A perennial expat muses about her recent move from Zurich to Munich and her travels around Germany, Europe, and the world. Currently: bracing for Oktoberfest.
It's a fashion show! It's an interpretive dance! It's... new soccer uniforms?
Well played, Schweinsteiger.
And yes, more honking in Germany this evening. On to the semifinal!
That would be for Turkey's victory over Switzerland this evening. Sadly, host Switzerland has made a quick exit from the Euro Cup after losing its first two games. But I am happy that Turkey has a chance to continue on. Germany has such a large Turkish population that Turkey feels like a second home team.
* In Europe the traditional way to celebrate your team's big soccer victory is to drive around in your car and honk. See previous discussion here and here.
Last week this clock went up in the Zurich train station. It counts down the minutes to the kick off at the first game of the Euro 2008, a year away.
5.4 million soccer fans are expected to swarm into Switzerland for this event (which the Swiss are co-hosting with the Austrians), coming close to doubling the population of this little country. At the same time, they're trying to crack down on forced prostitution before the event. (Apparently large soccer tournaments tend to lead to an influx of prostitutes. Who knew?)
Wanting to fit in one more trip before the visitor parade, we went to visit Sara and husband in a French suburb of Geneva this weekend. This gave us a chance to see first-hand some of the celebrations after France’s unexpected victory over Brazil in the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
The cheering and honking started immediately after the final whistle, and didn’t stop until sometime after we had gone to bed. There was a man dressed up like a giant soccer ball celebrating on a neighboring balcony (alas, it was too dark for the pictures to come out). If people were getting this crazy within the privacy of their own apartments, I reasoned, what wild, wacky stuff must be going on out on the street! We quickly donned our shoes and headed out to enjoy that rare beast, the French Victory.
We followed the noise to what seemed to be the main intersection of the little town, to find a crowd of all ages, races, and genders (yes, all 2 of them). Cars continuously drove through honking, with various passengers hanging various body parts out the windows and screaming.
Highlights of the festivities included a group of colorfully-dressed African woman dancing in the street, soccer moms trying to keep track of their young kids, guys running around holding lit fireworks, and a beer-bellied man on his balcony watching over it all in nothing but his bikini underwear. Don't worry, we got his picture.
So we watched the last Swiss World Cup game at El Lokal along with a couple hundred other hopeful Swiss fans. Despite Ali's and my enthusiastic American-style face painting, things did not go well for Schwiiz. They lost to Ukraine in penalty kicks. We were all sad, especially because it meant there would not be another riot in Zurich.
I guess it's back to rooting for Italy for me.
Last night we decided to go check out the large stadium-like thing that has popped up on Sechseläuten Platz. After a bag search by some unfriendly security guards (who whipped my water b
ottle out of my purse and into the trash faster than you can say “the ref is blind”), we were allowed into the corralled area. Inside, there were several drink and bratwurst stands, and an imposing wall of stadium bleachers across from a very large screen. It immediately became clear to me what the city was trying to do with this set-up: they were containing the mess. There were piles of trash everywhere – mainly used plastic beer cups and discarded food wrappers. Such rubbish is usually never seen in this pristine city.
We bought a couple caipirinhas at one of the stands and wandered amongst the crowd for a little bit. We sat down to watch the beginning of the Poland-Ecuador game, and noticed the crowd seemed to be pretty evenly split between supporters for the two teams. We ran into Scott’s German teacher, who was there with a Polish friend. A few minutes into the game, we decided to escape the corral and go find some dinner.
After consuming some delicious sushi at the nearby Globus, we wandered around the area and came across a large, outdoor restaurant/bar which was also showing the game on several screens. It was a beautiful night out, so we had a seat and watched a little more of the game. This was a much more enjoyable experience than the big corral had been, since we were in comfortable chairs and drinking out of real glasses. And not surrounded by piles of trash.
Along with many other locales around the city, the corral will be showing all of the World Cup games live. Entrance is always free, but actual seats in the stands costs CHF 10 for all of the Switzerland games and for the finals. And, it is "mit food und drinks", as announced by a sign outside:
I am, now that I’ve purchased these charming soccer-ball-themed napkins. Oh, and these soccer pistachios and soccer pretzel balls.
For those who live under a rock (or in the US), the World Cup starts tonight in Germany. Switzerland is taking part for the first time since 1994, and the merchandisers are finally cashing in. Also, giant TV screens are going up all over the city, so the Swiss games can be watched in large, beer-soaked crowds (the way Scott likes to). I suspect our normally quiet city is about to see a little rowdiness, especially if Switzerland manages to win a few games. I assume that me eating soccer pistachios while I watch their matches will help them out. Or better, I could burn some soccer candles.
