Happy Friday the 13th all! that's right, this magical day has come once again. The day to cook a delicious quiche, drink a beer, pop some corn, and watch some scary movies. An excellent impromptu holiday.
Yesterday was actually my own personal day of horror...well ok. It actually wasn't that bad, but there was some unpleasantness. Mainly in the form of odors. To start from the top:
Germany is playing in the Europamesiter 2008. This is a big soccer match between various European countries that qualify. And I mean BIG soccer match. It is a huge deal and every day 2 games are on everywhere you go. People are watching in their homes, every bar has a TV devoted to it, and there are many open air viewing areas. Ian & I had planned on meeting our friend Jeff and catching the 2nd Germany game thursday evening. This event was not completely planned out, leaving me to get picked up by Jeff while I was in the middle of a shower and completely confused. No matter- somehow we get to the game and are ushered into the venue. The Kulturbraurei is a beautiful red brick building that used to be a brewery. It now hosts events in its courtyard and has various clubs/bars/theatres within. Ian is to meet us there, but the place is filling up fast and people are getting turned away. Anxiously, I await his arrival which was in itself quite an adventure. I will let him tell how it went down.
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Anyways- we are all finally in and the Germs are going crazy. The game itself was a bit lackluster. Germany appeared sedated and not really going for it. It showed- Germany lost 2-1 to Croatia. Unfortunately, I only saw little snips of the game between the heads of the other rabid fans. And many were rabid. A group squeezed in just in front of us and promptly began elbowing for more room and stomping on my feet. The smell of cigarettes, repugnant body odor, and missing lunch had me feeling faint and grouchy. Even big boy Ian was feeling the pressure from all sides.
We eventually retreated to further back where air was thankfully plentiful. Well, most of it. There was a large boy in front of us, a big boy, a hefty, a large blooded German. And he stank. Literally reeked. I think the fumes were getting to my head because I swore Germany was looking better towards the end.
Oh well. All well that ends well. But Germany lost. Damn it!
Another exciting development- Ian and I are the proud owners of two bikes. Manda-lee & O'Malley are excellent additions to the Berlin family and are sure to come in handy in flat & bike-friendly Berlin.
