I had the great oppurtunity to go to my first proffesional soccer game in a stadium. This was amazing.
Wendsday evening Dirk told me we had something to talk about. As an exchange student those are the words we don't want to hear. Usually this means you are doing something wrong. To my suprise I wasn't in trouble. He went on to tell me that this saturday we were going to my first fll proffesional soccer game. One team is his favorite league (FC St. Pauli), and the other was Berlin. Both are in the 2nd proffesional league in Germany.
Saturday morning early the wonderful person that got us the tickets, and his son came to our house to pick us up. We set off with our 2 hour drive, which felt like an eternity. I just wanted to get to the game. Not only was this a soccer game, but it was also my first time on the Autoban! Going 80 mph is pretty fun, and I think it's even funnier when people zoom past you and you are already going 80. On our way I got a glimpse of another teams stadium. This stadium was huge. I had no idea what to expect, but it was cool. 2 hours later we weave through the small german roads, trying to find a parking spot. After a long time of searching out a simple open spot, we finally get one. Our next job was to get to the stadium. We took a small little detour to look at the city.
St. Pauli, the town we wree in has personality. It's a city right outside of Hamburg, and the cities seem to be complete opposites. In Hamburg everything is so formal looking, from the clean streets, shops, and the government buildings. On the other hand St. Pauli has tons of flavor. This flavor is not clean looking, but it's still cool. The buildings are coated in griffiti, and the roads with cigarettes. The thing that I found the funniest is that on every corner was someone selling beer. Everyone had a beer in hand, and a team scarf displayed. This town had such a unique personality, and it was actually really cool to see.
When we got to the stadium, it looked awesome. It looked so big, I didn't expect iit to be like that. When we got there we had to wait a little bit, so I went and got something to drink. I went to a drink stand to have the panicked but somehow relaxing looking worker ask me what I want. I got something called mezzo mix. It's half coke, half orange soda. Apparently it's a european thing, but it tastes good. The worker told me how much it costs, and I was a little too slow for him, so he felt prompted to shout, "tsack tsack", which means fast fast! I quickly gave him my money and walked away slightly thrown off because a German just scolded me, haha. Outside the stadium are people just standing around talking, and drinking beer. Can I mention that it was noon?!?! One other thing that's cool about Germany is that their bottles are ususally worth 15 to 25 cents. Companies wash the bottles, and reuse them. You can turn them in and you get money back. There are homeless people standing side by side with the sellers collecting the bottles. I think this is pretty cool that the sellers and the stadium allows this.
When it was time to go we set off to the security check line. They need to do security because sometimes after games there will be full out riots. They pat everyone down, and after that you allowed to pass. After thankfully passing trough there without anyone yelling something in German, I was allowed in. Once I got into the stadium, I was emersed in the chants and shouts of each teams fan section. We were right in the corner, and could see absolutly everything. One thing that is funny is that everything is steps, not chairs. If they put chairs in, it would be wasted money. Simply no one would use them because they are too into the game. After the players were all warmed up, people in the stands started to pass around black garbage bags filled with shreaded paper. At that point I didn't understand it, but in a couple of minutes I did.
The music started and the entire stadium seemed to erupt with noise, and then break into singing with the song. The players came out, and we threw our homemade confetti up into the air. I filmed this entire entrance. (sorry for the bad quality, I couldn't figure out how to zoom while taking a video). With the chants still not coming to an end, the whistle blew and the game started. About 25 minutes of so, one of the St. Pauli player got slide tackeled in the box, and the referee called it. A Berlin player was sent off with a straight red, and the entire stadium blew up cheering. This means that Berlin had to play the rest of the game 1 man down, good for St. Pauli. St. Pauli went on to score this PK and the stadium once again blew up cheering. At halftime I went to explore the stadium a little, bought a pretzel, and got a few cool pictures. In Germany there are people walking around with a basket in front of them selling bread and bretzeln. The pretzels aren't soft and warm like in the US, they are hard on the outside, and chewy on the inside. They also have people walking around serving as a walking beer keg. They have a stack of cups built into their backpack, and a tap right on their side. In the 2nd half 2 more goals were scored, both by our team. One of them I have completly on film. Take note of the screaming of the stadium after every shot, and then when the ball finally goes in.
To top the amazing day off we went out at a traditional italian resturant where I got a great noodle dish. We found our way out of town, and between then and five minutes later I don't remember anything... I was dead asleep. This shows how great the day was and it was really a cool experience.
