Doe and Tina had been invited to their cousin's wedding in Kufstein, the second largest city in Tirol, right on the German border. This cousin was from their mother's side, also boasting an Australian mother and an Austrian father, however Christina and her sister Elizabeth had grown up bilingual in Austria. Christina was marrying a transplant surgeon, who, to be frank, made Dr McDreamy look like Doctor McBoringly Pasty.
They had first received a "save the date" months earlier with a beautiful picture of the future bride and groom in traditional Austrian dress somewhere on a mountain top. Doe's immediate thought was that it was "Sound of music" esque, however she knew not to say that out loud, as few Austrians knew what the Sound of Music was, and if they did they abhorred it as they saw it as a gross Americanisation of their culture. That did not stop Doe though, as she had always obsessively loved the movie. To such an extent, that when they were younger, Doe and her friend Zoe had been plopped in front of the tv to watch it whilst their parents went out. The parents had thought that this was perfectly safe, but they were wrong, as Zoe and Doe had yearned so much to be part of the Von Trapp family that they had gone to the kitchen, found some knives, and taken to the tv screen with them in an attempt to break through to this awesome Austrian world. The parents had returned to find a nearly destroyed TV, and two distraught 5 year olds who had failed to morph into that awesome world. Suffice to say, they were banned from seeing each other for the next two months. Thus, when she saw the "Save the Date card" she kept these thoughts to herself.
Tina and Doe decided to go as their mother was still in Australia and could not attend, but their presence was not going to be in the fashion that Doe had always assumed it would, as spinster sisters puffing away on cigarettes in the corner, not unlike Patty and Selma. Tina by this point was 7 months pregnant. Due to this, they had decided to go a day earlier, as Tina got quite lethargic quite quickly, and needed to rest beforehand. The town was beautiful, surrounded by mountains with the opaquely turquoise Inn River running through it, and a fairy tale like castle atop the town. The first thing that struck Doe as they were walking through the town was the abundance of Lederhosen and Dirndls. Doe had got used to them being worn for specific occasions, but in this town there appeared to be no rhyme or reason. For a moment Doe thought that perhaps everyone at the wedding might be wearing a dirndl, and maybe she was going to be highly conspicuous, especially in the black dress that she had decided to wear. Did people even wear black to weddings here? Tina and Doe had no idea what everyone would be wearing, and decided that the only way to counteract the black dress was to put some pink flowers in her hair.
They spent all morning primping and preening, all the while their mother was suffering from "extreme fear of missing out", and was continuously on skype, the telephone and if she could have attained any other means of communication, she would have. Doe was almost expecting a carrier pigeon to deliver a message saying, "Look after your sister, act demure, try and speak German, say yes please and no thank you, and don't drink". See, as Doe had not been drinking for so long, normally that would have not needed to have been said, but three days earlier, Doe had drunk 3 beers at the first darts competition for September in St Anton, and her mother had called her at 11pm. Doe had no choice but to answer the phone, and her mother had asked if she had been drinking which Doe had denied, then promptly called Tina, who had stated that it was quite clear from Doe's voice that she had been drinking. Then unfortunately, Tricia had called her back again, but due to the three beers, Doe was under the impression that Tricia did not suspect a thing. As Tina was a terrible liar, and Doe was aware that she had no Skype until the morning, Doe was compelled to send Tina a message, saying, "Act stealthy, mum does not suspect for a second that I have been drinking", and promptly sent it to her mother. Genius. It was so stupid that her mother could not help but laugh. For two days.
They left the hotel room and walked down the hall. Half way down the hall there was a middle aged couple. He was wearing an immaculate charcoal suit, and his wife was wearing a cream skirt suit with matching stockings and hat. They would have fitted in perfectly at the royal wedding a few months earlier. Tina and Doe had looked at each other, wondering once again if they were dressed inappropriately. The severely pregnant sister had an excuse, but Doe was suddenly wondering if she was supposed to be wearing sleeves, a different colour, a dirndl, or any other alternative to a black dress, and was also wondering if the sunglasses on her head were appropriate. Thankfully, by the time they got to the church, any fears had been alleviated, as the congregation consisted of all ages, and all styles. Any of the aforementioned would have worked, and Doe was relieved that she was not the only one in a black dress.
