Deutschland! Deutschland!

So last night was the last game of group play for Germany. They had to win the game vs. Ghana, so I thought it would be a fun game to watch with a big group of people. The game was at 8:30, and I was done with work around 5, so I went back to my apartment, had dinner, and went in to the city. I got in around 7:30, which was kind of early, so I went to a cafe, had a crepe with nutella and banana (yummmmmm), and a kafe mokalatte (it was spelled kind of funny like that), and I started writing my grad school personal statement. Nothing like tasty things to make writing about my interest in macromolecular structure more fun.
Then, at about 8 I wanted to figure out where I should watch the game. I decided the best thing to do was follow the people wearing the soccer jerseys, with flags painted on their face, carrying cases of beer. Doing so, I found a beer garden in a part of the city I hadn't been to yet. However, it was already completely full, and looked like it was going to get a little crazy. So, I walked back towards the downtown area, and found a nice little Italian cafe that had a TV set up outside. It was still a little before the game, so I ordered a beer and kept on writing my personal statement. Really, writing about why I want to be a scientist is way more fun outside than it is in my apartment.
And then the game started. In the cafe, two people had vuvuzelas, which would have been awful if they had decided to use them more. And then there were lots of other noisemakers. I was also one of like 3 people who were not wearing soccer jerseys, or who had painted their faces, or were wearing a flag. The game was really fun, especially because Germany won, but what happened afterward was the exciting part.
To get home, I had to take a tram back to near the university, and then either take a bus or walk back from there (it would be about a 10 minute walk, which isn't too bad). However, the trams were entirely shut down after the game because there were hoards of drunken soccer fans roaming the streets, shouting 'DEUTSCHLAND! DEUTSCHLAND!' I didn't realize that the trams were shut down, though - I thought that it was just running late. Also, there were other people waiting at the tram stop, so I wasn't the only one. But then, this guy said something in German to this woman who had tried to speak to me before in German, but I didn't know what she was asking. She then looked kind of upset, and then again said something to me in German. I told her I didn't understand, and then she asked if I spoke spanish. Which I do! So she told me in Spanish that the tram lines were all shut down and that she was going to walk to the train station, where they have a bus stop to try to get a bus back. So she and I walked back together, and I found a bus that brought me back near the lab. And then I wanted to see if another bus would bring me back to my apartment, because there is a bus that goes there, but I felt like all the buses were running on some alternate crazy schedule or something. It was also pretty late. So I asked someone, and she spoke english, and she was walking back towards those apartments too, so we walked together! Moral of the story: being unable to speak German and not knowing how to get home leads to meeting lots of new people.
That said, I'm not sure if I'll go in to the city for the next game... but it is in the afternoon instead of at night, so that if the entire city shuts down it wouldn't be too bad to walk home. You would have thought last night that they had won 10-0, and had won the whole world cup, given the excitement and celebrations. This is definitely the place to be for the world cup.