Day 13
I was able to get tickets to the Poland-Costa Rica match a couple of days ago, so instead of going back to Kaiserslautern to watch the Paraguay-T&T match, we chose to try a new stadium...in Hanover. Luckily, it was about an hour away from our hotel in Bendesdorf, so staying near Hamburg was a good choice since we didn't have very far to drive for a couple of days. The morning was uneventful as we drove to Hanover. As we pulled into town, I quickly realized what the mood at the stadium would be...yeah, it was all red-and-white...the colors of Poland. Once inside the stadium, I would have sworn every Pole drove all the way across Germany to watch their team, even though at this time the team was technically out of the tournament (they were not going to advance to the next round). Of course, Costa Rica had been eliminated as well, so I knew it was going to be a battle for LAST PLACE. Here are a few photos of where we sat and what the remaining sections of the stadium looked like:
That's right, a sea of red and white...at least I have the extremely pale-white taken care of! The match itself was quite interesting...both teams were competing for last place, and I mean I think they were both trying to "win" the award/prestige. Costa Rica is in the USA's region, so we must play them in qualifying, and so I have seen them quite often. They are probably the most cheating-est team in our region (that says quite alot since Mexico is also in our region). I've also seen Poland play several times lately since my boo is from Poland and will watch them if they are in town...and they too are a cheating team. The say is "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" but I think the motto for both of these teams is "when the going gets tough, try and out-cheat your opponent". They also say that cheaters never win, but in this game, I think it was a competition to see whose cheating methods would be better...and Poland pulled it out in the end. The crowd itself was probably about 90% Polish fans, all wearing red-and-white, and throughout the match, they were very...uh, raucous I guess is a calm word for it.
The one thing that really bothered me was that at one point, a player kicked a ball and it went into the stands. At soccer matches, you are supposed to throw the ball back (because they are $125 balls, not the $5-$10 balls like in baseball where you get to keep them). The person who caught the ball put it under his seat, and when the ushers came to tell him to throw it back, they did the "hide the ball" play where all of the surrounding Polish fans passed the ball around so the usher couldn't find it while the entire rest of the section of Polish fans stood up and were screaming obseneties at the usher. It was as if they felt they were special and had some entitlement to the ball simply because they paid for a ticket to the match and the seat was near the pitch. The ball never made it back onto the field, which was disappointing. We ended up leaving the match about 5 minutes early.
On our way out, we saw these police on horseback, and the one on the right had put a temporary tatoo of the German flag on the forehead of his horse:
That is just a glimpse of the hysteria that has taken over this country. Even at the Poland-CR match, which was being played at the same time as the Germany-Ecuador match, whenever a German fan found out that Germany had scored in their match, they stood up and cheered for Germany, and all of the other Germans in the stadium likewise stood up and cheered. Pretty soon, we could hear "Deutschland...Deutschland...Deutschlannd" chants as every German knew what was happening and stood up to cheer. It was soon drowned out with a chorus of boos, whistles, and "Polska...Polska...Polska" chants by the other 90% of the fans to cover up the German's excitement.
One observation that I find great is that no matter where people are coming from, and no matter the teams playing on the field, they will wear their country's colors and wave their countrie's flag. The theme of the World Cup this year is "A Time to Make Friends" and everywhere we go, we meet and talk to great people from all over the world. Football truly is a uniting language.
After the match, we headed back to the hotel then over to the Wella's house for dinner. This is my third trip to Germany and each time (this one included), the highlight of the entire trip is sitting out on the back patio with the Wellas for a bar-b-que/dinner and plenty of chatting. Although Lars and Svea (and Svea's boyfriend, Christof) are all fluent in English, the parents aren't as capable. What makes these dinner so great for me is that even though we don't always understand each other's language, there are enough of us to translate that it makes everything relatively simple. I really enjoy the warmth and kindness extended by what I consider my "second family". They have always opened their homes and taken us in when we are there. When I'm on a long trip like I am now, it is really nice to just sit down with family and relax...just like back home. All the feelings of being away from home and in a foreign land disappear in just one night. I can never thank them enough for the time and effort they have made in meeting with us, putting us up, and doing things with/for us. Here is the typical scene at dinner:
The one "down side" to these dinners (if you'd consider it a down side) is that I can never walk back to the car...I have to be rolled. I warned Chad in the morning to pace himself on eating during the day because the last bar-b-que that I had with the Wellas, I went home sooooo stuffed. The night before, after our match in Hamburg, I had called Lars to ask him if there was a Mexican restaurant in the area, and he said that Germans really don't like Mexican food. So, on the way to the match today, Lars called and told me that his company imports foodstuff from Mexico to sell in Germany, and since we had a hankerin' for some Mexican the night before that he'd bring some to the dinner. I looked at Chad and told him we were really in trouble because I knew that Gustal would still prepare his normal amount on the grill...then add a round of Mexican food...ugh (or YUM)!
As we sat down to dinner, there were tortilla chips, guacamole, salsa, cheese, tortillas, refried beans, a salad, a tomato/onion salsa-like "salad" and other assorted Mexican foods. After that, the brats (or in some locales, "bracks") began to flow like...well, I guess brats don't really flow. Gustal had made brats...about 12 inches long...for each of us. Before I had finished my brat, he had finished grilling turkey and chicken breasts...now it was beginning to get pretty overwhelming. At this point, I think my eyes started glazing over as I think I (luckily) missed the ribs and pork chops that were also passed around. The finihsing touch on the grill were extremely good chicken wings (which I could only manage one). WOW...that's all I can say. The food was great, the company was even better, and a good night was had by all. This night has again been the highlight of my trip, and I look forward to another night of joviality with these same folks again, hopefully soon.
