My Birthday: Berlin in Summer
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
5. What Happened in Berlin
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...
-edited.jpg) Noemie. My birthday. 2006. (Berlin) |
It was my birthday. 2006.
A ridiculously hot night.
The oppressive heat lasted well past the fall of darkness. Yet thousands upon thousands of Germans celebrated in the streets in the largest display of patriotism the country has seen since Nazi times.
That night, I turned 32 in a club built from a concrete depoôt that had been part of the Berlin Wall. One of the last standing sections of the wall, it is now covered in bold colorful international graffiti. Artists have taken over. The music was hiphop, the DJ from exotic faraway Oakland, California.
We danced until 5am, and bought pastries at sunrise.