I arrived, we went grocery shopping, showered and we were instantly greeted by Heike, had a beer or two and were off to fanmeile for the Germany vs Argentina game. Ah! So I had heard great things about this so called fanmeile, but I hadn’t seen it yet. Just pictures. We arrived to a place that held 350,000 people. You could bring in one bottle per person, either water or beer. We chose beer. Great choice eh? Needless to say, it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever experienced. It was like 40 degrees Celsius, we had beer, and there was this huge water ‘shower’ thing that was set up and thank goodness for that or we would have melted.
Talk about cool though, tons of people, jerseys everywhere, face paint, horns, beer, and a hell of a good time. It was so cool to be around so many people who lived and breathed Germany. Needless to say the game was fantastic and the crowd went absolutely wild when they won. So damn cool.
It was also so cool for Heike to be there as well; Heike is Petey’s mum and absolutely hilarious. We did a day trip to a town called Potsdam and it was so neat. We walked around a ton, saw the sights and saw the Dutch district as well. So much fun. We had a blast of course. One of our first stops was a Versaille type castle called “Schloss Sans Souci”. Umm absolutely gorgeous. It was so cool to walk around the property and just picture back in the day when it would have been such a lively place.
So Potsdam was a super cool place to do a day trip and Berlin of course was sensational. We did the sights of course: the TV Tower, Check point Charlie, the East Side Gallery of the Berlin wall and so much more. It was fantastic. Tons of pictures needless to say but just a blast overall.
On the Tuesday, July 6th we did a faux-Petey’s birthday party. We had made a chocolate cake (you know I love her when I actually put the melted chocolate on top – yuckkkk) and I even decorated it with smarties! Turns out to be a damn cute cake after all. So Heike and I had gone shopping that day and made the most educated purchase of all: beer goggles. So fantastic. We had planned to do a boat cruise on the Spree river from 630-930pm. Wonderful. We had grabbed a late dinner (mcds unfortunately) which we then were advised we were not permitted to eat on board…shit. So we resorted to drinking green and red Berliner Weisse: delicious berry and apple-ish flavored beer that you can only get in Berlin. Cool eh? Cool and delicious. It was a fantastic night, and good weather actually as well. We laughed a ton and made nice with the guys that worked on the boat. Another successful evening.
Of course, Germany played Spain on the 7th and that was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. How do you cheer for both right? Unreal. Of course we had a huge pre drink in front of the government buildings with Heike and just got ready to give it our all at the game. Not shocking at all, it was silence when Germany lost. However, such a good time at fanmeile again.
We took Heike to the airport the morning she left, surprised her actually and gosh was she thrilled. It was the least we could do considering we had had a blast with her touring around Berlin and such. The perfect way to start my Berlin time.
While Petey finished up her last day of interning Toby and I took to the town to tour some more. We made sure to stop at the Holocaust memorial and Brandenburger Gate. I even snapped a photo with the Berlin Bear mascot! Too funny.
Talk about timing the third place game was on Petey’s birthday and Germany would be playing Uruguay. Wow, wow, wow. A friend of Petey’s, Toby, had come up for a couple days and would be there to help us celebrate. Celebrate is the understatement of the year.
We got up, started drinking, jagger to be precise, and then some beers on the way. It was the day of all days and a hot one at that. It was hot, hot, hot and we were melting. And then there from the corner of our eye we spotted a water sprinkler. Heck yes. How wonderful! We darted over and started frolicking through the waters. Then all of a sudden Petey sorta screamed my name and said her toe killed. I ran over and well….a pool of blood to say the least. We took some pictures (priorities people) and then dashed into Mcds (yes, that’s where the sprinkler was) and we got some gauze. I did her foot back up and off we went. We stopped at a kebab place, and had some dinner, more drinks and I re-did the gauze again. It was a deep cut, but she said we would wait before anything else. It was hard to gage stitches wise and anyways, turns out next morning I made the call that stitches could totally be possible and we were off to the hospital. Thankfully Germany won the game, so it wasn’t a totally ridiculous evening, although ridiculous is our middle names.
How do we attract such stupidity eh? The two of us, our relationship is based on hospital bills. Ha. Me breaking a collarbone, then her breaking a toe, and now her needing stitches.
The brave girl got 2 stitches and was ‘out of commission’ for 2 weeks (aka no sand, no water). Under such strict orders we planned to go to: Budapest, Vienna and Prague. Ha.
The stories continue. Her birthday was hilarious, although ridiculous, and apart from the stitches the birthday was a total success. Beer goggles saved the night.
But honestly…when do beer goggles not make the night?
We had one game left: the Spain vs Netherlands game and baby was that ever intense. We ended up at some Irish pub, which suited us fine. Got some food and perfect seats for the game. Talk about intense? Everyone was screaming and yelling at the screen and then at the last 2 minutes of the game…the screen turns off. The freaking screen at the bar shuts off. The crowd went wild alright. Luckily, they got things under control and asap put the game back on. Unreal. Way to save the day, but a good night just the same. I was rooting for Spain, of course, and then Petey was dressed in orange for Netherlands. Fantastic.
The walk home was a good one, bitter since Germans bleed soccer and are still uber bitter, but what a cool experience. The phone call from Spain was wild as well: talk about an excited country to say the least!
Berlin has treated me exceptionally well and we’re having a blast. We booked last minute tickets to Budapest, Vienna and Prague.
Up next: Eastern Europe.
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