Yesterday I went to Freiburg, I cute little town of about 200,000 at the foot of the Black Forest to meet up with friends from Zurich. We spend our time strolling through the city, enjoying the beautiful weather, drinking coffee, shopping and having lunch in a "Biergarten" (think Zeitgeist in SF, an outdoors area with tables and chairs or plain benches where beer and simple food is served). We were passing many little coffee houses, pubs and restaurants on our way. I have to admit that I have never seen something like this. It was about the time that Portugal played Iran (2:0 for Portugal by the way). There were big screen TV's or projectors in almost every place. People of all origins sipping a coffee or drinking a glass of wine or beer and watching the game "together". It seems to be one of the great themes of this world cup, to be "together" with other people to watch the games. Even a lot of shops have TV's installed ..... it seems to entertain the guys while their girl friends or wives are shopping.
Soccer everywhere ....
The so called public viewing places (they basically built big stages with huge video walls and stadium like seating) draw thousands of people to watch the games on big screens, in big cities like Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt or Stuttgart these places attract 10s of thousands of people, sometimes even more than 300 to 500 thousand. There are flags of all nationalities everywhere, people are were the national shirts of their favorite teams ..... boy I can not tell you how many Ronaldos and Ballacks are running through the streets .....
The favorite colors seem to be black, red and gold - the national colors of Germany. I have to say that it is about time. Yes, we do have a dark history and we should never forget the bad things we have done (ever), but it does not mean that you should not be proud of your home country. Even where I am staying right now (with my god child) and the family is really not into soccer .... although I am about to change that with the boys ha ha ha .... they have put out a German flag. There are flags on cars, scooters, bikes, strollers, houses, faces ...... stores have even special sections where they sell flags, baseball hats, make up to paint the national flag on your face, there are folks that air brush the national flag on your body .... it is just fun to be here during this exciting time for soccer.
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