a normal healthy normal diet.
Happy 2008 everyone!