They had assumed that they would told where to sit when they entered the Church, however this was not the case, so they chose to sit as far up the back as they possibly could, and found themselves amongst people with the same idea: mainly non German speakers and those with children. They fitted in perfectly there, as they could kind of speak German, and well, clearly there was a baby on the way. As the ceremony started, Doe noticed seats for the bride and groom in front of the alter, and thought that she was going to have to strap in for a long service. It was a hot day, the stockings she was wearing (stockings in German are called "strumpfhosen", which Doe felt was a much more legitimate name for pantyhose) were chafing, and she felt anything but demure. She was still under the misconception that it was going to be an extremely civilized wedding, all finished by 11pm.
It was not long before she realised, that once again she was wrong with her assumptions.
First, the pageboy made her smile. He was throwing the rose petals as he came down the aisle with such forceful concentration that Doe almost got clucky. Then the family, and then the resplendent bride. If Doe was wearing such a beautiful dress, she was sure that she would have beads of sweat trickling down her decolletage, and chances were the wedding dress would have found some way to ride up into her knickers and no one would have told her. Not this one. She walked down the aisle as though she had done it a million times before. Her smile was not forced, she was relaxed, and beautiful. As the service progressed, even though she did not understand a lot, the priest was passionate, and it did not go too long. There was only one hymn sung, but nobody up the back could find the page. They were all looking over each others shoulders, and it was only at the end of the hymn that Doe and Tina realized that they were actually on the right page. No one in the congregation seemed to know when to sit, when to kneel, or when to stand. At points, half were standing, some where kneeling, and the rest were half way between. This served to make Doe aware that it was an eclectic mix of people, and it extracted any uncomfortable formality from the service. Even though Doe was a non practicing Catholic, she declined to go up for communion, as even at the best of times, she could never work out whether it was left over right hand, or right over left hand, had no Idea whether she should she should say cheers for the wine, and how they would tell you in German that it was, "The body of christ". It was all too much, so it was one of those rare occasions that she sat still.
At the end of the service, they were given some direction by the best man, Peter, the Groom's brother, who resembled James Franco, to go outside. Which they did, to watch the new Mr and Mrs Schneeburger be outside for the first time as a married couple. Whilst they were waiting Doe overheard the pageboy ask, "Wo ist die Prinzessen" (where is the princess). It was more than apt, considering that not only did the bride look like a princess, but the reception was to be held at the castle above. Doe still had her mothers words reverberating in her head, but her first challenge came at the base of the Venicular (which was the chosen method of transport to ascend to the castle). There was a sign with all of the generic instructions, but accompanying the normality was a rather obscure instruction. "No ascents or descents whilst the Hero's organ is being played". Doe guffawed to herself, wondering who the hell the Hero was, and how commendable his organ was. Tina looked at her with reproach, then looked around, saw the sign, and even sniggered herself. The situation was only fueled when the other people accompanying them up the vehicular had politely asked is she had ever seen the Heroe's organ being played. Instead of replying as she had wanted to, "no but I'd sure like to, can you buy it in the dirty section of the video store"?, she smiled a mixture of evil and delight, that hopefully came across as friendliness, "No, is it good"?
By this point, Doe had given herself away to enjoying herself. So far it had been perfect, in a non contrived manner. Her fears and apprehension had melted, and for the first time in a long time she had no Gremlins whispering negativity, and was feeling like a welcome part of the occasion. She allowed the situation to wash over her as a pose to swimming upstream. How could you not? Wedding cocktails during sunset at a castle. Due to a short pause at the hotel, Tina and Doe were one of the last to arrive at the cocktail reception but there were still people lined up to talk to the bride and groom who were greeting all of their guests. Her initial thought, was "Jesus!!! They have been smiling for 4 hours now!", even her cheeks were hurting, but their smiles did not come across as forced. On the contrary, even though it was a big wedding, by the affection they greeted every guest with, it was clear that the list could be no smaller.
