Football madness arrived in Vienna on 7 June. I missed the opening ceremonies being in Slovenia, but I was quickly thrown into it as soon as I got back. For those who are unfamiliar with the European Football Championships, here’s some background:
The Euro Cup is held every 4 years, alternating with the World Cup, which is also every 4 years. It’s kind of like the Winter and Summer Olympics. The last World Cup was in Germany in 2006, and the next one is in South Africa in 2010. I’m not entirely sure on the details of qualifying, but depending on how well they do, 16 countries make it into the Euro. This year Austria and Switzerland are co-hosting the championships, so those two teams automatically make it into the tournament (even though Austria would not have qualified otherwise). The 16 teams are divided up into groups of 4, and each team in a group plays every other team. The top two teams from each group move onto the quarter-finals. The teams play one game, and then 4 teams move onto the semi-finals. Right now, Russia, Germany, Turkey, and Spain are in the semi-finals. Austria and Switzerland were predictably knocked out after the group stage.
In any case, those are the technical aspects of the championships. The reality of living in a city hosting the Euro Cup is a completely different matter. In the center of the city, you can find drunk fans as early as 11 am. Even someone who could less about sports, such as myself, becomes sucked into it. You start to absorb the stats and the knowledge of who’s playing who on what nights, and how many points each team has, etc. Seeing people walking around the city wearing flags and singing loudly is now a normal occurence. Groups of people supporting the same team exchange knowing nods when they pass on the street. Almost every single bar or restaurant in the city shows the game. I’ve even seen dogs with the Austrian flag painting on their snouts. There is just no way to describe how intensely people feel about these games.
On the weekend 14-16 June, two German friends of mine came to visit me and enjoy the Euro atmosphere. We watched every match being played that weekend, and I learned the basics to being a football fan.
Step one: Identify the two teams. Pick a side (preferably the one the people around you are supporting). Now figure out which goal they are going for.
Step two: Learn the 5 essential noises. 1) When someone on your team falls down, make a noise of indignation. 2) If someone on your team is given a free kick or a penalty kick, wiggle your fingers at the TV screen and make “good vibes” sounds while he’s preparing for the kick. As the kick soars towards the goal, make an climatic and anticipatory sound. 3) When someone on your team shoots the ball at the goal and misses, make a sound of disappointment. 4) When someone on your team scores, yell excitedly, and hug the people around–but just the people you know already. 5) When the other team scores, you must be silent. If it was a really fantastic goal, you may clap begrudingly.
Once you have mastered these 5 noises, you can add football chants and the like. I learned a number of chants while my German friends were visiting, and so discovered that football chants are often silly and make no sense. For example, one chant goes: “Ole, ole, ole ole ole, super Deutschland, super Deutschland, super Deutschland le-o-le.” Not very creative. The Austrian chants don’t make much sense translated either. They roughly approximate to “Always again, always again, always again Austria” or “We’re singing red, we’re singing white, we’re singing red white Austria” (the Austrian flag is red and white, and in German “white” and “Austria” rhyme). When the French watch football, they will often yell “Allez!” (Go!), so to make fun of them the Germans will sing “Alley–a street with lots of trees, yeah that’s an alley.” My favorite chant was one where they sang “The Austrians walk like this, the Austrians walk like this” (while walking bent over and defeated) and then “The Germans walk like this, the Germans walk like this!” (while jumping up and down).
The game between Germany and Austria was huge, even though it was still in the group stages. Thousands of Germans took the train to Vienna, and Austrians from all over the country came to watch the game. The vast majority of people do not have tickets, so they watch the game in the FanZone. The FanZone is a huge public viewing area, with at least 10 giant screens throughout it. To even get into the FanZone, you have to be patted down, and all of your bags and pockets are searched. No food or drink is allowed in, nor anything that might possibly function as a weapon. The FanZone in Vienna take about 15 minutes to walk from end to end, and probably covers 7 or 8 city blocks. It’s pretty enormous.
For the Austria-Germany game, my friends assured me that the FanZone would be overwhelmed with people, and so we arrived 3 hours before the game started. Even then, we got stuck in a crowd that had its own mind, and basically moved you without your consent, because everyone has to get patted down and searched. Once inside, we were still very far away from the screen, even being that early, and it was tight standing room only. The three hours passed pretty quickly because the fans kept chanting and it was a great place to people watch. We were right on the edge of a German and an Austrian area, and the two groups of fans were quite friendly–no animosity, just good-natured ribbing.
