Deutschland! Deutschland!

Wed 14 Jun

We (Aaron, Alessa and I) met Yonca at her school because she had just finished her final exam; exciting stuff for all concerned. To celebrate we ventured to the beach to join her classmates who were having a few beers in the late-20 degree heat.

Aaron and I rested up at home for a few hours with a couple of beers. I checked my emails and saw there was one from FIFA about the conditional tickets I had ordered before I left New Zealand. I had requested 2 tickets to either Brasil/Croatia or Sweden/Paraguay so if any sponsors returned their tickets they would be allocated to the lucky people on the conditional waiting list. In my haste, I opened the email and saw that we had been allocated TWO TICKETS TO THE SWEDEN GAME! We coudn't believe it - we were going to be attending a game at the biggest sporting event in the world on Thursday.

After dinner we took the train back to the city to watch Germany's clash with Poland at the Fan Mile. It was so busy when we got there that they had closed many of the gates to get in. Once we were in though, we managed to cruise (read push our way) to the front screen at the Gate, about dead centre; a perfect spot to be.

With 5 minutes to go we thought it was going to be another nil-all draw, but a Neuville strike saw to it that we were not left goaless again. Needless to say the crowd went absolutely mental; fireworks, chants, screaming, beer and water in the air, dancing. If this is how crazy a pool game gets, the final is going to be berserk!