The first person that Doe and Tina spoke to was Elizabeth, the elder sister of Christina, who Doe bared an uncanny resemblance to. Actually, as Doe was older, she decided to take the angle of her cousin bearing an uncanny resemblance to her as Elizabeth was prettier younger, and married. They had not seen each other since their Grandmother's funeral, and boy, was that a great night out. "Hatches, matches, and dispatches" being the main places that you caught up with family members was not altogether untrue. Elizabeth had married an Australian man, whose family was at the wedding. They chatted, and Doe said to Elizabeth, "How pregnant is my sister!!!" to which Elizabeth had replied, "i know, she looks great. How about you? Oh wait, I know, you are single, because you asked my sister if there were going to be any hot single Doctors here"!. Doe recoiled, and said, "No,no, no. No! No! that was a joke!!!" Elizabeth had replied, with a quite familiar cheeky glint, "really joking? Cause there are you know". "Yes. Well half joking. Where are they?Jokes. But not really. Well sorta joking. Point them out later". At this point, Doe had almost queried whether the Priest was single, but had refrained. When she had later verbalised this to her sister, Tina had rolled her eyes with amusement and disgust, but with little surprise and said, "Please don't hit on the priest Doe".
Coincidentally, at this moment Tina expressed that she needed to sit down and she chose a corner far far away. Fair enough though, for iff Doe had raucous sister and a medicine ball attached to her stomach, she would also like to take seat. Elizabeth was seated next to Tina and Elizabeth's father in law asked them to please move closer together, which they did as they assumed that a photograph was going to be taken. "Haha, just stay there", he said in a broad Australian accent, but by now Elizabeth and Tina looked slightly puzzled as there was no camera to speak of. "Haha, have you caught it yet?" "Caught what"? "Being pregnant! Haha. I need more grandchildren". Cheeky bugger, but highly amusing. Not long after it was time for the bride to throw the bouquet. Doe preferred to steer clear of this ritual, but she had no choice. Not that she needed to worry, there were more than enough single women desperate to catch it. You could always tell the spinsters who were in long term relationships, as they were front and centre, almost frothing and salivating at the mouth in desperate attempt to catch the bouquet whilst delivering a subtle message to their partners. However in this case, their diligence was not to be rewarded as the athletic bride hurled the bouquet over everyone's heads, and it landed succinctly in a baby's pram. "Wonderful" Doe thought. A newborn male child had more of a chance of getting married than she did.
It appeared that the wedding had gone to plan so far, which Doe found surprising, as every wedding she had ever been to, there had been something go wrong. She said this to Elizabeth, who proceeded to tell her that this in fact was not the case. Firstly, when they had been taking wedding photographs before the service, the Bride had been asked to stand up against a machine and pose for a photo, but little did they know that the machine had been freshly oiled (damn Austrian efficiency), and the bride got black oil all over the base of her dress, apparently this did not phase her and they managed to pin the dress and disguise it. Thus, Doe was not surprised to hear that the Bride did not even flinch when she discovered that she had locked her veil in her room, and they could not locate the key. Thus explaining why the Bride was slightly late.
10 years earlier, Doe had been a bridesmaid at a wedding, and the wedding party had also been late, but for an entirely different reason. It was held at Shelly Beach, near Manly in Sydney, and apparently the celebrant had forgotten his batteries for the tape recorder. Thus, the female side of the bridal party had spent an hour and a half in a car park above the beach listening to the limousine driver regale stories of jilted lovers and freaked out brides. Finally when the wedding was set to get under way, the small convoy of cars had started honking as they descended to the ceremony. A rather robust woman who was out for a stroll with her baby had told them, in words significantly less than polite to, "Please stop honking the horns". One of The Bridesmaids had eloquently stated that a wedding was about to progress, to which the rather robust one had replied, once again in a manner unbecoming to a lady that, "she did not really care". She had then proceeded to stick her head in the window, and say (still without a profanity filter), something along the lines of, "You women all look less than attractive, and the colours do not suit any single one of yas". By this point, they were at the bottom of the hill and as the wedding had been delayed so long already, the congregation had gathered close to the cars, and thus were all well within hearing range as the Maid of Honour alighted from the limousine and told the robust woman, "Ya wanna fucken go? Yeah, I'll fucken glass ya" (in Queen's english this would translate to, "Excuse me robust women, you appear to be offending us and I would not be adverse to donning a bikini in some jelly and then introducing a glass to your already somewhat mangled face), this was much to the delight of the wedding guests, and provided a wonderful talking point during the reception later. It was also at this wedding that as Doe was in a long term relationship, she had been one of the rabid, snarling creatures trying to catch the bouquet. No, this wedding was proceeding somewhat more delicately than the Maid of Honour at the Shelly beach wedding.
