"Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole..." - Crazy football fans



There are three things that Munich does very well. Beer. And football. And beer. We spent last Tuesday and Wednesday in the Bavarian city, soaking in the old buildings, the beer gardens, and the World Cup atmosphere.




The best beer we tried was at the Englischer Garden "Chinese Tower" Beer Garden. The Englischer Garden is a huge park where the locals come to have their beer, sausages, and schnitzel, tan in the nude, and go surfing on the river (go figure... I'm not making this up...). The beer only comes in one size. I don't think it's called Small.



One of the other highlights of Munich was joining in the Football madness. The 1972 Olympic Park has been temporarily transformed into a huge amphitheatre they call "Fan-fest Munchen", where they show all the games on a huge screen. We decided to head over for the Germany - Poland game. For some reason, a lot of Germans showed up. Apparently, people in Europe like cheering for their football teams. Who knew? Poland played better than in their first match against Ecquador, but Germany also played very well and really put the pressure on. The Polish had been very lucky, with a couple of German shots going right off the crossbar. In the end, though, the Germans ended it at 1-0 with a goal in the final minute of extra time, dashing Poland's hopes of advancing. Oh well, there's always 4 years from now...




The other big game while we were there was Tunisia - Saudi Arabia, which was actually taking place at the Munich stadium. We figured it was a pretty minor match and the city wouldn't be too loud, but man those crazy Tunisians! They had the whole city occupied and their excited chanting was infectious. We're not even that big football fans, but being present at a World Cup was awesome.