kolsch. Strangely, not enough to have a hangover.
The sports “experience” in Europe is so much different than in the United States. Not a lot of skyboxes. The pricing in the stadium is ridiculously affordable and the amenities are all but nonexistent. I saw soccer in a giant, newish stadium on Wednesday and Billy Joel in a monster soccer (and former WFL home of the Galaxy) pit in Frankfurt on Saturday night and these places aren’t even up the standards of Giants Stadium circa 1975.
I paid $5 for a 24-ounce beer. Bratwurst were $3.50.
It didn’t suck!
These prices are in Euros so everytime you give them a U.S. dollar, they had you $1.13 in their money. It’s nice math.
It was our first trip to Europe since June 2006, when we went for the FIFA World Cup and watched a soccer match adjacent to Niels’ hometown in Dortmund. We saw Sweden play Trinidad just six miles from where a 13 year old, soccer mad kid watched the world’s greatest tournament come to his homeland.
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So, soccer was a language we shared. His English is better than most people I know from East Baltimore. We fought about Oliver Kahn. I told him I have a mancrush on Michael Ballack. We discussed soccer’s role in the world. He’s super smart, speaks parts of four languages and loves sports. Meanwhile, his brother Max is a massive Kobe Bryant fan and seeing their relationship through sports over various burgers, beers and BSing about the leagues was a lot of fun.
They both talked lovingly about the NFL – his brother is a rather large New England Patriots fan (clearly he like cheaters) – and they spend every Sunday night at 7 p.m. married to the two games they get on television. His brother, who also speaks English better than most folks I’ve met on Facebook recently, was planning on watching the Vikings play a preseason game in their new dome. He pronounced it “Wi-kings,” which I think is absolutely awesome!
So, he and his brothers love sports – his older brother is a trainer with Borussia Dortmund football club, the venue where we saw a World Cup game in June 2006.
He had three beers on the front of his Facebook profile, and well, he’s German so we knew he liked beer.
But we also really liked him.
Just a super person and we’re elated about bringing him on his first trip to America to meet …
