Fußball Verrücktheit!!!

Ja, es ist total wahnsinnig. So, as the majority of our blog readers are probably unaware, the European soccer championship is taking place these days. Last week we ventured out to try to watch the quarter final game in which Germany played. The weather was a bit rainy, so we tried to go to a pub to watch the game, but every place was completely packed. Did I mention that they really, really like soccer over here? We ended up finding a slightly hidden beer garden with TV's outside, and watched as Germany took it to Portugal, and the town went crazy. Here are a couple videos we took on our way home:




On Friday night Turkey played Croatia. I should mention here that Cologne has a sizable Turkish population, and the reaction to wins by the Turkish team rival or exceed to what we hear after the Germany results. We hadn't planned on watching the game, but instead went to see some kind of performance art deal, the less about which is said, the better (Sarah: it was so awful! Performance art is DEAD). After sneaking out midway through, we were a bit bummed, and went to one of favorite places in Cologne, the Aachener Weier to drown our sorrows in Weizen and pommes frittes. Of course, the game was playing there, and I watched about 70 minutes of really boring football, while Sarah slowly drifted off to dreamland. We decided to go home, with a few minutes left in the second over time half remaining and still no score. After we had walked a bit, a loud but short lived roar echoed across the darkened vale we were crossing on our way home, which I now realize was a cry of despair as Croatia scored the go-ahead goal, with time almost expiring. We walked a bit further, and suddenly bedlam erupted in every direction, corresponding to an amazing goal by Turkey to tie it as time ran out. The rest of our walk home was punctuated by cheers each time Turkey made a penalty shot. As we entered our apartment, we could start to hear the passing cars laying on their horns, so we knew that Turkey had won, and were constantly reminded of this until at least 2am.

Tomorrow night Germany plays Turkey in the semi-finals. This is possibly the worst possible outcome for people who like to sleep, because no matter the result, half the city will be going nuts. Go Team (whichever)!