It's almost Game Time!

I had an appointment at the local Rathaus this afternoon and was looking forward to a leisurely stroll over the open air market that is on the place in front of it. I thought it strange as I arrived for my appointment, but I thought nothing of it.

Coming out at quarter to five I found the sellers madly packing their wares - although the market is officially open until six and you can often still buy stuff until six-thirty.

Then it dawned on me: Germany's next game is at six. As I was buying some fruit - desperately marked down for dumping purposes so they could get to the game, the guy said "Yes, five-thirty I'm out of here!". I had a good laugh with him - he's Turkish, and I joked that Turkey-Germany would be a great final game.

As I walked home a car drove by decked out in Croating flag ears and a big flag hanging out the window, held by some screaming twenty-somethings. As they passed, a little girl on a little bicycle with training wheels answered back: Deutschland! Deutschland! Deutschland! Her mom was a bit embarrassed, so of course she kept it up. I just smiled and said: They have to start young.

Someone from our house just came in, madly pedaling his bike. Must be game time, from the haste with which he ditched his bike.

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.

Europe goes into Suspended Animation

Yup, it's that time again. A major soccer festival - this time the European Soccer Championship, fought out in Austria and Switzerland - will suspend operations throughout much of Europe for the next three weeks. No one will get any work done, as they will be nursing hangovers from the games the night before and talking about the games to come.

The stores have been selling flags and black-red-gold (German) or red-white (Turkish) anything (shirts, skirts, wigs, noisemakers, makeup, underwear, cups, ice cube trays, ... you name it) for weeks. Flags are hanging all over the place, and the horrible American tradition of putting flags out the car windows has been heartily embraced in Berlin. One, two, three German flags; a German and a Turkish flag to show double allegiance; flags for all the games being played today - you name it, it's chugging down the autobahn.

The newspapers have been beating the drums, and making up news if needs be, for some time now. The Springer newspaper in Poland printed a terrible picture of the Polish national soccer trainer holding up the chopped off heads of two of the favorite German players; the Springer newspapers in Germany were shocked and demanded that Something Be Done. Appears to sell newspapers.

Other newspapers print blather they either forgot to check their facts on or that no one really cares about. Germany and Austria's scandalous game was played 1:0 and not 1:1, notes one of my resident soccer experts, as the Berliner Zeitung registers this morning. And we read about all sorts of personal stories about the stars and would-be stars.

ProSieben is showing a new version of Henry VIII with a handsome, well-trained actor playing the part of the young Henry VIII opposite the game this evening. While my men are off in some public viewing area (which is German for watching sports together with strangers outdoors while getting drunk, not viewing the dead in a funeral home - although from the looks of the German team, there is not much difference I suppose), guess what I will be doing this evening!