Stuttgart

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I have named this entry Stuttgart as it is where we will be heading tomorrow for the Australia vs Croatia game. As mentioned by Kristian in his last entry, he is now again admidst the beautiful surrounds of Montreal and will soon be catching up with Chelsea in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Hopefully he will post some photo's from his adventures up here, although he may not because of an incident the other night after a party at a students residence when he fell off his bike (again), twice. After the first fall two mexican guys ran up to see if he was okay and said "Man are you okay, you got like two heads", referring to the bump that was also quite visible. Then about 3 minutes later, immeadiately after Pudd uttered the words "I can't believe I fell off my bike". Bang. Down again. Needless to say it was funny, although I imagine it must have hurt a bit.

So Kristian won't be with us but a couple of other Mornington Peninsula residents will be, that being Paul and Daniella Mirabella. Hopefully they have brought some ShopAte food for me. We will meet them in Stuttgart, or 'Stuggi' to the locals, around lunch time and possibly have some local Swabian food which is just absolutely tops or perhaps sample to aforementioned kangaroo steak you can buy in Stuggi. Paul and Dan have actually got tickets to the match, so we will probably catch up with them afterwards to (hopefully) celebrate our win and entry into round 2 of the world cup. We will also probably be travelling there with some Aussie's that we have met in Tübingen while watching the other Australia matches.

I am supposing the coverage of Australia's chances is fairly extensive back there but incase you missed the news, we only really need to draw against Croatia to be in the next round. If Japan beats Brazil by 3 goals then a draw against Croatia won't be good enough otherwise it will. Brazil is ranked number 1 in the world and is on a 9 World Cup-Game winning streak. Japan won't beat them by 3 goals. Then in the next round we will play either Italy or the Czech Republic, although it is theoretically possible that we could play Ghana. Anyway I will probably go to Kaiserslautern just to be there if we get through, its not too far.

We will probably also go to Berlin if Germany makes the final. They won their final group match yesterday and again the people of Tübingen went crazy, taking to the streets. This to an Australia may not seem like such a big deal, but in Germany it is a big deal. So many Germans have commented that they have never before seen so many fellow countrymen carrying German flags or having the German colours painted on their face. In Australia we call this Patriotism, here they call it Nationalism. In Germany 'Nationalism' is a dirty word because under the leader ship of a guy about 60 years ago it got the whole nation is to a whole lot of trouble, and the legacy of this remains ingrained into the country's culture. Even today only one day after a crushing 3-0 soccer victory over Ecuador, most flags will be put away, most people won't be wearing Deutchland T-shirts and certainly only a few will have face paint on. Perhaps this tournament could provide the turning point which allows Germans to separate National Pride from the sins of the past.

So yes again last night, was quite crazy. I went back to the beer garden to watch England finally look a bit convincing even though it could only manage a 2-2 draw against the Swedish. Its hard to explain just how consumed everyone is by soccer at the moment. I'm convinced no one is actually going to University at the moment, radio stations are even running competitions to have people do your job while the Germany games are on, not sure how that works if you are a Surgeon.

Hope all are well and have caught up on sleep so you can get up and watch the Socceroo's win!

John

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Photos

The Stockerkahn Race
This is some of the crowd watching the race.

After the German match
The Tübingers

Kristian Has Gone To Kanada
I have photographic evidence

Stockerkahn Race
Anja's residence came 7th of 51

Comments

[David Payne]

Hi Pudd
Hi Kristian How you going? I'm not sure how to use this blog thing, so I hope this email gets to you, your dad keeps me up to date on your adventures anyway. enjoy your trip. Uncle dave

[Tim]

That's it.
Hi John. I read a part of your posting which was published in an important German newspaper (FAZ) on sunday. I have to say that I was moved when I discovered how precise some of our 'World Cup guests' evaluate the situation here. Especially the part about patriotism in Germany hit the nail right on the head. Thanks for that statement. Greetings from Aachen. Btw. It's a shame that Italy made it into the next round!

[Herr D.]

WM
i hope you enjoyed the time here... greetings!