Back in the USA

Flew back from Germany on Saturday without too much jetlag and it's now back to the old grind. The trip and the festivities were amazing. Everyone was out waving their flags and chanting football songs (which suprisingly borrow a lot of melodies from children songs, e.g. one I heard from the Swedes was to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.")

The game at Kaiserslautern was great although quite meaningless after the English and Swedes drew in their match. Everyone was out for the Trinis (the Germans had adopted them) although there was a smattering of Paraguayan fans. We got our face painted and bought some T&T shirts on the street to join in on the fun. Our seats were 4th row behind the goal, not great because of the net but we were right there in the action, especially since most of the action seemed to happen on our half of the field.

Then it was off to Berlin on the overnight train. Probably not the best way to go, but Kaiserslautern is relatively small and without vacant hotel rooms when we were booking rooms. Still, it was quite the experience since we shared our compartment with Trinis until they got off at Frankfurt. Berlin was cool. At least, I thought so. Husni didn't think much of it, but I maintain that it was because he wasn't drinking nearly as much as when we were in Munich. The one thing Berlin can do better at though is definitely Mexican food. But I guess no one goes to Berlin for the burritos. I'll post again on the culinary experience in Germany and pics later as this post seems to be getting long.

Anyway, our last night in Germany we were back in Munich and back to the Marienplatz, the city center. And the place was packed. Swedes in town for their 2nd round game against Germany. Swiss and Ukrainian fans celebrating their advancements. Random Englishman and Americans. We taunted French fans and messed with a Norwegian reporter trying to do a story on the Swedes. I tried to learn a Swedish football song but I only heard the Swedish Chef. I also pretended to be Korean as I finally gave up trying to tell everyone I was American. Husni, being one of the brown folk, was alternatively mistaken for whichever jersey he was wearing that day: Spain, Brazil,etc. Except when he was wearing the German jersey, despite a large Turkish German population, go figure. Also, we were both stopped and made to take a picture with this lady because she wanted a picture with Trinidadians despite our repeated claims to be Americans.

Day 1 in Munich

Husni and I arrived in Munich at about 2:30 pm yesterday afternoon. I think we were both dead tired, but there was no way we were sleeping yet. So after getting to the hotel and dropping off our stuff, we got some Turkish sandwiches that it seems everyone in this part of town sells. It was mighty delicious.

 

Then it was off to a Bavarian tapas bar to watch Brazil play Australia. Afterwards, we headed onto the old Olympic Park to watch South Korea-France at the Fan Fest. The place was a massive party with Brazilians and Australians still partying from earlier in the day. We got 1L mini pitchers of Lowenbrau off the carousel bar. Talked drunkenly to a lot of drunken people from all over. Finally, I got to sleep but Husni wasn't finished drinking so he headed out to the Hostel Bar again.

 

Needless to say, the boy is still sleeping while I'm trying to rehydrate myself before we head out to the English Gardens for more drinking. Hopefully, we'll get to see more things than just the inside of beer halls.

Ah, sweet nectar of the gods (possibly)...

Becky was reproposing her peppermint soda idea tonight. I think that it would be a fine and refreshing drink. But during our discussion, I came up with another idea: bottled horchata. Horchata is a Mexican rice drink with hints of cinnamon and almond. Anyway, it's delicious but unfortunately there's no bottled form and the powder drink mix you can buy at Wal-Mart is just plain disgusting. If you want to drink horchata you have to find an establishment that makes it or make it yourself from scratch which takes a while... until now. A quick google search produced this article on Bev.net from last week. I haven't tried Rosa's Original yet and unfortunately the nearest Walgreen's that stocks it is near Myrtle Beach. And the Georgia locations are in Gainesville. I'm curious about the strawberry and melon flavors. Those sound like bad ideas but who knows? I must find a way to get a hold of some. hIn the meantime, we found out the Rio Grande restaurant down the street serves mini-pitchers of horchata for $2.50 with free refills on the weekends. So I now know where I can get my horchata fix in Charleston. Unfortunately, there are no giant tortas to be found along side them.

Yes, I know. I once believed that Wild-Cherry Pepsi was the nectar of the gods, but I now feel that a well-made horchata may be the nectar of the gods.

Kazaam!

The Heat won tonight saving me the indignity of cheering for the Pistons, really what was I thinking?

HOW I WATCHED THE GAME
So, I don't have cable and the game was on ESPN. I usually go to a bar or something to catch games on cable, but I just didn't feel like it much tonight. I was content on following the game using GameCast on espn.com but I found another way today. CCTV-5 which is a sports channel in China have rights to the game in China and they broadcast their feed online. The streaming stinks (it actually is barely existent) and the commentary is in Mandarin (which I don't understand), but I thought it would be a fun and interesting (but ultimately very frustrating) way to watch the game. I did catch this phrase in English by one of the announcers: "All time great coach." I assume he was talking about Riley. Anyway, fun times, fun times.