While we're on the subject of sports, here's an old favorite commercial from the 2004 European Cup days. The "secret video" of an Italian national team training session (not real, of course).
Though Italy dives with more style, this could be almost any team these days!
On Sunday, Herr J and I got up early to attend the Kocherlball, one of Munich's many summer festivals.
This one is a little different from the average beer+wurst+crepes+bandstand that is put up in any square, especially because it takes place early in the morning. 6:00-10:00, to be exact. And I HIGHLY recommend you arrive early if you want a seat. By 5am would be best - you won't be the first ones there....plenty of folks will be there early to stake out a prime table, and will enjoy breakfast and conversation by candlelight until the sun rises.
As usual, you are welcome to bring your own food, or to buy various breakfast foods (weißwurst, kaiserschmarrm, bread/cold cuts, various meats, and other sinfully wonderful variations on fried dough). Many groups will cover the beergarden picnic tables with fine table cloths, vases of flowers, and even silver candelabras. The drinks (beer, coffee, etc) you buy from the beergarden.
The point of the festival, however, is dancing.
In the last decade of the 18th century, the cooks and domestic staff met each year early on a summer Sunday morning to dance at the Chinese Tower (in the English Garden). Hence the name loosely translates to "Cooks' Ball" and takes place early in the morning before they had to go back to work. The tradition continued for a century or so, until it was banned in 1904 for being of questionable morality.
The event was revived in 1989 for the 200th anniversary celebrations for the English Garden and it continues today.
In addition to the dining and drinking, they have bands to play traditional music continuously in front of the dance area.
You'll see old and young alike, many in trachten or even older traditional uniforms. Even this sleepy little guy is decked out in his finest Bavarian duds:
And the dancing certainly is nothing scandalous today - it's traditional folk dancing, mainly from the Oberfalz (Upper Palatinate) and Niederbayern (Lower Bavaria) regions...polkas, waltzes, and other traditional dances. Not that many people actually knew the steps, but everyone still had fun trying something waltz-style or following instructions from the band leader. Apparently the Münchener Francaise is one of the popular local dances (especially after it was taught for Munich's 850th anniversary). I'm not sure how there is enough room to do it here, but there are German instructions online if you're curious like me. I can picture a ballroom of men and women in formal trachten, dancing as in old Vienna!
For those who want to learn the dances (or brush up on long-forgotten skills), the Culture Department (das Kulturreferat) of the City of Munich offers free Bavarian folk dancing courses on the three Thursdays leading up to the Kocherlball. Herr J and I did briefly join the fray for a dance or two, but perhaps next year we'll prepare ahead and learn the steps.
Herr J and I have definitely caught the football fever that sweeps Germany 3 out of every 4 years (World Cup, Women's World Cup, European Cup, then a sad, sad summer with no football).
So we thought we'd put together some of the more important German terms that you need to know to follow football (men's or women's), along with some of our photos from Sweden-North Korea, Sweden-Australia, and Sweden-Japan games in Augsburg and Frankfurt. (No, it isn't that we are huge Sweden fans...the Quarterfinal (Viertelfinale) and Semi-final (Halbfinale) matches just ended up that way).
Also known collectively as the Ampelkarte (StoplightCards):
Formally known as the Schiedsrichter(in), the Referee is commonly referred to as the Schiri. As unfortunately seems to happen more and more, when the refs make a questionable call you'll hear whistling by the crowd to show their displeasure or you'll hear the announcers on TV refer to the echt Wahnsinn (true madness).
Elfmeter = Penalty Kick. Though the obvious example would be some of Hope Solo's great work in the victory over Brazil, we'll go instead with Clint Dempsey's attempt earlier this year in a Fulham vs Chelsea game. Though his shot is blocked by goalie Petr Cech, we're pretty proud to have an American playing in the Premier League.
Why Elfmeter? Literally translated at 11 Meters, it's the distance (12 yards) from goal.
