Wenx’ World: World Cup

Not sure if you’ve heard it yet: The World Cup is on! And when I say World Cup, I mean soccer. And with it a time when I realise I miss Europe.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a big soccer fan and I managed to spend the last 2 world cups away from the team I cheer for too. But at least in Holland they are just as crazy about their Elftal as the Germans about their Mannschaft (if not crazier) and in New Zealand, they at least got excited about it when their All Whites were the only undefeated team throughout the whole competition.

This morning, Germany won against Algeria – and my friends and I were the only ones in the whole pub!

Okay, so game start was 6 am. Good reason to stay in bed, bad reason to stay away from the game. Okay, so Australia is not a soccer nation. Good reason for Australians, bad reason for a country consisting of 97.5% immigrants (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012).

I am German, and at the moment it’s pretty wild back home. They have streets blocked and equipped with giant public screens to publicly show the games. People decorate shopping windows, cars, work places, houses, even full streets in black-red-gold. Don’t even try to call anyone while a game is on, but make sure you have face paint in all three colors and a flag ready to wiggle.

And the show is not over after the final whistle: The party continues out in the streets with cars in convois, people singing and drinking, boys climbing on whatever-they-can-find (i.e. bus stops and traffic lights) and girls dancing.

In times like these, I miss Europe.

See you out there, Wenx