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Published: November 17th 2007
20th June Tuesday So we left Frankfurt today, arriving in Stuttgart. Again walking to the campsite was another sweat-a-thon. We tried to sneak me and Zedz in and it worked for about ½ an hour, till they came round looking for our armbands! We then tried to only pay for 2 nights (as Clackers had paid for 3) but then they gave us different coloured bands, damn! I see that they have had many scammers like us at their campsite, smarty pants. So after Zedz and I filled out our rego form (where I became Zedz spouse; Mrs Zedz to you!!!) we showered and headed back into the city bumping into a crazy looking German/Italian with white pants and a g-string who helped us find our way to the big screen. He talked about Jason Donovan and started singing ‘especially for you’ then ‘I should be so lucky.’
Germany had just won so the streets were jam packed. We were all craving a huge schnitzel so I asked at the info desk and they pointed us to Wienerworld!!! The schnitzel was good but nowhere near as big as we were expecting. We headed back to the fan fest, grabbed some
beers and Clackers won 2 t-shirts in the Shluper schling (German for super sling; a big slingshot that threw shirts into the crowd!!!) After watching England draw we did some more dancing and chanting and headed out to a club next the fan fest and got into some dancing. The music was pretty good; they even played Kylie without me requesting it, now that’s my kind of place. We left around 2 but then had trouble getting transport back to the campsite. On the way to the bus the boys were up ahead of me and I yelled out something like ‘wait for me you f*$king losers’ and I didn’t notice that some Croatian guys were coming towards me, and they thought I was yelling it to them! They started calling me everything under the sun (you can imagine) so I yelled back to them and the boys were telling them to calm down. We passed each other with more words and luckily it didn’t go any further. Barstards!!! We ended up getting a cab and crashed in the tent.
21st June Wednesday The tent was a sauna by early morning so we didn’t sleep in at all and
hihihi
copyright ZedzI think I had a rock under my back. I just did some washing and chilled while the boys went into town. I listened to some tunes and reflected:
Right now I am feeling happy about life and content with the events that have occurred so far. I still love travelling alone as I have made some close friends, and I love travelling with them too. I am feeling pretty proud of myself and glad that things that have happened have happened and that life for me is great, even when I am down and depressed, I still know its going to get better, or that it won’t last long at all. I love being an Aussie; I love the new mates I have made; I miss everyone from home. There is a horrible fountain here that looks like it has sewerage water, gross! I’m listening to Thirsty Merc and they are so right in saying “It’s about the ride…Just enjoy yourself”, that’s how I feel my life is at the moment and it’s all great. When the guys got back we just had a quite one doing guess what? Watching more soccer at the fan fest, but this
time I was so bored that I had a little nap.
22nd June Thursday AUST Vs CROATIA We slept in pretty late but we needed it, I think it was Clackers tent shaking snoring that woke us up!!! I ended up going to the Claude Monet exhibition and I really enjoyed it. I lied telling them I was 20 and I got in for €2 instead of €8 and I should note that I haven’t paid for any local transport here yet either which is great for the bank account. So I got to see about 40 of Claude Monet’s works and I am an even bigger fan now, and I even got to see a Van Gogh which was cool. I wasn’t in there long as I headed to the fan fest to buy myself an Aussie shirt which cost more then I wanted to spend but there is such a lack of Aussie merchandise that I didn’t really have a choice! I hurry back to the campsite and rush getting ready putting on my usual Aussie outfit with as much yellow and gold as possible. We head to Burger King for me and Subway for the boys.
On the train on the way in we asked a local a good beer garden to go before the game and at first we thought he sent us to the Croatian one but we kept walking and literally came across a sea of gold. This beer garden was in the middle of a park and it was completely full of Aussies with flags, gold shirts and inflatable Roo’s and one lucky roo was giving a rogering to a female inflatable Croatian fan!!! I had a stein, the boys had 2 and we get into the chanting. I even shared some of my tats with the German workers, they loved it. I have never in my life seen so much Aussie gold anywhere and I was in heaven and felt so proud. We made our way through the crowds of chanting to the fan fest where we definitely outnumbered the Croatians, grabbed some beers, played more Shluper schling and then it was on. Croatia scored in the first few minutes and we were devastated but hung in there and were ecstatic when we evened with a penalty, considering we needed either a draw or win to go through to the next
round. The nail biting and butterflies skyrocketed in the second half when Croatia again scored and they got their flares going. In the last few minutes Harry Kewell went in to even again and then the moment came. The whistle blew. That whistle blew and we were through, for the first time in Australian Soccer history, we had done it. We go bloody mental along with the other Aussies and the Croatians leave so quick you would have forgotten they were even there. They don’t play much music at this fan fest but it doesn’t stop us from jumping around like maniacs and trying to get on the big screen, and then a commentator from channel 9 Michael Usher (back home) gets in the crowd and we pretty much jump all over him. He just laughed as we all lifted him up and bounced him around. I had to get out of there after 5mins as I couldn’t breathe. We leave the fan fest to find the street is going completely nuts with Aussies. It’s not long till Clackers goes home and Zedz and I decide to continue. We find a party but don’t stay too long as Zedz is
too tired, so we walk the streets then decide to also go back, and on the way I see Simon. I stop and call out to him. He turns, looks, then looks away continuing walking. I stand there shocked and then he turns to me again, says hey and keeps walking away from me. Shut down! The Moo was shut down. The Moo was also pissed off. What a f*$kin asshole. Some mate!!! So Zedz and I grab Burger King again and end up getting another cab as the trains have stopped.
