With the 2016 Olympics recently being awarded to Brazil, and the World Cup in South Africa less than a year away, I thought it would be a good time to share stories of my experience at the biggest sporting event I’ve ever been to — the 2006 World Cup in Germany.  If you haven’t already made your plans to go to Cape Town next summer, start looking into it, because huge events like this and the Olympics are once-in-a-lifetime travel opportunities!

“You are for Germany, yes?” the crazy Deutschland fan asked us as the game against Argentina went into penalty kicks. We told him that we were, and he responded, “good, then we link our arms together.” So there we stood, three Americans, arms around passionate German Fussball fans, jumping for joy as Argentina missed kicks and Germany made theirs. When the clinching goal was made, the nearly one-million fans at the fan mile went crazy as they screamed, hugged, threw their pilsners in the air, and rejoiced at advancing to the semi-finals.

Before entering the fan mile, – a strip more than a mile long stretching from the Tiergarten near “Berlin Mittle” all the way to the Brandenburg Gate – every fan is subjected to an extremely thorough pat-down, mostly to check for knives and other soccer-hooligan paraphernalia. My buddy and I made a couple of teenage girls’ day when we lined up in what turned out to be the female line; they told us “boy’s go over there,” pointing and giggling. Following an inspection (in the correct line, I’m happy to say) that included a bit of an un-requested and un-appreciated squeeze on the backside, we were officially in soccer heaven.

After a (very, very) thorough pat down, we entered the fan mile, which even 3 hours before the game was already pretty packed.  After stopping for beer and the biggest sandwich I’ve ever seen – gyros stuffed in Turkish bread, we grabbed pretty good seats that were only maybe 200 meters from the Brandenberg Gate (trust me, compared to the length of the fan mile, this is really close up).

Finally the game was underway, and we had a pretty good view that included all of the Germans with their flags of various sizes waving in the air underneath the big screen. In the course of the afternoon we learned the German chants – my favorite of which are “Finale…whoa-ohh…Finale…Whoa—ohh-ohhh,” and “Schiess ein Tor…schiess ein tooo-oooo-ooor…Schiess ein Tor,” which just means “score a goal,” but sounds much cooler auf Deutsch.

Following the game we eschewed the great public transportation system in Berlin and decided to walk back. Still light out, and quite warm despite overcast skies, we walked the length of the famous Unter den Linden boulevard, while a cacophony of honks from cars driving by – with both Germans and their flags hanging out of windows – filled the air and cheers of “Deutschland!” and “Finale!” were the greeting of choice for anyone dressed in black, red, or green.

For that day at least, the World Cup had transformed us random American travelers into pilsner-loving German football fans — along with nearly a million of our closest friends.

Alex Budak is a recent graduate of UCLA and is currently enrolled as a graduate student at Georgetown University where he studies Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship.  You can see more of his travels on Sosauce, his blog, or follow him on Twitter.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 12:01 PM and is filed under Europe, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.