Never Ever Take a Vacation with Family or Friends

Traveled to Germany last week and stayed with some old friends. They made some plans to see some things while we were there. While it was nice to see them, we really learned a lot about them that I wished I had known before the trip…

On Sunday, we were all talking and they promised to take us to France (2 hour drive) on Monday. We all got up Monday morning and it was cloudy. Ok, so they said Tuesday the weather would be better. No problem as there were no set pans for Tuesday. Was still a bit jetlagged anyway. The women decided to go shopping.

Tuesday came (and almost went). We laid in the bed and never heard them get up. Finally I realized it was 11AM, so I decided to get up. Shortly thereafter, everyone got up. Problem was that while we were showered, dressed and ready to go, they were still not dressed. 1PM came and we decided to eat lunch. They are still not dressed and have not mentioned at all about leaving the house. Just lounged around the house in their pajamas and played with the kid. Come on, we are on vacation and want to do some sightseeing! We discussed France over lunch. They complain about the drive, they complain that it is already after 1PM and kind of late to go. They complain about this and that. What the hell? So they start getting ready dragging their lazy asses around the house. We decide to tell them to f*** off. Ok, not literally, but my wife tells them that since it is beyond them to get ready in a timely manner that we’ll walk the local town and see some of the buildings and museums there. Meanwhile, they can get ready at their own pace and take us to Stuttgart when we return. We returned about 4PM as agreed and they were almost ready. They take us to Stuttgart and we walk to town square and see some old buildings, take some pictures and all is well. We go to a nice restaurant and have dinner. The day was kind of saved from a total waste.

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So, the whole trip seemed to have its issues - always something. We did make it down to see Neuswanstien castle. Beautiful trip, beautiful town. Of course they were interested in this, so they were motivated to get there. Of course, they only thought about themselves while they were there. They ran around looking at stuff and didn’t give a worry at all to us and what we were doing. At one point they left us standing in the street, and got on a horse carriage to one of the castles. Nice. No worries. I am sure they enjoyed the nice smell of the horses farting in their faces. It wasn’t a long walk to the top of the hill anyway. So we did our own thing and had a good time. After that, we headed up to Neuswanstien castle. Was awesome. When we left, they were again nowhere to be seen off doing what they wanted, or so it seemed. We decided to have lunch in the restaurant just below the castle and again enjoyed ourselves. Had the best bratwurst ever. Ran into them at the bottom and they seemed a little irritated with us. They said they had been waiting for us. Waiting for us? That’s funny.

After that we drove to Munich as we wanted to go to Oktoberfest. They had made reservations at a 5 star hotel for us and them. What? A 5 star hotel? It was only 414 euro per night… That’s around $620 per night! What, are we made of money now? There was nowhere else to stay. So we pulled out the AMEX and annied up. I’ll admit that the room was nice, but not that nice. Some friends we have. Guess they have money to burn.

Ok, when we got there Thursday night, we decided we better go to Oktoberfest in case they came up with any excuses to not go on Friday. So again, we walked down to the festival and enjoyed ourselves. Spent a couple hours there and back to the hotel to enjoy our awesome room… Friday morning came and we got up on our own, had a wonderful breakfast (and breakfast was actually included with the room) and went for a walk and explored Munich. Saw a beautiful cathedral and it was just nice to get out and not have to worry about them. Later, we did go back to Oktoberfest. They were driving around and looking for a parking place (and arguing with each other) and they finally dropped us off and left. Agreed to meet us at a designated spot at 3PM. Again, we had a great time without them. Drank some beers, ate some German food, watched all of the drunk Germans and the costumed people. Was a good time.

Drove home after that and I think they were glad to see us go. They had no problem getting up at 5AM to get us to the airport. Dropped us off and said goodbye. No hugs, no chitchat, just goodbye. And we were outa there.