Following the cocktails was a multiple course sit down dinner, in a circular room atop the tower. Tina and Doe were seated at a table front and centre to the stage, consisting of a couple (he was from Germany, she was from Australia), and a physiotherapist from Germany, but based in Innsbruck. They spent the first hour playing, "Spot the tune" as the music consisted of all the love songs that you expected to hear at weddings, sans the vocals. They were also wondering how many Doctor's there were present, and how amusing it would be were to someone simulate fainting on the stage later, whilst another asked if there was a, "single Doctor in the house". Doe was delighted when she realized that Sarah, the other Australian at the table was highly likely to partake in this were she given a few more glasses of wine. She was also happy to know that many other people were aware, and also highly amused by the instructions regarding the playing of the Heroe's organ. Naturally, the whole table was the first to the main course Buffet, as they were all familiar enough with each other to find it totally legitimate to blame the pregnant woman on their mad dash. When Tina decided that it was time for bed after the main course, Doe felt that her leash had been taken off, but was still under the assumption that most of the wedding would not be far behind her sister. In the next hour, there were speeches and videos, all charmingly delivered, and even though Doe did not understand much of what was being said, she looked at the other people on the table for cues for laughter.
It appeared that the wedding had gone to plan so far, which Doe found surprising, as every wedding she had ever been to, there had been something go wrong. She said this to Elizabeth, who proceeded to tell her that this in fact was not the case. Firstly, when they had been taking wedding photographs before the service, the Bride had been asked to stand up against a machine and pose for a photo, but little did they know that the machine had been freshly oiled (damn Austrian efficiency), and the bride got black oil all over the base of her dress, apparently this did not phase her and they managed to pin the dress and disguise it. Thus, Doe was not surprised to hear that the Bride did not even flinch when she discovered that she had locked her veil in her room, and they could not locate the key. Thus explaining why the Bride was slightly late.
10 years earlier, Doe had been a bridesmaid at a wedding, and the wedding party had also been late, but for an entirely different reason. It was held at Shelly Beach, near Manly in Sydney, and apparently the celebrant had forgotten his batteries for the tape recorder. Thus, the female side of the bridal party had spent an hour and a half in a car park above the beach listening to the limousine driver regale stories of jilted lovers and freaked out brides. Finally when the wedding was set to get under way, the small convoy of cars had started honking as they descended to the ceremony. A rather robust woman who was out for a stroll with her baby had told them, in words significantly less than polite to, "Please stop honking the horns". One of The Bridesmaids had eloquently stated that a wedding was about to progress, to which the rather robust one had replied, once again in a manner unbecoming to a lady that, "she did not really care". She had then proceeded to stick her head in the window, and say (still without a profanity filter), something along the lines of, "You women all look less than attractive, and the colours do not suit any single one of yas". By this point, they were at the bottom of the hill and as the wedding had been delayed so long already, the congregation had gathered close to the cars, and thus were all well within hearing range as the Maid of Honour alighted from the limousine and told the robust woman, "Ya wanna fucken go? Yeah, I'll fucken glass ya" (in Queen's english this would translate to, "Excuse me robust women, you appear to be offending us and I would not be adverse to donning a bikini in some jelly and then introducing a glass to your already somewhat mangled face), this was much to the delight of the wedding guests, and provided a wonderful talking point during the reception later. It was also at this wedding that as Doe was in a long term relationship, she had been one of the rabid, snarling creatures trying to catch the bouquet. No, this wedding was proceeding somewhat more delicately than the Maid of Honour at the Shelly beach wedding.
Following the cocktails was a multiple course sit down dinner, in a circular room atop the tower. Tina and Doe were seated at a table front and centre to the stage, consisting of a couple (he was from Germany, she was from Australia), and a physiotherapist from Germany, but based in Innsbruck. They spent the first hour playing, "Spot the tune" as the music consisted of all the love songs that you expected to hear at weddings, sans the vocals. They were also wondering how many Doctor's there were present, and how amusing it would be were to someone simulate fainting on the stage later, whilst another asked if there was a, "single Doctor in the house". Doe was delighted when she realized that Sarah, the other Australian at the table was highly likely to partake in this were she given a few more glasses of wine. She was also happy to know that many other people were aware, and also highly amused by the instructions regarding the playing of the Heroe's organ. Naturally, the whole table was the first to the main course Buffet, as they were all familiar enough with each other to find it totally legitimate to blame the pregnant woman on their mad dash. When Tina decided that it was time for bed after the main course, Doe felt that her leash had been taken off, but was still under the assumption that most of the wedding would not be far behind her sister. In the next hour, there were speeches and videos, all charmingly delivered, and even though Doe did not understand much of what was being said, she looked at the other people on the table for cues for laughter.