I didn’t really seen any hooligan-type activity until after the game. Germany won (the last time Austria won against Germany was in 1978) and after the game huge crowds of people went to the heart of the city at Stephansdom. There was a crowd of Austrians and a crowd of Germans, basically facing off and taunting each other. The situation would have been fine but about a hundred riot police arrived on the scene and formed a physcial barrier between the two groups of fans. The groups weren’t even that big, maybe 50 people, because everyone else just stayed out of it and watched. The groups threw a couple of cans and bottles at each other, and someone set off a firework, but nothing actually happened and I don’t think it would have even without the riot police. I guess the other night after Turkey won against Croatia there were Turkish fans out wearing ski masks–I suppose so that the police wouldn’t be able to identify them. That’s a little over the top. The worst hooligans are supposedly from England, but England didn’t qualify for the Euro Cup so the next best thing is the Polish, apparently. They were eliminated during the group stage, though, and now the most raucous fans are probably the Turkish. The fans are extreme, but not hooligans like we think of them in the US.
Anyway, being in Vienna when the Euro Cup is going on is really a priceless experience. It makes me feel like I’m really part of European culture. We get a break until the 25th, when the semi-finals are, and then the final is on the 29th. Hopefully Germany will go all the way!!!!
Okay, so I haven’t really written anything this entire month. I’m a little bit behind. The past three weeks have been full of homework and the 2008 European Football Championships.
The first weekend of June I decided to treat myself to a weekend alone in Bled, Slovenia (partly because it’s nice to get away by yourself for a while, and partly because no one could go with me). Bled is a beautiful resort-type town in Slovenia, about six hours away by train from Vienna. I had a lot of homework to bring with me, so the long train ride was perfect for me. I arrived there Friday evening, and spent some time walking around the lake that Bled borders. I have never seen such beautiful clear water in my life–you could see literally hundreds of fish, and more ducks than I’ve ever encountered in my life.
On Saturday I saw the only two sites in Bled–a church on the island in Lake Bled, and Bled Castle. To get to the island you have to take a gondola out, and then you can explore the little island and the church. If you ring the church’s bell your wishes will come true, so naturally I did that.
On the gondola ride I was fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of American small talk. There were about 6 Americans, 4 Italians, 2 Germans, and me on the gondola, and from the minute the Americans stepped on they just started talking and talking, wanting to know something about everyone. I guess I’ve been in Europe for too long because it rubbed me the wrong way, so the German couple and I made a concerted effort to ignore the Americans and their efforts at friendliness. You just don’t see Austrian or French people talking to strangers on the U-Bahn, in restaurants, on airplanes, etc. The only time a stranger has tried to strike up a conversation with me it usually ends with him asking for my phone number.
After that I wandered over to the castle and spent some time poking around it. What surprised me most was the band of teenagers in Renaissance fair style garb (with tunics and hose and swords, etc) hanging around. I guess I thought that the Renaissance fair was more of an American thing, but apparently everyone likes dressing up and playing with sharp objects.
It kept raining on and off the weekend I was there, which was good for my purposes because I just retreated to my room and read or worked on my homework. When I was outside I spent an awful lot of time just sitting on the docks and watching the fish or the ducks.
On Sunday I decided in lieu of going on a hike through the Julian Alps, I would relax some more. There are mineral springs in Bled which get pumped into the swimming pools of the hotels. I went and swam in one of the mineral springs swimming pools, and it was freezing. Quiet chilly. Fortunately, they also had saunas there, so I spent a good chunk of the day alternating between Finnish sauna, Turkish sauna, infrared sauna, and the mineral water pool. They also had a cold flush there, which was like a shower, except you pulled on this cord and a huge bucket of cold water dumped all over you. That was sort of fun.
All in all, I got a lot of relaxing, reading, and writing done while I was down there, so I think it was worth it going down by myself. The Slovenian people were all friendly, and everyone seemed to be extra nice to me seeing that I was alone. Traveling alone is such an incredible experience, partly because you avoid all of the friction of deciding what to do and see, but also because you have to be completely independent in a new environment. I like the feeling that I get when I am able to take care of myself. The time to think and read is also very useful–it helps me get my thoughts in order.
All in all, Bled was a beautiful town, perfect for relaxing, and even the rain couldn’t dampen my mood.