After the Verlängerung(Overtime), we have the Elfmeterschießen (PenaltyShootout) which brings the Goalie center stage:
However, you definitely do NOT want to score an Eigentor, or Own Goal!
Traumtor = Dream Goal. There are a variety of examples to illustrate this one, but I'll go with something recent and something patriotic: Heather O'Reilly's goal against Colombia in the Group Stage. Also a great example of a Distanzschuss(Distance Shot):
And what is this whole thing called?? In Germany, you'll usually just hear "WM" (pronounced "vey-em", of course!). This also applies to any world championships....alpine skiing, rugby, etc.
Also known informally as "die Elf," ("the Eleven"), we have the teams themselves:
And Germany's beloved Jogi...one of the best in the world, but he often forgets about the cameras
Though we can play football anywhere with a flat surface and a ball, the big games are played in a Stadion (Stadium), like Frankfurt's Commerzbank Arena here. (In German, Stadium is a completely different word). A stadium full of Zuschauer (Fans/Spectators).
Schauspieler(in) des Jahres - Actor(actress)of the Year - This one we'll dedicate to Erika of Brazil, who puts even Cristiano Ronaldo and the Italian national team to shame:
In a game with so many Verletzungen (Injuries) - be they fake or real - we'll end up with a few minutes of Nachspielzeit (ExtraTime / Injury Time). It's in this extra time that both the US 2010 and 2011 National Teams made their fabled die pefekte Come-Back Gesichte (the perfect Comeback Story).
A Foul (Foul) often can lead to a free kick, against which the most common defensive strategy is mauern (to build a wall):
On the more technical side we have one that sounds almost the same but is spelled quite differently...
Not to be confused with Abschlag, where the goalie uses his/her hands to throw, punt, or drop-kick the ball (and must do so within 6 seconds), North Korea's goalie shows us her skills:
Despite rooting for Japan against Sweden last week, we'll be cheering for Team USA tonight. Will American tenacity take us through to victory, or will Japan complete its fairy tale march to a first world championship?
On the walk back from buying groceries today, I noticed a woman shaking her closed fist in the face of a homeless man. My first reaction was shock. My second to realize that I was completely wrong and she was actually giving him encouragement and wishing him some luck by closing her fist around her thumb and making the German gesture for good luck.
(To wish someone luck in the native way, close your fist around your thumb, squeeze it and say Ich drücke dir die Daumen!)
Happy Surprises:
It's been a long week and hard to keep up with everything. I finally got everything under control last night and was left with a manageable workload instead of a to do list longer at the end of each day. And after two days of travel, I was just tired. So, I skipped the whole getting up and getting dressed part of the morning and just stayed in bed for a couple of hours with my laptop and coffee. (I travel or work from home...it doesn't matter how I look on those days)
So when the doorbell rings at 10am, I'm suprised and not dressed to answer the door. I throw a robe on over my pajamas and quickly answer it to find a wonderful surprise - a "care package" from one of my best friends in the world (from Singapore, to be exact). We met in business school, bonded one night at dinner over a shared love of pink snakeskin, I joined her and a couple others for a trip to Paris, and that was that....we realized we were like sisters that the stork had been dropped off on other sides of the world.
Among other wonderful goodies (pineapple tarts!!!) was a book that will inspire some serious exploration. Living in Germany and in close proximity to Vienna and Italy makes trying many of these things very possible!
An Ettiquette Dilemma:
So what's the ettiquette on how to drink wine on a train? Drinking beer out of the bottle is quite common on German trains, and it seems like a tall boy (or two) is in order for many of the men commuting home at night on the LIRR. But how does one drink wine?
I typically take the train to Frankfurt once a week - sometimes there and back on the same day, making it a very long day. Lately I've been tired but can't sleep, and too bored/tired to read or play games on my Kindle. (Herr J thinks I need a PlayStation portable or something...he might be right).
