Jawohl Deutschland!

Let me say first that I wish I could upload pictures to go along with my post but it will have to wait. Sorry. Hopefully will be able to do that really soon.

I began walking around the lovely Berlin city center around 11am on Friday and began seeing tons of people sporting German soccer gear, blowing horns and whistles like it was New Year's Eve, screaming "Jawohl Deutschland!!!" (literally means "Yeaaa Germany") and engaging in general festivities and pregaming the day away. That was only the beginning.

The exodus began in the early afternoon from all sections of Berlin to the Fan Mile (the Street of June 17th as mentioned previously) with nearly every single person in attendance displaying/wearing some sort of German pride apparel: flags, face paint, flags, shirts, flags, wigs, flags, and more flags. Even I had a German lei that consisted of (what else) black, red and yellow flowers thanks to Michi and even painted a couple of German flags on Michi and his friend's face and arms.

The fan fest was already in the tens of thousands by 2pm and the game was on at 5. We arrived around 3pm and it was like one big German carnival: ferris wheel, kiosks, and lots of beer. There were 5 gimongous tv screens spread out all over the 5 mile avenue and nearly 2 million people were reported to be present by the time the game started. There really isn't any event in the US that I can equally compare it to. The closest thing I can compare it to would the Queen's Golden Jubilee in London 4 years ago vs. LoveParade (see previous posts for more on that).

The game (Germany vs. Argentina) started off with loads of excitement but was pretty anti-climactic by the beginning of the boring 2nd half. When Argentina scored, I swear you could have heard a pin drop. But by the 80th minute when Klose scored for Germany, the energy spiked off the charts, of course. Even I was singing the German soccer chant songs along with the rest of the crowd, as well as screaming my lungs out for the duration of the 2nd half and overtime. Games can't be more suspenseful than when there is a penalty shoot-out. As I type this, my voice sounds like a 72 year old woman that has been smoking for 50 years.

After the game, the city was on lock down, with every street overrun by pedestrians and every car honking not to bypass traffic, but to celebrate along. Kurfürstendamm, Berlin's main shopping avenue, was one huge parade from beginning to end, with people singing in unison with drums and bells, stores and buses blasting music from every possible direction. People hung out of car doors, hotel windows, bars, cafes, restaurants, shops and trains singing and shouting in elation. Michael and I found a street kiosk blasting dance music with some accompanying bongo players. It quickly became an outdoor club and we danced for hours. My feet never felt so wonderfully tired.