Pictures and Videos will be up soon, I made sure to take tons!
Wendsday evening Dirk told me we had something to talk about. As an exchange student those are the words we don't want to hear. Usually this means you are doing something wrong. To my suprise I wasn't in trouble. He went on to tell me that this saturday we were going to my first fll proffesional soccer game. One team is his favorite league (FC St. Pauli), and the other was Berlin. Both are in the 2nd proffesional league in Germany.
Saturday morning early the wonderful person that got us the tickets, and his son came to our house to pick us up. We set off with our 2 hour drive, which felt like an eternity. I just wanted to get to the game. Not only was this a soccer game, but it was also my first time on the Autoban! Going 80 mph is pretty fun, and I think it's even funnier when people zoom past you and you are already going 80. On our way I got a glimpse of another teams stadium. This stadium was huge. I had no idea what to expect, but it was cool. 2 hours later we weave through the small german roads, trying to find a parking spot. After a long time of searching out a simple open spot, we finally get one. Our next job was to get to the stadium. We took a small little detour to look at the city.
St. Pauli, the town we wree in has personality. It's a city right outside of Hamburg, and the cities seem to be complete opposites. In Hamburg everything is so formal looking, from the clean streets, shops, and the government buildings. On the other hand St. Pauli has tons of flavor. This flavor is not clean looking, but it's still cool. The buildings are coated in griffiti, and the roads with cigarettes. The thing that I found the funniest is that on every corner was someone selling beer. Everyone had a beer in hand, and a team scarf displayed. This town had such a unique personality, and it was actually really cool to see.
When we got to the stadium, it looked awesome. It looked so big, I didn't expect iit to be like that. When we got there we had to wait a little bit, so I went and got something to drink. I went to a drink stand to have the panicked but somehow relaxing looking worker ask me what I want. I got something called mezzo mix. It's half coke, half orange soda. Apparently it's a european thing, but it tastes good. The worker told me how much it costs, and I was a little too slow for him, so he felt prompted to shout, "tsack tsack", which means fast fast! I quickly gave him my money and walked away slightly thrown off because a German just scolded me, haha. Outside the stadium are people just standing around talking, and drinking beer. Can I mention that it was noon?!?! One other thing that's cool about Germany is that their bottles are ususally worth 15 to 25 cents. Companies wash the bottles, and reuse them. You can turn them in and you get money back. There are homeless people standing side by side with the sellers collecting the bottles. I think this is pretty cool that the sellers and the stadium allows this.
When it was time to go we set off to the security check line. They need to do security because sometimes after games there will be full out riots. They pat everyone down, and after that you allowed to pass. After thankfully passing trough there without anyone yelling something in German, I was allowed in. Once I got into the stadium, I was emersed in the chants and shouts of each teams fan section. We were right in the corner, and could see absolutly everything. One thing that is funny is that everything is steps, not chairs. If they put chairs in, it would be wasted money. Simply no one would use them because they are too into the game. After the players were all warmed up, people in the stands started to pass around black garbage bags filled with shreaded paper. At that point I didn't understand it, but in a couple of minutes I did.
The music started and the entire stadium seemed to erupt with noise, and then break into singing with the song. The players came out, and we threw our homemade confetti up into the air. I filmed this entire entrance. (sorry for the bad quality, I couldn't figure out how to zoom while taking a video). With the chants still not coming to an end, the whistle blew and the game started. About 25 minutes of so, one of the St. Pauli player got slide tackeled in the box, and the referee called it. A Berlin player was sent off with a straight red, and the entire stadium blew up cheering. This means that Berlin had to play the rest of the game 1 man down, good for St. Pauli. St. Pauli went on to score this PK and the stadium once again blew up cheering. At halftime I went to explore the stadium a little, bought a pretzel, and got a few cool pictures. In Germany there are people walking around with a basket in front of them selling bread and bretzeln. The pretzels aren't soft and warm like in the US, they are hard on the outside, and chewy on the inside. They also have people walking around serving as a walking beer keg. They have a stack of cups built into their backpack, and a tap right on their side. In the 2nd half 2 more goals were scored, both by our team. One of them I have completly on film. Take note of the screaming of the stadium after every shot, and then when the ball finally goes in.
To top the amazing day off we went out at a traditional italian resturant where I got a great noodle dish. We found our way out of town, and between then and five minutes later I don't remember anything... I was dead asleep. This shows how great the day was and it was really a cool experience.
Pictures and Videos will be up soon, I made sure to take tons!