Advertisement
Published: June 24th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Bok.
The previous pages have pictures now!!
Travel update:
So I flew from Hamburg and have found myself once again in Zagreb. I have been hanging out here and also, of course, watching soccer. Today we will go to Zvon's hometown of Krizevci for a BBQ with some friends, to watch the Round of 16, and to feed the parrots.
A few stories:
Last I wrote it was in Hamburg just before heading off to the Fan Fest for the much anticipated Argentina Holland match together with the posse. After purchasing an official World Cup pillow, we made it to the Fan Fest just before the match. I have been to Fan Fest's in 6 cities now but this one was unique in that their food stalls were organized by country. For each country within the WC, they have food native to that location. On this occassion, I went with Poland and had some perogies and golash.
We watched the first half at the Fan Fest and the second at the fish market. En route, you walk by the Hamburg port in which are parked countless gigantic ships receiving care as Hamburg is one of few places
the posse in Hamburg
chillin in the fish market watching Argentina Holland in the world with equipment capable of servicing large ships. Even though Hamburg is landlocked, the waterway from the sea to the city is wide and deep enough for ships of such size to arrive.
That evening in Hamburg we stayed at Simon's, who was an unbelievably kind host. It was a joy to meet him and I hope he makes it to North America someday so I can return his hospitality (and thanks Lucienne for connecting us! Simon says hi, btw).
I arrived in Zagreb together with Elena in the early afternoon of the 22nd, 3 hours prior to what ended up being the last USA match. Zvon and Goran met us at the airport and altogether we drove into town. Later, Zvon and I found the USA match on some obscure Slovenian channel as the rest of the world was watching Italy v Czech Republic. I don't really want to go into the details of the US match because I'm learning that I don't have the popular opinion about our team. For those that didn't watch, Ghana won 2-1 but were gifted a rediculous penalty kick in injury time of the first half. Sure, we didn't tie it but it obviously changed the attitude of our players and of the match, so had it not been called, who knows what would've happened since all we needed was a victory because Italy won. As it were, I'm happy that Ghana went through. Sure, the US didn't play like world-beaters this tournament but I'm of the opinion that things were somewhat set against us with dodgy cards and PKs being given against us. Also I read articles like
this one in FT that suggest that we should play our games in London and use less Americanisms in our dialog in order to better our chances. I read this before our match on the plane and let's just say I had the author in mind when Dempsey scored his awesome goal to level against Ghana, and I screamed for 4 minutes straight about how awesome it was.
In the end, we're out but we're out from the Group of Death and not some cupcake group like the ones that played yesterday. Hopefully it just gives our team something to motivate themselves for the next (gulp!) 4 years...
I was hoping to solve my sadness of the US loss by a Croatian victory in the evening. We gathered at Zvon's friends house and cheered and cheered. It swung back and forth between Croatia and Australia but sadly (to the Croatians) in the end, Australia advanced. I can't pick a winner if my life depended on it, evidentally.
That being said, I'm excited for the next rounds and for the next days. Today, we are going to Zvon's hometown for a BBQ and to feed his father's parrot collection. We will be in Krizevci a few days then back in Zagreb on Monday for a concert then go to the island of Murter for a few days on the coast Tuesday. I fly then to Copenhagen on the 30th where I'll stay until returning to Berlin for the finals. Then Vancity on the 13th 5pm!
That's the rough picture on this end. Hopefully all is going well on your own. Once again, thanks for your comments and emails, and enjoy the World Cup!
brad
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0571s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
anonymous
non-member comment
Economy
I know there's some trimmer of the hair that could use the business . .after all there's somewhat a break in the action!