Cheers,
Rocco
That's right, a sea of red and white...at least I have the extremely pale-white taken care of! The match itself was quite interesting...both teams were competing for last place, and I mean I think they were both trying to "win" the award/prestige. Costa Rica is in the USA's region, so we must play them in qualifying, and so I have seen them quite often. They are probably the most cheating-est team in our region (that says quite alot since Mexico is also in our region). I've also seen Poland play several times lately since my boo is from Poland and will watch them if they are in town...and they too are a cheating team. The say is "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" but I think the motto for both of these teams is "when the going gets tough, try and out-cheat your opponent". They also say that cheaters never win, but in this game, I think it was a competition to see whose cheating methods would be better...and Poland pulled it out in the end. The crowd itself was probably about 90% Polish fans, all wearing red-and-white, and throughout the match, they were very...uh, raucous I guess is a calm word for it.
The one thing that really bothered me was that at one point, a player kicked a ball and it went into the stands. At soccer matches, you are supposed to throw the ball back (because they are $125 balls, not the $5-$10 balls like in baseball where you get to keep them). The person who caught the ball put it under his seat, and when the ushers came to tell him to throw it back, they did the "hide the ball" play where all of the surrounding Polish fans passed the ball around so the usher couldn't find it while the entire rest of the section of Polish fans stood up and were screaming obseneties at the usher. It was as if they felt they were special and had some entitlement to the ball simply because they paid for a ticket to the match and the seat was near the pitch. The ball never made it back onto the field, which was disappointing. We ended up leaving the match about 5 minutes early.
On our way out, we saw these police on horseback, and the one on the right had put a temporary tatoo of the German flag on the forehead of his horse:
That is just a glimpse of the hysteria that has taken over this country. Even at the Poland-CR match, which was being played at the same time as the Germany-Ecuador match, whenever a German fan found out that Germany had scored in their match, they stood up and cheered for Germany, and all of the other Germans in the stadium likewise stood up and cheered. Pretty soon, we could hear "Deutschland...Deutschland...Deutschlannd" chants as every German knew what was happening and stood up to cheer. It was soon drowned out with a chorus of boos, whistles, and "Polska...Polska...Polska" chants by the other 90% of the fans to cover up the German's excitement.
One observation that I find great is that no matter where people are coming from, and no matter the teams playing on the field, they will wear their country's colors and wave their countrie's flag. The theme of the World Cup this year is "A Time to Make Friends" and everywhere we go, we meet and talk to great people from all over the world. Football truly is a uniting language.
After the match, we headed back to the hotel then over to the Wella's house for dinner. This is my third trip to Germany and each time (this one included), the highlight of the entire trip is sitting out on the back patio with the Wellas for a bar-b-que/dinner and plenty of chatting. Although Lars and Svea (and Svea's boyfriend, Christof) are all fluent in English, the parents aren't as capable. What makes these dinner so great for me is that even though we don't always understand each other's language, there are enough of us to translate that it makes everything relatively simple. I really enjoy the warmth and kindness extended by what I consider my "second family". They have always opened their homes and taken us in when we are there. When I'm on a long trip like I am now, it is really nice to just sit down with family and relax...just like back home. All the feelings of being away from home and in a foreign land disappear in just one night. I can never thank them enough for the time and effort they have made in meeting with us, putting us up, and doing things with/for us. Here is the typical scene at dinner:
The one "down side" to these dinners (if you'd consider it a down side) is that I can never walk back to the car...I have to be rolled. I warned Chad in the morning to pace himself on eating during the day because the last bar-b-que that I had with the Wellas, I went home sooooo stuffed. The night before, after our match in Hamburg, I had called Lars to ask him if there was a Mexican restaurant in the area, and he said that Germans really don't like Mexican food. So, on the way to the match today, Lars called and told me that his company imports foodstuff from Mexico to sell in Germany, and since we had a hankerin' for some Mexican the night before that he'd bring some to the dinner. I looked at Chad and told him we were really in trouble because I knew that Gustal would still prepare his normal amount on the grill...then add a round of Mexican food...ugh (or YUM)!
As we sat down to dinner, there were tortilla chips, guacamole, salsa, cheese, tortillas, refried beans, a salad, a tomato/onion salsa-like "salad" and other assorted Mexican foods. After that, the brats (or in some locales, "bracks") began to flow like...well, I guess brats don't really flow. Gustal had made brats...about 12 inches long...for each of us. Before I had finished my brat, he had finished grilling turkey and chicken breasts...now it was beginning to get pretty overwhelming. At this point, I think my eyes started glazing over as I think I (luckily) missed the ribs and pork chops that were also passed around. The finihsing touch on the grill were extremely good chicken wings (which I could only manage one). WOW...that's all I can say. The food was great, the company was even better, and a good night was had by all. This night has again been the highlight of my trip, and I look forward to another night of joviality with these same folks again, hopefully soon.
Cheers,
Rocco
posted by Rocco at 11:44 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home