23rd June Friday back into town today to organise our next few days. Clackers and I decided that as we couldn’t get any cheap flights we just booked a bus back to London for straight after the Australia Vs Italy game that was back in K-Town. A guy at the internet café told us that the Aust footy federation was releasing 1500 more tickets to the Italy game. Zedz wanted to try and get them and so we decided that we would try tomorrow when they are released. Apparently it said on the net they will be released at 9am and that’s also when they were announcing
where the tickets would be released. SO the plan was to get up early and try and get ourselves a golden ticket! We moved camping grounds and I chilled out while the guys went back into town to watch more soccer. I mucked around chucking a footy with some other Aussies and it was nice to just chill.
24th June Saturday (Brace yourselves, this is a long day) So we were up early as the tent was boiling but also to try and score our very own tickets to an Aussie world cup game, something I tried in several rounds to do back home with my friend Nina, but we failed on every count. We rush our disgusting processed meat breakfast sandwich down, (I eat mine on the speed walking move). So we planned to get the tram into the city so we could get to an internet café to find where these tickets would be released. We get to the tram and we are waiting for ages and decide to just head to the stadium (thinking they would be released there) but no one else was around. Another Aussie was waiting around for his brother to call him
from home on his mobile so we do the clever thing and follow him round for a bit, heading towards the spot where the group tickets were handed out for the other games. Then we see heaps of Aussies in the distance so we send Zedz off to investigate. Another girl is on a pay phone with her sister back in Oz. As Zedz gets closer it approaches 9am and all of a sudden everyone scatters running towards the main road. The guy on the phone starts to say Mariot or something like that so we also run towards the road catching up with Zedz. We think about getting a cab (none come along) and accidentally lose the guy but the girl is tagging along. We start running towards the train station and I almost instantly start puffing, trying not to lose the boys. For some reason we decide not to go to the train station but go the long way around the block and end up at the station!!! Along the way we pick up two other guys who also weren’t sure what the place was called. We ask some locals, or should I say screamed at them, surrounding
them yelling “Mariot, Mariot” shaking our hands in the air then running off in any direction before they could even answer us, in the hope of finding it. It was starting to feel like we were in the amazing race. After losing the girl we once again just ran off in any direction and I was finding it even harder to breathe as we had been running for ages. We then lose the other 2 guys and we arrive at a tram station and after asking more locals who thought we were talking about a bank we were just about to give up. We decide to get the tram into the city as it’s bound to be around there somewhere (!!!) and we would just ask someone. On the tram we catch our breath between laughing at ourselves and pretty much harassing everyone along the way. Once again we get off before the main station and walk around mindlessly in some park. I ask a local and she points down the main street. I find a tourist office and they give us a map and we run to the trains and jump on. An Aussie man on the train tells
us that we are going the right way but we will be too late as there are already heaps of people waiting. We are hugely bummed but once the train stops he tells us where to go and wishes us luck and we are again on the run. Some other Aussies yell at us not to bother as there are too many people there (don’t forget only 1500 tickets released) so we continue on walking to reach the back of the line. From where we are it looks pretty long, so I go up and look around the corner and I can’t even see the beginning of the line. Zedz and I hold the fort while Clackers goes to call his mum for her bday. The worst part of waiting was we were right in the sun. We watched some people leave and I had to actually convince the boys a few time to stay as we didn’t know for sure how many tickets they had or how many people were actually in the line. Besides what else were we going to do today? So we waited and waited and waited. As we got closer we again saw Michael Usher
from the news back home and we may have gotten in the background. We were given green armbands as we were getting closer and once you had an armband you were pretty much guaranteed a ticket!!! A Woo Hoo!!! But we were still not trying to get our hopes up. There were about 30 people in the line behind us and they all got armbands so no-one actually missed out. When the last person got his band everyone cheered and sung a Socceroos song, awesome. By now we are melting in the heat but getting closer and closer. Once we are in the building we have to still line up. We fill out a form and the excitement builds. I only have to pay €49.50, for category D seating, a face value ticket. Before we know it we have our vouchers in our hands (we pick up our tickets in K-Town) and I just wanted to start chanting and jumping around but I contained myself to a few woo hoo’s and giggles. I can’t believe after trying at home with my mate Nina, being rejected, trying again and being rejected, having them offered to me on the street here for
ridiculously stupid amounts of Euros, I finally have a ticket, for face value, to an Aussie match, against Italy, in the second round, as far as Australia had ever gotten in the World Cup. What a magical moment. I just wanted to call home. So I did, calling Joanne (my sis in law) and the boys celebrated by getting Subway (again!)
We went back to the campsite, booked another night and headed back into the city to watch more soccer! I had another nap with my head in my hands. When the games finished we went to leave until the German presenter started to talk and I hear the name Bob Geldof. I stop and turn around to see him coming on stage with his band. I call to the guys and they come back and we head into the crowd and we watch him perform songs we had never heard, feeling a bit like we were at a hoe down! We were acting like drunken idiots even though we weren’t even drinking! It was such a random end to a random day. I loved it. When he eventually finished we walked towards the station and ended up putting
our feet in a waterfall, easing the pain I had just inflicted to my ankle whilst jumping around like a maniac.
And i forgot to mention the name of the hotel the tickets were being handed out at was not Mariot, it was Maritim!!!
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Robin Anderson
non-member comment
Great to have a blog again! Can't wait for the big game!