More Football

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There have been many parts of our trip that have been fast paced, but even for us the last week was a whirlwind. Our original plans did not include going to Western Europe because we've both been here before and it's not easy for budget travel. But when Justin realized that we could go to the World Cup, we immediately applied for tickets and changed our itinerary. The experience has been well worth it.

Since we saw our match in Frankfurt, we've made it our goal to see as many matches in as many home countries as possible. And so far our record is really good. We were in the Czech Republic for a Czech win (unfortunately they beat the US), in Germany for two German wins, in the Netherlands for a Dutch win, and in Paris with a group of Italians for an Italian tie (because obviously we had to actually be in Italy for the Italians to win). Things are looking good for France tonight since that's where we are now. We've even gotten some sightseeing in between matches.

From Frankfurt, we returned to Prague, one of our favorite places of this trip. We expected the tourist scene to be stifling, but found things to be fairly similar. Either Easter week was even busier than we thought or all the tourists are in Germany right now (or both). We couldn't help but see the Charles Bridge and Old Town Square again, but spent our time drinking in the few good beer halls and watching the football on the big screen in the square. For the USA v. Czech game, the Czechs were fired up. Clearly they wanted the Czechs to win, but no less they wanted to beat the US. At the beginning the MC tried to get a Czech cheer going and received a lackluster answer. But when he switched to a U-S-A chant, he immediately got a huge Czech counter response. That was the rallying point. Throughout the match, "Fuck off USA" was definitely the most prevalent chant, followed by "Go home, Yankees" and even "Go Osama Bin Laden." In case you don't know, our country isn't very popular right now, and the Australians, British (hey, we cheered for them), Mexicans, Spanish, Brazilians, and everyone else detouring from Germany right now had no problem joining in.

After all this excitement we took a break from soccer, and stopped the next day in Dresden - not a host city. In fact of the 12 host cities in Germany, only one - Leipzig - is located in the former GDR. Berlin is also hosting, but in the section that was part of the "West." Honestly, we had heard some good things about Dresden, but we really stopped there because the Berlin hotels were full of Brasilians and Croatians and the train to Berlin stopped there. Dresden turned out to be a huge surprise. We can't believe that more people are talking about it, and we declare this the next "New Prague." The cafes and restaurants are plentiful and the scenery along the Elbe is some of the best in Europe. After walking through the old town, we bought tickets for what we thought was a mere music concert in the courtyard of the Zwinger Palace, but Justin was thrilled when the ballet dancers strolled out. Actually, we really enjoyed this cultural break and the beautiful setting. But don't worry we weren't distracted for long because we had to catch that Brasil game afterwards. During the game we struck up a conversation with two locals. A few shots of Jaigermeister and several beers later, we were learning a lot about eastern Germany and the changes in the last decades. As exemplified by the World Cup city locations, things are clearly not equal. The West thinks of the East "like Poland or the Czech Republic" but at the same time Easterners "have problems, but don't realize that things are worse in other places."

We were a bit slow getting up the next day, but we made our train to Berlin. As in Munich, we stayed at an A&O Hostel, which as in Munich was aware enough of the World Cup to triple their rates but not aware enough to hire extra staff or accomodate the numerous people checking in and out daily. We couldn't check in when we got there and the luggage room was full. But there was no way that we were going to sit the hostel and miss our one day in this historic city. We hurled our bags into the luggage room and hoped for the best later. In our short time, we walked through the Tiergarten to the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag, took in the German Filmmuseum, and checked out the Topography of Terror exhibit, Checkpoint Charlie, and the Berlin wall remnants. We're not sure if we award the Czechs creativity or tackiness points for setting up their official Czechpoint Tourist Office on the corner.

After a quick visit to the Lowenbrau beerhall, we headed over to Berlin's fanfest for the German v. Poland game on the big screen. In our last entry, we mentioned that we had been so impressed in Munich and Frankfurt with the emphasis on the fans at the fanfest. Food and beer were sold at reasonable prices, security was well organized, and the corporate sponsorship was secondary. Even trash was kept to a minimum due to the 2 Euro per glass deposit that you got back when you returned your beer glass (and it was a glass, not a paper cup). Berlin, the largest of the 'fests was completely the opposite right down to the paper cups. The TV screens were separated by large inflatiable corporate logos, and if we had wanted we could have paid to see Adidas' World of Sport or the World of Toshiba. But we didn't need this entertainment because Germany was playing Poland. In case you're a bit shabby on your European geography and history, Poland is quite close to Berlin, and it's been reminded of this again and again throughout history. These two nationalities do not get along, and it's not a friendly Packers/Bears rivalry. This was by far the most tense crowds we've found, even more so with the 0-0 score until the final five minutes of the game when Germany scored. This was the only thing that could silence the very rowdy and belligerant Polish crowd. At first Chris was cheering her Polish roots, but soon switched sides when a Polish fan grabbed her ass. We returned to our hostel at 1:30 in the morning and the German celebration was just getting started. At 4:30, the noise level outside was still at the same level, and when we left our hostel for the train station at 7:30, people in German jerseys were still roaming the streets. And this was just for making it though to the second round. Just wait.

Our next stop was Amsterdam, whose reputation for marijuana, sex shows, and drunk American college students precedes any introduction. Meanwhile, we also visited the Van Gogh Museum and Rijksmuseum and tried to dodge the bicycles without falling into the canals. We also hit a nutritional low in Amsterdam, since the only cheap food is french fries with mayonnaise and pizza slices. Even the kebabs cost 10 Euros. There is a sort of Disneyland feel to Amsterdam, and it's not just the pot. The red light district has more tourists gawking at the windows than patrons, tourist buses pay 30 Euros per person for the best sex shows, and the Rijksmuseum's display of Rembrandt's Night Watch features a theatricallight show.

For the Netherlands v. Cote D'Ivoire match we found a bar in less touristy area of Amsterdam that was overflowing with orange jerseys. The blaring Dutch pop music (think oompa music with a dance beat behind it) scared away most of the other tourists, but we braved through. As a local TV station was filming at the bar, we're pretty sure we were on Dutch television. We're the ones not wearing orange that don't know the words to the songs.

Like a Vegas weekend, two nights in Amsterdam was enough for the body and wallet, and we were happy to get on the train to go visit friends. Still, when we realized that our train passed through Brussels, a city known for its beer and chocolate, we couldn't help but stop briefly. In an hour and a half, we ate lunch, grabbed a waffle, drank some beer, bought some chocolate, snacked on some mussels, visited the UNESCO World Heritage church, and most importantly found a set of salt-and-pepper shakers for our collection. Tag - we hit Belgium!

Last night we arrived at our friends Christina and Nicola Passariello's apartment in Paris. It's always nice to see friends and relax a bit, but especially after this last week. Nicola, who is from Italy, took us to a favorite Italian bistro to watch the Italy v. USA match. The Italian group was the smallest, but most vocal crowds we've watched with, but considering the game and the passion, they were super friendly to us. In Italian style, they offered plenty of snacks and panetone cake. On the way home we grabbed a crepe and then got some much need sleep.

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Comments

[Helen]

World Cup
I am very very jealous about you being at the World Cup! Please can you avoid being in Stockholm tomorrow night and come and visit us in London if England make it to the final!