So I decided a glass of red wine might be a good way to relax, and if I were lucky, perhaps to induce a nap. They do sell little bottles in the train station, but they don't have plastic cups. I felt a little weird drinking it out of the bottle. OK, I felt a LOT weird - enough that last week I didn't get wine because it seemed weird. This week, I decided I didn't care what people thought and went for it. I felt good about that decision when I realized that the girl in the seat next to me didn't seem to care about not having showered in a few days!
Last summer we joined a hike organized by the Munich chapter of Internations. This one was a short trip from Munich, to Breiteinstein in the Bavarian Alps. The drive took only an hour to reach the parking lot at the trailhead (in the village of Birkenstein, near Fischbachau).
You'll see in the Google Map below that Fischbachau lies east of Schliersee, near the Austrian border.
This is a good hike, with a mix of steep and easier stretches, as well as mixing meadows, forest, and rocky trails.
The hike up takes around 2 1/2 hours and less than 2 hours down, depending on your stops. The trail begins around 850m elevation at Birkenstein, ascends to a hut at 1,585m, and finally to the peak at 1,622m (for a total rise of 1,170m).
You can see our destination below - we'll go all the way up to the small cross at the summit.
The hike starts off with a steep walk up shady trails through the forest, before opening up into rolling meadows dotted with evergreens. Not too bad, but definitely a challenge.
There are quite a few benches along the way to stop, rest, and enjoy the view. The wide trail then snakes through the meadows, with a steady (but not steep) climb upwards.
We then reach the bottom of a large grassy hill where cows graze, and gently wind around the hill into the forest on the right.
After passing through more shaded forest, we reach the Hubertushütte, a little hut serving drinks and snacks in a small valley below the peak of Breitenstein. We stopped here for a snack before the final push up a rock-studded grassy hill up to the cross at Breitenstein. It's only another 10-15 minutes up to the peak.
Despite the not so steep-looking grassy meadow, the mountain drops off on the other side. At the top there is space to sit and look out over the villages in the valley, as this couple does.
We ate lunch at the top, before heading down. Instead of the same route down, we passed along the ridge through a flat meadow where the cows grazed.
We pause to enjoy the view before descending.
Then back down the grassy hills. Herr J greets another one of our huge bovine friends. The cows were definitely one of my favorite parts of the day.
Once again we had nice weather, friendly hiking companions, and great scenery (with animals!) -- this is why hiking in the Alps is so much fun.
I always enjoy seeing what they have in new grocery stores. (Herr J can attest to how long I can spend in a store in a foreign country, amazed by the different products). In Germany, I like to check out the beer section in different regions, to see if there are some new beers to try.
They've started carrying Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, and Antarctica's Guarana soda in some of the stores in Munich.
However, my most recent discovery is really rather shocking.
No, your eyes are not decieving you...They really ARE selling The Beast and Busch here, in the Galleria store at Frankfurt Hauptwache!
Of all the American beers they could be selling here......
The 2018 Winter Games were announced today, and (sniff, sniff) Munich did not win. They'll be held in Pyongchan South Korea instead.
After months of campaigning and signs everywhere, Munich held a day-long party culminating in the broadcast of "Die Entscheidung," or The Decision at a couple of public viewing points. The biggest festivities were at the BMW World by OlympiaPark, which would have held many of the games.
We stopped by Marienplatz to watch the announcement. It was far more crowded than the average summer tourist Glockenspiel viewing - actually very close to the point of being dangerous. Rather unusual for Germany and its usual efficient crowd control!
Despite not having a win to celebrate, they went ahead and released the balloons and shot off some cannons or fireworks or something from the tower as the crowd quickly dispersed.
All in all, it was a nice bit of sun on an otherwise busy work day! And any perfect summer day is a day worth celebrating!
P.S.....I really don't know what this was, but had to take a picture. If anyone knows the story behind these types of vehicles (and the related crazy Austrian backpacks), I'd love to know! I'm not sure how to describe these in English, so I have no idea where to begin Googling them in German! But I'm curious.
Here's the Austrian cousin we saw at the World Cup downhill skiing event
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 9:00 ;)
