Thursday, November 06, 2008

Email from Abroad

We've stayed in touch with a couple of German friends we made on a 1996 trip to the amazing medieval town of Cesky Krumlov, in the Czech Republic's Bohemian countryside. A table shared, a few pilsners traded, a drinking contest pursued the next evening over medieval-style dinner in an unspoiled castle (actually not too cheesy), and we became lifelong friends, emailing one another to keep up with big personal or international news.

Their English is limited, our German extremely weak, so we have to get by on emotional broad strokes. Anyway, I hadn't heard from them in a long while, but I got this yesterday and thought I'd share it:

Dear [ahab] and Mary,

my congratulations to your new president. I'm very happy. And I think you are too.


Best wishes for you and your country

Martina
Her husband, Hans, kicked my ass in the drinking contest. Then helped Mary carry/drag it back to my hotel. That's a drinking buddy I can believe in.