Football.
The main gathering for today's game in Berlin was in Tiergarten Park, directly behind the Brandenburg Gate. I got there about an hour and a half before game time and they had stopped letting people in, there must have been a quarter of a million or more. The bulk were German football fans, far outnumbering the turks (10 to 1). After about a tense hour trying to make it in, with a horde of people trying to push their way past the security gate I gave up and started walking back. Near the Hauptbanhof there was a very large screen playing for a private party, and a couple thousand people standing in the street trying to see that screen. I figured it was just as good a spot as any.
There were a lot more Turks present here, and they sure out cheered zee Germans for a while. The game was a pitched back and forth, one side would score - its fans would start screaming and running around - being sure to rub it in the face of the nearest person wearing the opposing colors. Germany was down 1 at first and it really killed the mood. Then they scored and things held at 1-1 for quite a while. Then Germany scored again, and Turkey scored again.At the end of regulation it was tied and they went into the first overtime. Less than a minute into the first overtime Germany scored the winning goal.
The city went, and still is, crazy. The entire city was out in the streets chanting and yelling. It's a chilling thing to hear thousands of Germans chanting, even if it's out of joy.
I'm really glad to have been able to see it all first hand.
I also found a PC Express compact flash reader (finally, I had been looking for over a month) as well as doubled my memory card capacity. It was such a warm feeling to walk into a huge consumer electronic store, they have been impossible to find in Europe. The upside of this is that I can now edit and post my pictures at leisure .
I check out of this hostel in the morning and I think I am off to Amsterdam. I saw most of the tourist stuff and museums I wanted to see, the only ones I really missed were the Luftwaffe museum and Potsdam.
I have a little less than three weeks until I have to be in Paris. Amsterdam is going to take 3-5 days. Bruges will take maybe 2. Brussels maybe 2. That leaves me with quite a bit left over. I may hit Paris early or I may check out Denmark. The joy of being flexible with my schedule is that I don't decide until the night before if I'm ready to move on or not.
I'm skipping Sweden and doing London instead. I've had 2 straight months of difficult communications, I really want the comfort of being able to speak English and not struggle through every interaction.
I'm still planning on coming home a little bit early, I think I need the downtime at home.
I will post pictures once I get a chance to go through them. I still do not have access to the pictures up to Vienna, I probably wont be able to post those until I get home.
There were a lot more Turks present here, and they sure out cheered zee Germans for a while. The game was a pitched back and forth, one side would score - its fans would start screaming and running around - being sure to rub it in the face of the nearest person wearing the opposing colors. Germany was down 1 at first and it really killed the mood. Then they scored and things held at 1-1 for quite a while. Then Germany scored again, and Turkey scored again.At the end of regulation it was tied and they went into the first overtime. Less than a minute into the first overtime Germany scored the winning goal.
The city went, and still is, crazy. The entire city was out in the streets chanting and yelling. It's a chilling thing to hear thousands of Germans chanting, even if it's out of joy.
I'm really glad to have been able to see it all first hand.
I also found a PC Express compact flash reader (finally, I had been looking for over a month) as well as doubled my memory card capacity. It was such a warm feeling to walk into a huge consumer electronic store, they have been impossible to find in Europe. The upside of this is that I can now edit and post my pictures at leisure .
I check out of this hostel in the morning and I think I am off to Amsterdam. I saw most of the tourist stuff and museums I wanted to see, the only ones I really missed were the Luftwaffe museum and Potsdam.
I have a little less than three weeks until I have to be in Paris. Amsterdam is going to take 3-5 days. Bruges will take maybe 2. Brussels maybe 2. That leaves me with quite a bit left over. I may hit Paris early or I may check out Denmark. The joy of being flexible with my schedule is that I don't decide until the night before if I'm ready to move on or not.
I'm skipping Sweden and doing London instead. I've had 2 straight months of difficult communications, I really want the comfort of being able to speak English and not struggle through every interaction.
I'm still planning on coming home a little bit early, I think I need the downtime at home.
I will post pictures once I get a chance to go through them. I still do not have access to the pictures up to Vienna, I probably wont be able to post those until I get home.