What Happened in Berlin
World Cup 2006: Wandering Europe
SNAPSHOTS:
1. Paris et Les Invalides
2. Zidane, Ribery, et le Trocadero at Midnight
3. Aller a Strasbourg
4. The Autobahn and the Art of Happiness
6. My Birthday: Berlin in Summer
7. Back in the Thick of It: Ghana v USA
8. Sam's Army, Cognitive Dissonance, and Facepaint
9. Born in the USA
10. "USA!" he yelled. "USA!"
11. And our best player left the field on a stretcher.
12. We watched happily as the scores of passing Ghanai...
 Germany vs Sweden at the Tiergarten (Berlin) |
In Berlin, the heat was torrid, a mockery of itself. No one could move.
And yet in the middle of the sweltering afternoon, Noemie and I found thousands of Germans in the capital city's main park, the Tiergarten, crowding together hungrily, gazing up at enormous television screens.
And there we beheld a match: the Germans beat the Swedes.
With the win, the temporary swirling clouds of heat, and the fears and emotions that had plagued us both, turned thick and heady. Night fell and the city went mad.