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.