Cosima Underwater

In Germany, even McDonald’s sells it, and I am getting slowly addicted to it. Bionade is a fermented lemonade made out of organic ingredients and - don’t worry - has absolutely no alcohol in it. And best of all, it has less than half the calories of coca-cola.

I just don’t know what my favorite flavor is, herbs or orange-ginger… lychee and elderberry aren’t bad either. Want to bet how long it takes until one of the biggies buys them out? Gosh, I wish they were listed.

PS: Fireworks are going off… England 1 … Germany 2. What’s wrong Beckham? Don’t know how to bend it ? ;)

PPS: Thank you for the “Danke for 2006”, that was sweet. Next time you win. You deserve it.

Now, it all makes perfect sense to me.

Someone just found out what Materazzi said to Zidane.

A big thank you to lecram for the link (I’m still smiling ear to ear!).

tags: world cup, materazzi, zidane

The Berlin Fanmile saw two great parties yesterday. First the goodbye and thank you celebration of the German team under blistering midday sun, which I saw comfortably from my first-row TV chair, and the final between Italy and France, for which I made my way to the Brandenburg Gate. And boy was it worth it!

Against the advise of everyone, I went by car, which worked out fine because everyone else did the sensible thing and came by public transport. To my surprise I found a legal parking space a stone’s throw away from Brandenburg Gate. But when I arrived at the entrance directly at the Gate it was closed, because the area in front of the stage was already full with people.

Me and thousand of others walked a mile or two to the entrances further up the Fanmile.

Made first friendships along the way.

And then we waited (not long) to get a body check and bag control. That was the only Chinese fan, I encountered.

First glance at the Fanmile, which was relatively empty there. I did what everyone else did, and walked back a mile towards the Brandenburg Gate. By then, I regretted my choice of strappy sandals. Everyone else was wearing comfortable flip-flops or sneakers.

The audience was incredibly diverse from all corners of the world.

Very nice people from Japan…

Australia…

All over Europe: Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, England, Sweden …

…and Brazil.

When it got to full to walk any further, I stopped. The second display in the distance was above the stage at the Brandenburg Gate. In front was a group of Italian fans…

Directly behind me were French boys.

And then we were treated to a view of the green grass at the Berlin stadium. Which was built for the 1936 Olympic Games under Nazi rule, and extensively renovated for the World Cup. The granddaughter of African-American sprinter Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals at the 1936 games, ran a celebratory lap at the inauguration of the renovated stadium.

La Marseillaise…

See my videos of the fan reaction to the kick-off, to Zidane’s penalty shoot, and to Materazzi’s goal.

During the half-time break, I received a call from my young son to come home, and since I am an even more passionate mommy than football fan, I made my way to my car.

Last view at the Brandenburg Gate and the Fanmile stage.

My blistered feet. To hell with those strappy sandals…

Driving through the nearly empty city during the second half was very eerie. Beautiful lights at Friedrichstrasse…

…these gals used the empty street to get some work-out.

Friedrichstrasse runs from former East to West Berlin. And has a memorial and museum at former Checkpoint Charlie.

At home, I saw the dramatic end to the game. What exactly did Materazzi say to Zidane? Something involving Zidane’s mother, wife, religion? Anyway, Zidane’s reaction was the wrong one. How can you loose your cool in such an important game? The World Cup final… the last international game of your career.

I don’t want to suggest intent, but Materazzi’s provocation came certainly at a very opportune time. The Italians didn’t look so fresh anymore. And Zidane, usually a very calm fellow, had a few sudden spurts of violence before. Both of them should stand in the corner like small school boys.

Sort of leaves a bitter taste to Italy’s win, even if they probably deserved it. I was glad, I only saw the first half at the Fanmile and not the “Zidane incident”.

Anyway, even this cannot spoil the fun the whole of Germany had during the World Cup. One banner during the Germany-Portugal match summed it up so nicely:
“Thank you so much for having been our guests!”

tags: world cup, fanmile, berlin, italy, france, zidane, materazzi

Had a grand time at the Berlin Fanmile. More to come later, have to sleep first…

Watch the video

Sorry for my blog silence the past few days. I had to quickly get from the Adriatic coast to Berlin by car. Unfortunately, I only had time for a few stops along the way. What a beautiful and varied continent Europe is, and I haven’t seen half of it yet.

I saw my World Cup predictions unravel in a bar on a beautiful stretch of Adriatic coast. Italy fully deserved to win against Germany. I just wish they had scored earlier. It was kind of boring to see a game mostly played in the middle of the field.

I just have one final World Cup wish:

Dear Mr. Lippi,
Please let Luca Toni play the whole ninety minutes in the final. Girls world-wide will be forever in your debt.

Hugs and kisses
Cosima

PS: Portugal was playing against France, as I was speeding along the Bavarian Autobahn. Right and left the fields were full of hops. Surely, these hops aren’t only for German beer production?!? We export some of the stuff?!?

Penalty shoot for France. Toooooooooooooooooooooor!

tags: world cup, girlie stuff

After a slow start in the World Cup preliminaries, French football fans changed their traditional chant “Allez les bleus!” to “Allez les vieux!” (Go oldies go!). That’s plain insulting to everyone over thirty. We may have a few wrinkles around the eyes (me), and lost most of our hair (Zidane), but come on we still have what it takes (football-wise only Zidane, me otherwise ;).

So, no points for guessing on which side I was in yesterday’s game Brazil vs. France. First of all, it just feels better to support the underdog. Although to divide teams into underdogs and favorites at this point in the tournament feels slightly odd. Everyone still in it is certainly among the world’s best. But Brazil out before the final, who would have guessed.

Secondly, Zinedine Zidane, who has declared that he will stop playing professional football after the World Cup, deserves a fitting finale to his distinguished career. After the last game, regardless of what happens next, he got just that.

My dream final would be Germany vs. France. I could feel joy for the winner, whoever it is.

photo: AP

tags: world cup, zidane, france

My heart stopped a few times, and my thumbs are blue, but we are through.

Thank you Klose and thank you Lehmann.

OLE! OLE! OLE! OLE!

I didn’t take reports about excessive German flag-waving too seriously, until I landed at Berlin airport today. Flags on cars in the parking lot, flags on cars on the city-autobahn, and even a few hanging in apartment windows. Usually Germans are pretty restrained when it comes to outward patriotism. As a mama-mobile with two German flags was overtaking us, my father reminded me of the reason for that restraint.

“The last time I’ve seen so many flags was during Nazi time.”

And then he told the story of Frau Schmidt, the universally-hated Blockwart of the building he grew up in. Her job was to ensure that her building was in-line with Nazi doctrine, insisting that even windows facing the courtyard hang Hakenkreuz-flags on Nazi holidays. Then my father grinned sarcastically and said “and by the way, when the first Russian soldiers rounded the corner of our street, she was also the first to hang white linens outside her window.”

Don’t get me wrong, I do get the difference between now and then, but somehow I hope these little flags will remain seasonal World Cup items. Like the Christmas decoration that gets packed away after the holidays are over. And in the meantime, I will be the odd one out and put the flag below on my bicycle while I’m here.

PS: After 1945, many German girls put the discarded Hakenkreuz-flags to good use, and wore red skirts with white and black trimmings. These were tough times and fabric was hard to come by. With my fellow countrymen and -women being into recycling these days, I wonder what we could do with all these little German flags after the World Cup is over. One flag is enough for one thong, if you have two more you don’t need to go topless ;)

tags: world cup, flag-waving, berlin

photo: AFP

tags: world cup, podolski, germany