Dresden und der FIFA Fußball-Weltmeisterschaft

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After a short train ride, we arrived in Dresden, and were met on the platform by Dieter and Gudrun, dear friends of Arnold and Doris, Andrea's parents, and also dear friends of Cheryl, who had stayed with them in 2005 with Andrea, and again in 2008 with Laura. I was nervous about meeting them because I had been told by numerous people that they were excited to meet me, and frankly, that's a lot of pressure. But, as I shook Dieter's hand, I said "Ich bin glücklich, Sie kennenzulernen.", and he broke out into a great big grin and said "Ah! Without accent!"

So, that happened.

Gudrun was a ways down the platform, and after Cheryl got a big hug from her, I shook her hand, too, and decided to mix it up, saying "Freut mich, Sie kennenzulernen.", which made her smile really big, too, so I guess I did all right.

We piled into their Volkswagen (Gudrun double-insisted I sit in the front even after I attempted the single-insist that she sit up front) and then we drove off towards their place, conversing and having a bit of a sightseeing overview, and then we got to their house, where we unpacked a bit, and then sat on their terrace having coffee and cake and even more conversation. We had planned to try to watch the World Cup final at a public viewing, and after some back and forth, most of which I missed (a lot of Germlish being spoken at this time), we had a solid plan to go to a Biergarten near their house.

We also needed to do some laundry; my understanding of the plan was that somebody would show us how to work the washing machine and we would work on doing it and do stuff in between. Best laid plans. Gudrun made a show of showing us how the machine worked, and then we never saw our clothes again that day, and we also didn't do any work on them, either.

While we were on the terrace, it started raining. And it rained and rained and rained some more. Eventually it stopped raining, and was merely warm and moist out, and Dieter, Cheryl and I set out for the Biergarten, with Gudrun to meet us there later (it turned out she stayed behind to work on laundry).

They live near the Großer Garten, a large park in Dresden, not far from the city center. The beer garden was located in the park, "about a kilometer", so we walked there, and as we approached the place, we noticed a couple of things not quite right: first, there were no people there except one guy who worked there, and second, that guy was very obviously putting things away to close up shop. Dieter conferred with him, and it turns out the place was shutting down because of the rain; he's not putting the televisions out in the rain.

Dieter said there was another place further on into the park, so we walked some more, probably about another kilometer, passing the Sommerpalais (I am unclear as to the function, but it's a cool looking building at the center of the park), and also we saw some of the tracks for the Parkeisenbahn, a children's train.

The second Biergarten was operational and had sheltered televisions place all about, and as we got there, there setting up an additional TV near an area with available seating, so we found some spots and began the wait for the match to start. Gudrun then arrived, and we all got some Bier und Wurst, and the game started.

I've watched a lot of World Cup matches this year, and no, not just the US ones, and watching it at home on the television is one thing, but watching it in a beer garden with a bunch of people is something else. Watching it in a beer garden, with German announcers and a bunch of German people is even something else. At halftime the match was still 0-0, so naturally, we got more beer and pretzels, and at the end of regular time, it was still 0-0, so we got more beer.

Throughout the match, there was much cheering when a shot on goal was set up, and much commiserating when it didn't go in. We were all in this together, and it was up to us to project the energy required so that the German team would be able to score a goal. Seriously, it kind of felt like that.

Finally, near the very end of the overtime period, Germany scored a goal, and the place just erupted, it was crazy. And then we all sat on the edge of our seats waiting for the final minutes of the overtime to pass, nervously murmuring every time the ball got too close to the German goal, and then relaxing a bit as the danger passed, and finally time was up and Germany had won the Weltmeisterschaft.

We stayed and watched the celebration and the presentation of medals and trophy, and watching Angela Merkel hug all the players. It was quite a deal. Things died down at the beer garden, so we headed towards the Straßenbahn (streetcar) to go back to the house, and there were people shooting off fireworks everywhere; Dresden had erupted into a celebration of honking horns and yelling and fireworks and just general happiness.

It was definitely something you don't get to see every day, and we were just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

So, that was our first night in Dresden.

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Comments

[J&J]

We watched some of it too. Quite an experience of you both being in the middle of the celebration!