Before the waltz the band requested that 10 women put one of their shoes on the stage. Doe initially declined, but as she was front and centre, she had little chance of escape, so she placed her shoe up there. However, a few minutes later she noticed that there were more than 10 shoes there, so she went and retrieved her glass slipper, inadvertently drawing even more attention to herself. She was promptly told to put it back, as the more the merrier. Several men were then instructed to take a shoe, which they did and a man at the next table took Does, but upon realizing that the owner of that shoe was next to him, he said to his table, "too easy" and replaced it back on the table. Doe looked aghast, and said, "how would you know that !!! Has my reputation preceded me!! I am not that easy thank you very much!!". She was hoping that the next person to take her shoe would exercise more decorum. They then instructed all of the shoe giving ladies to stand up on stage whilst their suitors came and found them. Doe was almost tempted to just stay at the table, and forget about the shoe. the awkwardness of walking down from the castle in one shoe was unlikely to trump the awkwardness of her attempting to do a waltz. However, that would leave her sitting at the table, alone, in front of the stage, wearing one shoe, and she had no doubt that this would yet again attract even more attention, so up to the stage she went. Her "suitor" was a rather tall ginger man, and as they greeted each other, she was sure that they were simultaneously relieved by the appearance of the other as , neither suggested a twinkle of the toes. It was actually a good thing that they danced together, as their effectiveness as extras in the scene only accentuated the dexterous synergy of the bride and groom. Whilst the Groom and Bride twirled and dipped, Doe and Ginger tried to stand upright. Due to trying to concentrate, her German was even more questionable than normal, and it took her the whole song to explain in fragmented German that she felt as though she was at a fun fair in the Dodgem Cars. When the dance ended, most people remained for another dance, but Doe and Ginger both made a hasty retreat to their tables
It was not that Doe had anything against Gingers, in fact she came from a long line of Gingers on her mother's side of the family. She was always thankful that her mother, unlike her siblings, had dodged that ginger bullet. However, she knew that somewhere in her Genetic make up was a rumbling of ginger, and were she to breed with one, it was likely that the result would be an army of children to be referred to later on in life as "Fanta Pants". Her mother had also frequently reiterated this, particularly on the occasion Doe had met Boris Becker. As Doe had always been a huge tennis fan, she had promptly sent a text to her mother informing her that she was in the same room as him, and her mother had replied with a text begging her to try not to drag him to any broom closets, as ginger + recessive ginger invariably led to ginger. Doe had never actually thought too much about the prevalence of ginger in her family, but in the previous Winter had discovered that the blame lay firmly on her 92 year old Grandfather's fetish for ladies of the red hair persuasion. It was in fact her birthday, and as they were all preparing to go for lunch, her mother was talking to her grandfather on Skype, and Doe stopped to say hello, receive birthday greetings and query whether Grandpa had the right address for her as she had not received her birthday card with $20 in it. Her Grandfather was in the middle of telling her what he had eaten for dinner (most likely steamed fish and grilled vegetables) when her fiery red headed friend Charlotte had walked past in the background. With the sprightliness of a horny 30 year old, her Grandfather had sat up straighter than he had in years, totally forgetting that his eyesight was not what it used to be, and yelled, "Hello Gorgeous" with such enthusiasm, that Charlotte had thought there was another voice in the room, let alone a 92 year old 9000km away. Yes, this whole Ginger thing could be traced back to Grandpa. When Elizabeth had asked her who she had danced with, and Doe had told her, "a nice Ginger, but that was simply not viable", Elizabeth exercised total empathy.
