Sausage

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Bonjour, Guten Tag, Annyeong Haseyo, G'day...

We are back at work in Korea now, but as we've just returned from 3 brilliant weeks away, it's time for us to write one of our "Hey suckers...look how much fun we've been having" emails to make ourselves feel better.

So here goes.

As EVERYONE knows, we'd been planning to go to the World Cup in Germany for over a year...more planning than either of us have ever done for trip. We also incorporated a whirlwind tour of our relatives (on Gareth's side) in Switzerland in the first week of our 3 weeks off. It was a brilliant week of generous company, fine conversation, delicious food and great wine. It was great for Mel to meet most of the Swiss connection, and for Gareth to see them again after 11 years (since his last visit to that gorgeous land of cheese and chocolate).

We spent a few days in La Chaux-de-Fonds, catching up with Grandpop and co, climbing a mountain, having a big family BBQ at a lovely chalet and eating lots of cheese, while trying to recall any French hidden in the recesses of our minds.

We then moved on to beautiful Lausanne, where the weather was stunning and we caught up with Philippe, Bertrand and Marjorie and little Odine, who took us on a gastronomical adventure and a crash course in art appreciation.

Basel was our next stop. We stayed with Madeleine in a pretty little town called Rodersdorf. From there we caught the tram into Basel, via France for one stop, and spent the day being proper tourists. Madeleine is looking to sell her beautiful sunset-kissed house, and but for the astronomical (by Aussie standards) price, we many not have ever left.

We spent a night in Zurich, partaking in what was our ONLY fondue of the trip, courtesy of our friend Andreas, a travel buddy from our Mongolia days. He'd promised us the uncustomary summer fondue many months ago in the depths of a Gobi winter, and he delivered....steaming molten cheese...MMMMMMMM!

And so on to Deutschland...2 weeks of the world's biggest party and a whole lotta cheering. We saw Korea's group matches (in Frankfurt, Leipzig and Hannover, vs Togo, France and Switzerland). When we weren't in our match cities, we spent a lot of time exploring the quieter (and hence a little cheaper) parts of Germany. With our trusty new tent, we were all set. We camped by the lake in Titisee (base camp for the Netherlands team), by the river in Heidelberg, surrounded by Aussies, English and Koreans (where we watched Germany vs Poland through the window of a kebab shop), and in the Harz mountains (where it bucketed down, but even without a groundsheet, we suffered not a drop of it. Great tent!). One stop saw us spending 6 hours of back-breaking fun paddling down the slowest river in Germany with our always smiling, buddy Luisa (of leprosy hospital fame).

The Togo match was our first introduction to being hardcore Red Devils (aka Korean supporters). We learnt a whole bunch of new chants and songs (none of this "Ole! Ole! Ole!" rubbish), and the scarf-waving techniques to go with them. Korea's victory was expected but fabulous nonetheless.

We had pretty cool seats for the game against France, right behind the goal, but we spent a while thinking we'd only see the French score. Luckily, Park Ji Sung, Korea's newest superstar came through and scored, and Korea were safe. If you were watching the game on telly, we were sitting under the top right side of the Korean flag during the national anthem, and under whatever the big fabric thing was that they shrouded us in after that.

The Swiss game was not so jovial an affair, though it started out that way. Gareth was wearing his new Swiss shirt, Mel all the Korean garb. We were in the very back row, still cheering for Korea. Three quarters of the crowd were Swiss supporters, so we felt a little outnumbered. Until we started up the singing, that is. Not many people, but we made a whole lotta noise. Some dodgy refereeing near the end was the only thing that managed to silence us...until we felt the need to shout loudly at the referees, of course. Mel did this with particular passion. The tears flowed when the match was over, Korea were out of the competition...Sob!

We followed the Aussie matches with much excitement, but couldn't be in any of their game cities because they were usually the day before our Korea games. We saw them wherever we could...Pubs, kebab shops, bagel shops, big screens in parks. Often there were not so many Aussies with us, but whoever was there was cheering for Australia.

On our first night back in Korea, we got up after an all afternoon nap to see Oz tackle Italy at midnight in the village pub with 2 other Aussies and a few hangers-on. More tears were shed, but we thought they should have won.

Now we're cheering for Germany, hoping they make it through so the party can continue, even though we're back to normal here.

Check out the photos. There will be some dirty ones coming soon (mud festival in 2 weeks...YEAH!) Life ain't so bad back here!

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