World Cup and East Berlin
East Berlin is a hip part of town teaming with good food, interesting shops, flea markets
, fresh ideas and beautiful graffiti and posters everywhere. Life has been moving at break neck speeds since arriving here Thursday July 7. The World Cup is now complete, and many of the people from around the world visiting for the big event are returning home.
Saturday night a group of students, our guide Stefi and I went to the fan mile, a mile long stretch between the Reichstag and the Column of Victory, to watch Germany defeat Portugal for third place. The attendance estimates were at 1 million. Giant TVs hung suspended over the street showing the match in vivid color while fans made an incredible ruckus singing and blowing whistles and horns. There were plenty of sausages, beefsteaks, currywerst (a strange mix of curry powder and ketchup on sausage in an attempt to replicate bar-b-que sauce), and of course German beer. The crowd was generally pretty boisterous, but they went crazy during penalty kicks and goals. They were just generally pretty nuts!
Next weekend, as if the World Cup was not enough, Berlin is hosting it’s annual festival called the Love Parade also on the big boulevard between the Reichstag and the Column of Victory, which will turn out crowds as big as we saw on the fan mile. Occurring at the same time to counter balance the Love Parade is the Hate Parade. Both should be a site to see!