World Cup Kicks Off

Hello all.
I thought I'd take time out of my football watching marathon to give you a run down of what's been happening lately in the land of the Currywurst. I finished my contract at my school on the 31st of May, a date which seemed to come aroud rather quickly in my mind. The week before the year 13's had their 'Chaostag', basically an organised muck up day, where they have a massive party in the Gym and drink from 10am till the wee hours of the morning. This had a mexican theme, and they forced various teachers to perform a chilli eat-off, a pinata bash-off, and a tango dance-off. Naturally they chose the the most stuffy old geezers for the dance off, with hilarious results. The latter part of the day the teachers went away, and the kids boozed on till midnight, with the school's permission. A bit different from my muck up day...

Anyway, at the time the Sedz and his girlfriend Lucy came to stay with me for a week or so, before heading to Greece for the summer. After a week of bulgarian drunkenness in Roncalli house, they decided to get engaged.... I guess if you can stay in this Bulgarian/German rat's nest together for a week with no problems you'll be fine anywhere. My congrats go out to the couple.

My last day at school was quite nice. One of my year 8 classes threw a little cocktail sausage and apple soda party, and wrote some nice messages on the blackboard for me. I thought the picture of the broken heart with 'Eddie' on one side and '8d' on the other was a bit melodramatic though... In the staff room I was given a send off by the headmistress, before I realised I would be expected to get up and give a little speech myself. Naturally I hadn't prepared anything, so I stood up and prattled on in German for a few minutes about nothing in particular, basically saying that after marking a heap of year 12 english exams, I had newfound sympathy for teachers and perhaps understand why they go a little crazy sometimes.

The world Cup kicked off last week, and the crappy German weather changed around amazingly. All of a sudden it was 35 degrees and humid as all hell, naturally neccessitating the drinking of frosty refreshments from the afternoon till the wee hours. I watched the opening game in the city square, with about 50 000 other people in a party atmosphere. Thankfully Germany won, so the rioting and general mayhem was kept to a minimum. Because Sweden was playing Trinidad and Tobago in Dortmund over the opening weekend, the city was overrun by Swedes, with one of the funnier moments coming when a few walked past a group of German fans. Instead of violence, bigoted chants or anything nasty, the Germans belted out IKEA woooaaaoh IKEA wooooaaaoh to the tune of that Dean Martin classic. Hilarious. The next day their team
drew nill nill with Trinidad and tobago, the biggest shock of the world cup so far.

However the fun had just begun as far as I was concerned. Monday afternoon the Aussies had their first game against Japan, and I went into the city with Ralf (the only other Aussie I know within 500km) and some mates from Roncalli house. After a dubious early goal from the Japanese, we suffered through 80 minutes of agony, watching the socceroos creep all over the
opposition like a french rash, but with no success, until the Jedi master Hiddink threw the dice and came up with 3 goals in the last five minutes. This sparked unprecenented scenes of jubilation on my part. I even hugged a Frenchman. The Bulgarians were with were also pretty happy, as they had bet on the Aussies in an accumulator bet and cashed in at the bookies.

I had to cut my celebrations short, as the next day a Croatian mate of mine was driving to Berlin to go to the Brazil Croatia game, and he and his brother were taking Ralf and me along for the ride. So we got up nice and early and got into Berlin at about lunch time. Now I thought Dortmund was going nuts for the world cup. Berlin was absolutely packed with all sorts of football fans. We wandered around for a while, soaking up the atmosphere until the Croats had to go to the Stadium. Ralf and I then went into the city centre, where we were told that they already had 200 000 people in front of the Brandenburg Gate watching the match on big screen, and they weren't letting anyone else in. We found a beer garden not too far away though, and sat down with about 200 Swedes to watch the match. Seriously, the Swedes are massive football fans, like to follow their team around, and are always friendly and up for a chat. I think the fact that alcohol is about 20% of the price it is in Sweden may also have some impact on their
numbers swarming Germany this summer. Anyway after finally getting into the fan area on the street that holds the Love Parade, we partied with a shitload of other fans from all over the world, until meeting up with the boys, who drove us home at 2am.

Getting home yesterday at 730am I was naturally a bit tired and emotional, and slept all day. Unfortunately there was no rest to be had, as that evening Germany was playing Poland in Dortmund, and the city was going mental. Basically about a third of the population of the Ruhr valley is polish, so the match was sort of like the Australia Greece match in Melbourne a few weeks back, but with a little more at stake, and a little more history adding to the antagonism. There were so many people in the city it was crazy. We couldn't get into either the main square or the viewing area next to the stadium, so we went home in disgust and watched the second
half on TV. After Germany scored a last minute winner you could hear the whole city going mental for about an hour. The commentator on telly said that over 300 people in the city centre had been arrested before the game had even finished. Naturally the riot police were kept busy well into the night dealing with the aftermath.

Well, that was a rather long winded account of my adventures over the past 3 or 4 weeks. I have now lost my voice and think I will sleep for a few days until the Aussies play Brazil on Sunday night.
Wish you all the best.
Ed