The Sprayberries

Angry Brits and a Sweltering Cafe
[jordanna]

Last night we went back to the fan mile to watch the England vs. Portugal game. It was a gogeous sunny day and we weren't ready to lock ourselves inside a smokey bar just yet.

[Note: even outside there is so much smoke we have been snorting out black boogers for days. This and the fact that you have to pay to use bathrooms are the only downsides of the trip so far. Ty doesn't care about the bathrooms, but I have been fighting off a bladder infection and peeing CONSTANTLY. If I am not peeing, I am most likely thinking about peeing. Moving on...]

Last night was much more of a county fair kind of feel with people casually milling around; a marked change from the intensity of the Germany game. We actually found a seat, and settled into what seemed like a good section. We were in the middle of a small crowd of England supporters, which started out fun, with people yelling and cheering for their team. Then, when things started to turn for the worse (Rooney got a red card) the evil football fans started to surface. I completely understand getting mad at a bad ref (US vs Italy game for example), but there is a point when you cross the line from supporting your team to being a belligerent prick. They were making up songs about how all Portugese are bastard assholes, and would start screaming "Fuck you, you fucking bastards" whenever the Portugese fans cheered. To be fair, there were only three or so of these pricks, and one of the women travelling with them looked at Tyson halfway through the game and said, "It's embarassing sometimes". It just struck me how different the feel was between the two games we saw there. The crowd for Germany, which had to be 8 times as big, was awesome. Everyone was there for one purpose, but no one seemed rabid. In a much smaller (you know, only 100,000 people), more intimate crowd the feel was so negative. That feel, and the fact that a bottle of water cost 5.25$, made us leave before the second game. Turns out France still kicks but and the local 'American' restaurant is full of much more relaxed people.

Randomly, somebody started screaming obscenities outside our hotel this morning around 5 am and didn't stop for a good half an hour. Tyson swears it was Angry Brit number one, who had a very distinctive and grating voice. It honestly wouldn't surprise me: his first comment after Rooney got carded was, "I am going to get fucking arrested tonight", right before he kicked beer all over my legs and spit on my head in his screaming frenzy. Ahhh...... football.

Anyway, it is all a unique cultural experience. Turns out Germans don't do anything retail related until 2 pm on Sundays so we are sweltering away in the internet cafe waiting to go to the airport. We will make one last stop on our way out, for Tyson to ge a last brat and beer and me to get my last currywurst (a divine creation of chopped sausage, curry powder, special sauce and ketchup). It has been a hell of a trip, and we couldn't have asked for more when we planned our trip to Europe for the World Cup.