Day 290: Last post about the World Cup

I’m going to quickly summarize my last experiences related to the World Cup:

1st. On Saturday, June 24, I went again to Leipzig to watch Argentina vs. Mexico in the Round of 16 from the Fan Fest. The Fan Fest is a huge square with a giant screen set up by the organizers so that people without tickets can watch the match. It’s fenced off and you’re checked at the entrance. Inside, they charge €4 per beer. I went to the match with Nacho and some of his Argentine friends. We wandered around the stadium, watching scalpers in action and Mexicans being ripped off. Since there were mostly Mexicans, the ratio was about one Argentine for every six Mexicans. The Argentines were all gathered around a Quilmes beer truck parked on a lot where they had set up a party. There I met Larry de Cley, a famous Argentine comedian I had never heard of. Then we went to the aforementioned Fan Fest, and we had to leave all bottles at the entrance. However, I had no problem bringing in the Swiss knife I carried for making sandwiches. After the match, I ran to the station because I was about to miss the last train back to Dresden (luckily there were no penalties, otherwise I would have missed them…).

2nd. Three days later, on Tuesday, June 27, we traveled across half of Germany to cheer for Spain in Hannover, playing against France in the Round of 16. Five hours by car. On the occasion of the match, there was going to be a global meeting of Spanish Erasmus students in Germany and nearby countries. I had arranged to meet my friend Ángel from Bielefeld, and Erasmus students from Berlin, Bremen, Braunschweig, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Maastricht, Strasbourg… A huge party was planned. We arrived late where everyone had gathered: the Fan Fest in Waterloo Square (we hoped the name was a sign…). We experienced the match together, all the Erasmus students, as one big group. But when the team started conceding goals, our spirits dropped and the party we had planned after the match disappeared. When the match ended, we were angry, very angry. France had eliminated us. The excitement from the first match had turned into frustration. Later, France would be eliminated in the quarterfinals by Brazil, but that was our dream. I received a message from my flatmates:
"Alléz les bleuez! Cry cry cry España! Deutschland wird weltmeister!!!! Greetz from Thomesch, bassy und Anton…lalalala…….."
(Let’s go blues! Spain cries, cries, cries! Germany will be world champion!!!! Greetings from Thomas, Pascal, and Anthon…)

The meeting ended like this:

-"Well guys, I’m going to Bielefeld"

-"I’m going to Dortmund"

-"See you, I’m going back to Dresden"

We couldn’t say anything more; we were very sad… The Hannover locals who had cheered for Spain throughout the match comforted us. We left the Fan Fest and went our separate ways… Silent… We took the car and drove back to Dresden; two hours into the journey, all our sadness had faded, and we even stopped in a Saxon town called Grimma to take a photo with the town’s name.

3rd. Once Spain was eliminated, the World Cup lost all interest for me. I was eager for Germany to be eliminated so that people would stop talking about the World Cup (and to see the arrogant Germans suffer a bit). We went together to watch Germany vs. Argentina in a Biergarten (I’ve already explained what that is) next to my house, which had a very old but large TV (barely visible…). The waitress was a bit crazy and kept shouting “Germanyee, Germanyee” while painting German flags everywhere. (I watched the match with two German flags painted on my face). It was an entertaining match. When Argentina was eliminated in penalties, the German celebration began. It seemed like they had won the war. Cars honked and their occupants waved German flags, leaning out of the windows. From the sidewalks and house windows, people waved flags, applauded, and cheered the cars on. The crazy waitress wrapped herself in a flag (like in a Delacroix painting) and stood in the middle of the street with a horn.

After this, I only watched one more match: Portugal vs. France in the semifinals, and that was because some Portuguese friends asked me as a favor. They needed support against the Saxons (who sided with France). Later, I had so much work for the university that I couldn’t watch Germany’s elimination (although I went out later to celebrate with Italians…) nor the final, which I listened to on SER online while translating a protocol.

The World Cup has ended; in the dorms, residents were given a deadline to remove flags from the windows, stores are discounting the thousands of World Cup products, and the country is returning to normal…

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