EUROPRIDE 2009

I have just returned from 5 days in beautiful Zurich Switzerland for EuroPride 2009. Zurich is a great city, the Swiss German's are so nice, and I had a fabulous time with my German friends. I consider myself very lucky to have met and become friends with them.

The very first time I went to Europe was because of Warner Bros. My boss Lisa and I, along with colleagues from the London field offices, were attending ProMax Europe in Amsterdam. I remember being so excited to finally go to Europe, and Amsterdam, the gay capital of Europe! Another life milestone reached that I never thought would happen. I worked 90% of the time and play only 10% of the time. The other interesting historical context is that we were flying from LA to Amsterdam on September 30, 2001 - just 2 1/2 weeks after 9/11.

While attending ProMax, I keep walking by this really cute blonde European who keeps eye fucking me all day. (And I was eyefucking him right back). Fortunately at night there was the business mixer in an Amsterdam club. We bumped into each other, talked, and made plans to go out later that night. We had a great evening out clubbing together. It was my first European date in Amsterdam. His name was Alex. He was Swedish, but living in Munich attending the University of Munich while working part time for an advertising and graphic design company. We leave Amsterdam to go to the convention (and my very first trip to London), but Alex and I exchange emails and agree to keep in touch.

Cut to February 2003. I move to London to temporarily cover a pregnancy leave. On the first bank holiday weekends, I decide to fly to Munich to meet Alex and spend the long weekend in Munich. It would be my first trip to Germany. I get to Munich (navigating the subway all in German from the airport to the Glockenspiel), thinking this will be another romantic week with Alex. He had been a bit cagey in the emails, but I thought it was his English. While out drinking at a bar in Munich with his friends, he tells me he has a boyfriend, and is in a committed relationship. So there goes my romantic weekend. Well, I was in Munich, might as well make lemons out of lemonade, so I said that was cool and I was free to pick up other guys. Done.

Out at this really cool Munich club called the Candy Club, I met Mario. Mario is young, just out of university and working for Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW). Mario and I really hit it off, but he won't go home with me. Mario said he wanted to be friends and if we went home we would have sex, and then never talk again, and he would rather be friends. I said we could have sex and still be friends (eg. - Alex). But I wasn't going to beg, so I said we would keep in touch via email. The rest of the weekend in Munich was great.

Cut to September 2003. I decide to go back to Munich for the 2nd time to attend Octoberfest. Another amazing party in Munich. I see Mario, we hang out and get drunk, nothing happens and we agree to keep in touch via email.

Cut to September 2008. I am going back to Munich for the third time to attend Octoberfest 2008. Mario and I had kept in touch via email for the last 5 years. Every 3 or 4 months we would exchange emails and catch each other up on our lives. Mario has been in a committed relationship for almost 2 years. I would be sleeping in his apartment as his guest and friend. While Mario and I kept in touch, we really didn't know each other at all. We knew we liked each other, but we had never spent 5 days straight together. Mario was more nervous about it than I was, but we got along great the entire time. We really grew from acquaintences into good friends that trip. Mario introduced to me to his friend Georg, Fabian, Till, Jochen, and the list goes on. We go out to bars at night, BBQ's during the day, and the grand finale, Octoberfest itself.

Cut to February 2009. The Germans invite me to go skiing with them in Austria. I fly into Vienna for the very first time and we have a great 2 day ski vacation with my new German posse. We talk, we share, we drink, we ski, we bond. All in all, a great bunch of guys. (See my previous post, THEY'RE GONNA NEED TO REPAINT THAT ROOF). At the end of the ski trip, I told them the next time I would be in Europe was June for EuroPride. They agreed to come since Ivo was living in Europe. Mario had never been to Zurich and Georg is always up for a fun party.

Cut to May 2009 - Memorial Day Weekend. Mario and his boyfriend David (who's on a medical fellowship at Harvard) fly down and spent the long weekend in Miami and have a great time.

Cut to June 2009. EuroPride. Mario, Georg, Ivo, their extended group of friends, my friends from a previous ski trip to Zurich, Geneva, Luasanne, and all had a great time. I consider myself very lucky to have such a great group of friends.