The Fan Mile
I just wanted to let everyone know about the chaos that is the Fan Mile and what that has allowed me to do to keep busy for the past 2 days. I'll try to keep it fairly short, but I can't promise anything. Also, as promised to some people, I have pictures too.Yesterday after I finally got finished with work at 7pm, I started my journey down to the fan mile which is in the downtown area, between the Brandenburg gate, and some other monument that I haven't determined the identity of just yet. But, as the name would imply, it is at least a mile long, and as you'll see from some of the pictures a little later, it is simply packed with people when Germany is playing. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
To get down there, I first have to drive about 10 minutes to the nearest train station on the S-bahn, one of the Berlin subway lines. It is the last stop on the line, but luckily I only need to take the one train to go all the way down to where the action is.
After about 40 minutes on the train, I got out of my station, turn around, and this is just about the first thing that I see:
This of course, is a giant soccerball in front of the ever famous Brandenburg Gate. One thought that I couldn't help but thinking as I was looking at this gate (and that I continually think when I look around the countryside and see forests of trees which are all the same height and look to be about 50-60 years old) is that I am standing where Hitler marched his army back during the war. It is a bit of a creepy feeling.
Now, while I knew what this was, I did not know that it was the fan mile on the other side of it, so I continued walking around for a while, not really knowing where I was going. That gave me a chance to stumble across a few other interesting things though. The first was the Reichstag. At first I had no idea what it was. I saw this huge building with a large German flag on it, but nowhere does it call it the Reichstag. I thought that was interesting. Anyways, here are some pictures of it:
Right beside the Reichstag, Adidas has set up a fan area, but I didn't go into it because it cost 18 euros. I don't think that is the real stadium there, because it looks very small. I suspect that it is something temporary that Adidas set up, and I know that they use it to display the matches on some large screens. Again, I'm not too sure because I didn't pay to get in. I also know that the only McDonalds that I've seen in the downtown area is inside of that gated off area. So basically, if you are really craving a Big Mac, you have to pay an 18 euro cover...so no McDonalds for me!
After I did that little bit of sightseeing, and another 20 or 30 minutes of walking around blindly as if I was searching for Hansel and Gretel, I finally figured out that the lineup of people and security that were by the brandenburg gate were waiting to get into the fan mile. So I went in. What greeted me was the following:
This is set up really interestingly and I didn't know what to expect. When you walk in you see the street packed with people and lined with concession stands that are selling German food like Bratwurst and the like, German beer (and coke, both for the same price, 3.50 euros...this country is strange because their beer is the same price as their coke, and cheaper than buying water most of the time), and horns and jerseys and stuff like that. You can see for about 1000 feet before your view is blocked by another video screen. So I thought that this thing was only as large as I could see when I first walked in. Little did I know was that as I started walking down the road, I got to the first screen and realized it went one further, and then one further, and then one further...at least 6 but maybe 8 in total. I lost count. It took a long long time to get down there through the crowd though. I forgot to time it, but it was at least 30 minutes.
Anyways, I watched a bit of the soccer match (it was France vs. Togo), but mainly I walked around, trying to find people from North America. In my travel, I found some sand volleyball, quite to my surprise. It was pretty good. The sand, for one, was better than any sand I've ever played on. It was white sand, and so fine. It was like playing on a cloud. I think I may have been spoiled to ever go back to anything that I am used to playing on. Here is a picture of the court:
I only played one game, and then I kept looking for North Americans. I had no success for most of the night. I think that all of the Americans went home after their team lost on Thursday night. The Canadians don't even have a team, of course, and I think that Americans are shy to display their colours now that their team is out.
After the soccer match was over, I was just about to leave, but I stood off to the side by the entrace and was looking at my navigation system when a guy came up to me. His name was Brad, and he was from Victoria. He introduced to to two of his buddies, Noah and Dale, and said they were going out to a patio and that I would be welcome to join them. So I did.
We first walked to the main train station to catch the S-Bahn to the area of the city that we were going to. On the way, we passed the following things that I wanted to take pictures of. The first is a pair of huge soccer cleats, and the second is the famous Rhine River.
The patio area that we were going to was called the Hackescher Markt, and it was quite trendy. I enjoyed it, and I may go back there. It seems like a nice place to have dinner. It's about an hour S-bahn commute for me, but that isn't too bad when you have nothing to do, and only CNN on the TV. The other Canadian guys and I went there and ended up talking for about 3 hours before I took off to come back home. Here is a picture of the Markt, and one of me and the guys.
From left to right, it is Dale, me, Brad, and Noah.
After that was all over, I took the S-bahn back home and got here at about 4 in the morning. It was a pretty good night.
Today I went back, but not too much happened. Germany was playing, so the crowd was absolutely huge. It was so large in fact that I didn't even get in until the game was nearly over. I wanted to leave the hotel early so that I could get in line early, but a call from my boss meant that I had to do about 2 hours of work, so I didn't get to leave until it was almost starting. It was no big loss though. It seemed like most of the fans were for Germany, and I didn't get to meet any new people. It would be nice to go back down there when either England or Australia play, but they are playing during the work week, so I doubt that I'll make it down there.
But here are some pictures from today that I took. I will end to blog with these. I hope that it wasn't too long to read.
This is the Berlin train station. A co-worker told me that it is the largest in Europe and that Berliners will be paying it off for 100 years. Might be true. It's like a huge mall inside with trains criss-crossing over and under you.
This is a sand scuplture of the World Cup Trophy.
This is a sand sculpture of sumo wrestlers...not sure the connection with the tournament.
This is a sand sculpture of a German Mt. Rushmore.
These are some pictures of the crowd. I have some video as well, but my connection is too slow to upload those. Sorry.
Peace and blessings,
JZ.
posted by JZ @ 4:14 PM
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