Flags everywhere!

Around June 8th or so suddenly all of the German flags came out: on people's cars (both the kind that stick up from the windows and side view mirror covers that look like flags), on buildings, hanging from balconies, in restaurants.  It was like the German equivalent to the 4th of July in the US.  So which national holiday were we to celebrate?  The Euro Cup of course!

Fussball (football) is a big deal here.  Regular games are big enough, but the Euro Cup is of course even bigger.  Not only flags come out, but so do huge TVs.  Every restaurant, bar, food stand, and sometimes the bakeries suddenly has TVs for people to hang out and watch.  And they put them right outside so people can enjoy sitting outside, having a beer or dinner, and watching the game.  (Berliners love to sit outside and now that it is warm and the sun is out till 10pm, no one wants to sit inside.)  You can pretty much walk down the street and not miss much of game as you walk from viewing one TV to the next.  Or you could go to public viewings at Tempelhof Airport (yes, the airport of the Berlin Airlift is now a place to watch the Euro Cup) or at Brandenburger Tor.  We have heard that at Tempelhof you may not get within viewing distance even if you go an hour and a half before the game, so we haven't bothered.

2 TVs from our seats at dinner

And in case you don't have the TV on, you can often tell what is going on by the yelling.  As I write it is the quarter final game between Germany and Greece.  The whole neighborhood is going crazy over near misses and exciting plays.  You can hear people cheering and shouting.  For the last Germany game when they scored people were setting off what sounded like cannons nearby.  And now Germany scores to make the score 1-0.  Tonight's choice noise-makers seem to be air-horns and fireworks!

 So as you can see it is a bit like the 4th of July...cheering, cannons, fireworks, and national pride.

Go Deutschland!

Halbzeit Eier (Half-time eggs)