It feels like the whole world is here!
We got into Munich yesterday afternoon and headed down into Marienplatz which is like a pedestrian Main street. We didin’t really know where we were going , so we just followed a group of German football fans who were blowing whistles and a trumpet. We knew they we German becasue they were wearing mohawk wigs in the colors of the German flags and faces painted… hollering and singing. We figured they’d know where the party was. As we wound our way into the crowd we saw represntatives from all different countries; people using Mexican flags as capes, Brasilian fans with bright blue and yellow outfits carrying tambourines and banging drums through McDonald’s… great fun. When we went to disneyland the other day, the It’s A Small World ride made me get all teary… not because I knew that the damn song would be in my head the rest of the trip but because it gives me hope for world peace; that someday the whole world will learn how to be nice and get along. These World Cup games are having the same effect on me. Of course there are isolated incidents that make the news, of English and German fans getting in fights but I think you can chalk most of that up to the amount of fine German beer consumed… It comes in liters. When do you ever drink a liter of anything??? But really for the most part, everyone is here for a good time and to support their team. It’s the coolest sporting event I’ve ever participated in and I am now official a fan of internation soccer or Football. We ended up watching the game at a big beer hall where the game was projected onto a huge screen and the place was just packed with German fans. We learned the cheers and joined in and ended up making friends with 2 German couples. Stefi. Peter, Susi and Uli you guys made our first night in Deustcland SO much fun! They even gave Ryan a whitsle he will wear around his neck at least until we leave Germany. Everyone who’s anyone gets to have a whistle to blow out cheers and get people riled up. We are having so much fun in this atmosphere that we might extend our stay. At least to watch the USA play once. It doesn’t matter that we don’t actually get to go to the stamdium to see a game, you can’t walk more than ten feet without coming across a TV screen and a room or street full of fans. We did see a couple of guys wearing USA flag capes. Brave I’d say…
This afternoon between matches we walked around a little bit and checked out the Hofbrauhaus which is one of the oldest in the city. It was ok. The energy of the World Cup puts everything else in a shadow. It feels a little like the Qudditch Cup in the Harry Potter books. Except no Death Eaters. Yet.
We also tried some traditional German food and neither of us could handle it. Homemade sauages and brats sound like a good idea but not so much after a night of liters of German style revelry… we might stick to pretzles for our “ethnic food” and go for the homemade pizza instead.
It’s been a long day of sports and we’re pretty beat. The bottles of vodka and Jack Daniels that were on the table in our dorm style hostel room worry me as to what the roommates might get up to while we’re trying to sleep but that comes with the territory when you’re hostelling.
Oh, shoot. The bad news is that our camera is broken. We think it happened at Disneyland. It got squished in the bag or something and now it won’t turn on. And it sounds like something is loose and rattles when you shake it. We’re going to look for a camera fixing place… but we might be using some disposable cameras for the time being. The carnival here MUST be documented.
Also, I think some of you are trying to log in to the page as I keep getting emails from cannonhill.com reminding me of my password. To post a comment I don’t think you have to log on… maybe I’m wrong.
That’ll do it for tonight. I’m schluffy.
Love, CR and Ryan
Posted from UK:
posted Saturday June 2006