What the Hell is Fußball?

Right...
Before I get to the football: Prague..



Prague itself was hot and humid, my hostel dorm room (1 room for 33 people!) covered from top to toe in graffiti (ok, that was kind of cool), and the Czech people (with a few exceptions) stony faced and passively un-warm. But the food and beer are cheap and hey... the weather was grand!



Driving in to Czech republic by bus through all the industrial little towns, all of the images I have in my head of eastern bloc countries (thanks to the countless BBC documentaries I watched from my hotel rooms in Australia) seemed to be true - in a word, ghetto.

Riding out by train, however, was completely another story; wending along a river dotted with small smokey villages, and a mountainous backdrop that often reminded me a little of home...


So anyway,

Berlin!




Berlin is awesome, especially in 30 degree heat and especially during this particular football season, World Cup 2006 in Germany. You would be forgiven for thinking that nothing else existed in the cosmos besides football, sunshine, beer, and oddly enough, Brazilian fans. 3 games per day and for an hour and a half (plus) per game, fans line the streets of Berlin to view the matches from open-air cafes, pubs, apartment windows, ice-cream shops, and the massive "Fan Mile", a major street in the centre of Berlin (Straße des 17 Juni) which has been closed for the whole month and filled with beer stands and gargantuan screens.



As I booked my hostel quite late, I only managed to score my first 3 nights here before the city became booked out for various football matches. Lucky, then, that Berliners are such warm people; going in to buy an icecream at about 10:30pm Monday night, I entered into a lively conversation with the girl behind the counter about New Zealand, and upon explaining my position was promptly given a warm sofa to sleep on and an unofficial tour-guide of Berlin!





So, after watching quite a few games of football in the streets and pubs, I must say I´ve been enjoying it like I never enjoyed rugby back home. The atmosphere here can be quite amazing sometimes...



Germany vs Poland, 0-0 and about 88 minutes in when Germany finally scores a goal.

The entire pub cheers and screams!
The entire street outside cheers and screams!!
86 million Germans all over Germany cheer and scream at exactly the same time!!!

And despite it being a Wednsday night, the entire city of Berlin for the entire night goes BALLISTIC.


You can´t buy tickets to events like this. The tooting, screaming cars with German (and assorted other) flags hanging out of every window. The cheering, singing fans stamping and bashing their hands on the metros and trams so hard you´re afraid you´re going to derail. Me with my German flag smeared across my cheek singing in "German" with every flag-clad and swerving young German gentleman walking the same street as me.
(Pity that I left my camera behind!)

And as a few people pointed out, if thats what happens when Germany win a match, what´s going to happen if they win the tournament?...



Well, football aside, this ends my German section of my travels. Tuesday afternoon I fly to a very different lifestyle for the next 6 weeks or so - Turkey!



So till then - auf wiedersehen.