EU 2008 - First night

My hopes of watching "Henry VIII" on TV were dashed when WiseKid announced that we had to go visit Auntie in Wedding (one of the two Berlin districts with a high percentage of people of Turkish descent) *right now*. Seems he had some buddies who wanted him to be out and about the town doing silly things. I have always told him that he can say: My Mom is sooooo stupid, she won't let me. And we had to leave Right Now, so the "friends" would go away, too.

So off we drove to the wilds of Wedding. Did I mention that there were flags up in Berlin? The flag industry is having a great year, I suppose. Not only did guys have their flag ears on, they had buddies hanging out the window with monster flags, screaming that they were going to crush the Portugese. There were flags taped to lampposts; guys wearing flags and T-Shirts and what all.

I had a nice visit with Auntie while the game was on. We sat up on the balcony on the fourth floor with coffee and water, enjoying the unbelievable quiet of the place. Wedding is normally loud, but everyone was indoors, watching TV. And nothing much was happening on the pitch.

Suddenly, a sigh, a groan. A goal for Portugal. And quiet again. Just before the end, a small bit of cheering, probably the Germans cheering the second goal for Portugal. The Turks lost, 2:0. I collected up WiseKid and we went down to the car, Auntie came with us.

It was very, very quiet outside. The sidewalks are normally teeming with kids and dogs and people and cars. It was quieter than a suburb. Two men leaned against a BMW flagged for Turkey, speaking quietly. Other than that - nothing. We drove through almost empty streets (a bunch of buses and cars at the Ku-Damm, nothing major) home.

We'll see what tonight brings - Germany vs. Poland, there are still a lot of old scores needing settled, it seems.