Weltmeisterschaft

For the month of July the whole world converged on Germany to watch nations from every continent (except Antarctica) compete for a golden cup. Even non soccer fans (like yours truly) got carried away in a month long tempest of flag waving, face painting and beer drinking. From the opening game to the finale, the world cup was an unforgettable journey and I couldn't imagine being anywhere else in the world for those 31 days.

On the opening day of the world cup a small group of us went to Real to get some face paint and goofy looking hats and other such gear all with the colors black, red and gold... along with a couple cases of beer. The city of Bamberg was showing the Germany game in Markusplatz, a large square just outside of the exchange department building. Unfortunately we got to the square too late to see the screen very well, so after 10 minutes we went back to Andy's place to watch the game on his television.

Each of the cities hosting a world cup game had a designated FIFA fan area, usually right outside the stadium. This was for fans who wanted to be nearby but couldn't afford entrance to the game. The nearest of the host cities to Bamberg was Nuremberg, a short 40 minute train ride away. A weekend that most of us were free, we decided to check out the Fan Fest to see exactly what it had to offer. When we stepped off the train it was clear that something big was going on, Nuremberg was more alive than I had ever seen the city, with drunken, painted, and half naked soccer fans all over the place. The Fan Fest was equally as hectic and the English soccer fans lived up to their reputation. The game was exciting, full of tense moments and even a bit of cheating and although I was rooting for Trinidad, I had a good time. The rest of the evening was spent wrangling the more drunken members of the group and slowly moving everyone back to downtown Nuremberg Getting everyone onto a train gave me a bit of a headache, but the train ride back was pleasant; all the drunk people passed out and James and I chatted with the German woman who sat next to us.

I watched most of the remaining games either in Andy's apartment or bars. As teams filtered out, Germany remained strong. Jen and Mark were even throwing around the idea of heading to Berlin for the final. I and several others jumped on board so we checked into it and it seemed as though renting a car would be the best option to get there. I mentioned this to my roommate, Wolfgang, and he mentioned that he might be able to get his family's van which had just enough room for all of us to get there. He also spoke with his cousin, who lived in Berlin, and she promised places to sleep to those who wanted to sleep. Everything was looking good, and then Italy messed it up. When Italy knocked Germany out in the Semi-Final game suddenly no one wanted to go to Berlin anymore, myself included. Unfortunately, I had to break the news to my roommate that after all he had organized that we didn't want to go to Berlin anymore. He was devastated, this was probably the only time the world cup would be in Germany during his lifetime and he hadn't yet been to a Fan Fest. I felt sorry for him so I agreed to go with him if he still wanted to go.

The others rented a car and left for Saltzburg, while my roommate and I hopped an ICE to Berlin. We made our way to the Fan Meile in Berlin between the Brandenburger Gate and the Siegesaeule where we watched Germany soundly defeat Portugal securing themselves third place. The next day we made it to the Fan Meile as early as we could so that we could get a spot to see the German national team. After listening to Sportfreunde Stiller play their newly adapted “'54 '74 '90 2010,” the German national soccer team came out to thank the fans for supporting them through the 2006 world cup. Xavier Nadoo also sang a slightly modified version of “Dieser Weg” with David Odonkor and some of the other team members singing along.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around Berlin looking at touristy things. I was finally able to go up into the Reichstag, something I didn't get a chance to do the last time I was in Berlin. That evening we watched the France/Italy game and due to the fact that Italy was responsible for the fact that Germany was not in the Final, and because of the way that Italy had played against the US I shouted “Alle lez bleus!” for most of the evening (with all apologies to my Italian friends). With the World Cup officially over, Wolfgang and I caught the ICE back to Bamberg.

Le Tour

For the past six years Andy had been to a different stage of the Tour de France. Since he was studying in a country conveniently located next to France it would be tragic if he missed a part this year, so for the prologues he and Susan were planning camping on the French border the night before and waking up early to get a good spot on the course in Strasbourg. Eager to try out my new tent I asked if I could tag along. Wes and Monika also had access to a tent and with 5 available spots in Susan's car things were looking good. The only problem with camping near a city with a section of the Tour in it, is that it's impossible to camp near a city with a section of the Tour in it. Susan tried a few different camp grounds and all of their reserved camping areas had been booked for months. So we improvised. We decided that our only option was to find a section of deserted road, pull off and set up camp. Early Friday morning we threw all of our stuff in Susan's car and headed towards France. Susan also came up with the idea of stopping by Europapark, a theme park with rides a plenty, since it was between Bamberg, Germany and Strasbourg, France (kind of between). We spent the day hurdling through the air on various roller coasters, water rides, and whatnot but we had a bit of a problem: Germany was in the quarter finals and we HAD to watch the game. We hastily threw together a plan that involved leaving the park an hour before the game started, heading to the nearest small town, finding a bar and watching the game. Luckily for us Europapark was showing the game in a typical German fashion, under a huge tent with picnic tables and beer. The game ended in a shootout making the German goalie, Lehmann, a German hero. For me it was the most intense game of the entire world cup. Andy, Wes and I were all wearing our German jerseys and after the game we drove through as many towns as we could and shouted and waved German flags and generally conducted ourselves as hooligans. We caught the Italy v. Ukraine game in a bar somewhere and then decided it would be best to find somewhere to crash for the evening before it got too dark. On the way to the French border, and listening to the best schlager southern German radio had to offer, a news reporter came on and informed us of a massive doping scandal that had implicated all of the Tour's top riders including this year's favorite, Jans Ulrich. Dismayed, we decided to continue anyway. We ended up finding a rather secluded stretch of road about 20km away from the border and simply drove through a field and set up camp... and by camp I mean I threw my sleeping bag on the ground and passed out in side of it. I was harassed the entire evening by mosquitoes and various other flying nuisances, but at six we were all up and made our way to Strasbourg.

Knackered, we wandered around the start/finish area trying to find the perfect vantage point to watch the riders go by. I decided that I couldn't function without coffee so I left the viewing selection up to Andy and Susan and Wes, Monika and myself tried to procure some coffee. With my limited French I was able to order a simple breakfast (when I say limited I mean I pointed a lot and used only the words “un,” “deux,” “et,” “oui,” and “Merci”). We then found our way back to Andy and aggressively defended our position. Before the riders went there was a large parade of sponsors giving out all kinds of free stuff, like magnets, hats, and hot coffee. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't want hot coffee in standing in the sun in 90 degree weather, but I was exhausted. And then the riders went, spaced about one minute apart with a police officer on a motorcycle in front of them and a team car with spare parts and a loudspeaker behind them. Most flew by too quickly to get a very good photo, but it was still fun to watch. By the time 4 o'clock rolled around I was so tired that I could hardly stand and passed out under a tree in the shade. Originally we had planned to camp two nights, because the next stretch of the Tour both began and ended in Strasbourg, but we were all too exhausted to move. Instead of staying another night we headed back to Germany with a little sunburn, lots of cool pictures, and a bag full of free junk.