Let the Games BEGIN!!!
Yesterday, I accompanied my German friend, Marina and a group of her crazy fußball fan friends to Hamburg to watch the Fan Fest of the 1st German soccer game in the European Championships! Wow, do the Germans like their Fußball!!
We started out on the train to Hamburg, which takes about 30 minutes. The festivities had already started because many people on the train were also going to the Fan Fest. Cheers started to rise up from sections of the trains and were accompanied by bells, whistles and loud horns! This was only the beginning...
When we arrived in Hamburg, we had to take a subway to the arena. As we walked down onto the platform, all I can see is a sea of red, yellow and black. Piles of German fans swarm the compartments of the U-Bahn and for the next 5 minutes, I am trapped next to dozens of loud, shouting, chanting, wall pounding, subway rocking, crazed Germans!
The Fan Fest was held in an outdoor, open arena with a giant screen for all to see. The few pitiful Polish Fans (who Germany was playing) were clustered together in the middle of the crowd. Other than the Poles, the only colors to be seen were RED, YELLOW and BLACK!
The next two hours of the game were so awesome. You know how in high school, everyone knows the same cheers and sayings? Well here...an entire NATION knows songs, chants, cheers and expressions. And they all sing them in unison with motions and jumping and craziness. And when the fantastic German soccer team made a goal...it was like being in a moshpit! I've never seen such exhuberant people! They all hug and jump and scream and chant and kiss! It was fantastic.
Lucky for me, Germany won 2-0! The train ride home was tiring (as it didn't leave until midnight) but the excitement of the night never left. As I rode my bike home from the train station...I could hear the chants from inside houses and around corners of the devoted fans still in celebration.
We started out on the train to Hamburg, which takes about 30 minutes. The festivities had already started because many people on the train were also going to the Fan Fest. Cheers started to rise up from sections of the trains and were accompanied by bells, whistles and loud horns! This was only the beginning...
When we arrived in Hamburg, we had to take a subway to the arena. As we walked down onto the platform, all I can see is a sea of red, yellow and black. Piles of German fans swarm the compartments of the U-Bahn and for the next 5 minutes, I am trapped next to dozens of loud, shouting, chanting, wall pounding, subway rocking, crazed Germans!
The Fan Fest was held in an outdoor, open arena with a giant screen for all to see. The few pitiful Polish Fans (who Germany was playing) were clustered together in the middle of the crowd. Other than the Poles, the only colors to be seen were RED, YELLOW and BLACK!
The next two hours of the game were so awesome. You know how in high school, everyone knows the same cheers and sayings? Well here...an entire NATION knows songs, chants, cheers and expressions. And they all sing them in unison with motions and jumping and craziness. And when the fantastic German soccer team made a goal...it was like being in a moshpit! I've never seen such exhuberant people! They all hug and jump and scream and chant and kiss! It was fantastic.
Lucky for me, Germany won 2-0! The train ride home was tiring (as it didn't leave until midnight) but the excitement of the night never left. As I rode my bike home from the train station...I could hear the chants from inside houses and around corners of the devoted fans still in celebration.
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