By this stage, even though dessert had not been served, people were "mingling", mostly outside on the steps to the tower whilst smoking. Doe almost did a double take when she saw the Priest, still with his collar, smoking cigarettes and quaffing red wine. For a moment Doe thought that perhaps he were a prop, but then realised as it was likely that it was actually very normal for priests to drink, as they conducted services almost daily, and drunk wine at each one calling it, "the blood of christ", and following on from this thought was the realisation that there would always be some left over at the end of the service, and well, you would not want to waste that. Suddenly Catholicism was clear to her. At this point she met the brother of the groom, who was also disarmingly charming. Doe became aware that he knew exactly who she was, when he asked why her hair was a different colour to her cousin. They chatted, and were he not Austrian, she would have classified it as upper echelon banter. After talking about what appeared to be an inherent over achieving family, Doe felt a need to also compliment him on his brother's marriage into what was also a genetically blessed clan. He concurred, and whilst it would have been advisable to retreat from the conversation at that point, as there was a slight possibility that she had been perceived as someone normal, she just had to take it a step further. So she did. As she was still on her first glass of wine (she could swear to that as she had conveniently turned around every time her glass had been refilled) she said, "How funny would it be if they had ugly dumb children"? and the best man actually found it amusing, which was in hindsight not that surprising, as the recently hitched ones were about as likely as Brad & Angelina to produce socially ignored outcasts.
Inspired by this interaction, Doe felt that there was no time like the present to congratulate her Aunt, and catch up. Doe luckily caught her, and they had a lovely chat, then Doe conveniently turned around to ignore her glass being filled, and when she turned back her Aunt was gone. Doe was curious as to where, when she heard people clapping and cheering on the dance floor. Doe suddenly forgot about her Aunt as she wanted to see what or who was causing all the attention. A circle had gathered around a rogue dancer, who was tearing up the dance floor to the tune of "Wild Thing", and lo and behold, it was non other than her Aunt. Under normal circumstances, this would have scorched Doe's retinas, but by this time, she was so loved up by the whole mood of the evening, that she found herself almost contemplating hitting the dance floor. Almost, but not quite. It was approximately an hour later when the Bride informed her that it was nearly time for everyone to move downstairs to the after party in the dungeon of the castle. However, she was informed by Elizabeth that they had forgotten to throw the rice earlier, and instructed everyone to wait on the steps for the bride and groom. As all the guests were quite well lubricated by now, when they threw the rice, it was not unlike the page boy earlier in the day: if the rice were tennis balls, people were hitting smashes as a pose to lobs.
Walking down the hill, she attached herself to some American guests who had hosted the groom during his tenure in the US. They were wonderfully wicked gay men, who had flown over for the wedding. Not surprisingly, they too had heard about the Heroe's Organ and were curious as to how tremendous the organ was and where they could find the Hero attached to the organ. They had also been surprised to see the Priest drinking and smoking. They arrived at the next stage of the party, and very few guests seemed to be lacking stamina. . This was the final affirmation that the Bride and Groom had no intention of letting any of their guests go home early, and Doe felt the need to inform the other guests that it was a tradition in Australia that you were not allowed to leave the wedding before the recently hitched (she was not sure if this was true, but it sounded good). Then two things happened concurrently. Firstly, all the guests were given Vodka Redbull upon their arrival. Doe had honestly never thought that a Doctor would be serving this beverage, but it worked as it provided heart palpitations to accompany everyone's beating hearts. The first person that they started chatting to was the priest, who had asked where everyone was staying. He informed them that he was staying at the same hotel in the honeymoon suite, and then with cigarette in one hand, vodka Redbull in the other, he gesticulated copulation, and Doe said to her new gay companion, "Is it wrong that I am slightly perturbed whilst being slightly aroused", to which he replied, "Not at all, I have always wanted to be closer to God". .
The conversation was flowing as easily and freely as the booze by now, and when Doe saw the groom by himself for a rare moment, she took the opportunity to thank him for a wonderful day. They chatted, and Doe pulled out her best jokes, much to the amusement of the Groom. He told her that she was, "Hilarious" and said, "Why have we not met you before?". Doe informed him that it was no coincidence, and, "had he not noticed that the wedding ring was firmly on his finger before this part of the family was unleashed". Doe was also quite sure that this was not too far from the truth. The next few hours flew by, with Doe talking to anyone and everyone, however, as she did not want to embarrass her cousins, she told them she was a party crasher, stating that she could not get to sleep due to the noise, and had decided to check it out, However, this unravelled, when in a rare moment the Bride was free she introduced Doe to everyone. The rest of Bride and Groom's time was spent crowd surfing on the dance floor. At about 4am, they decided it was time to go home, and the remaining party goers descended back down to the town and reality.