Xerxes' Errata

Well the World Cup (or Weltmeisterschaft here in Germany, which sounds much more impressive than World Cup) is over. After 64 games in total Italy won (even though France creatied more chances) and one of the game's greats ended his career in a rush of blood to the head.

It wasn't the most entertaining final, but it still made for some good drama. And just like on Tuesday, the Italians here in town were partying like mad for hours. Can't say I blame them. No one expected the Azzuri to make it to the finals, what with the likelihood that some of the top teams in Italy (AC Milan, Juventus, Fiorentina, and Layio) will be forced into the lower divisions for next season.

And despite the fact that the home team only made third place, the German people all over the country are immensly proud of what their team accomplished. After their poor showing at the 2004 Euro's no one expected much from the German team either. But now things are different. After Germany clinched third place, there was a massive party in the town square which was repeated all over Germany. Jürgen Klinsman is now a national hero now people are already saying Germany will win in 2010 (we'll see). Also Franz "Der Kaiser" Beckenbauer (one of Germany's greatest ever player)is everywhere. He was at 46 of 64 games, he's been in a ton of commercials, a ton of interviews, and somehow he found the time to get married again before the knockout rounds.

Meanwhile, it finally cooled off here in Germany. Last week for a couple of days it was in the high 30's and I was sweating like a pig as I sat still. And in between the heat waves there was a nasty (yet entertaining) thunderstorm which lasted for hours and precious, cooling rain.

Anyway. Tomorrow, I'm making a little side trip to the town of Münster which, surprisingly enough, is where the Treaty of Westphalia was signed, thus ending the Thirty Years War and ushered in a new era if international relations of which some principles are still relevant to this day.

The day after tomorrow I'm going to Berlin, the cozy capital of Europe as it's sometimes known. Though I doubt I'll have enough time to see everything I really want to see. Hopefully I can get into the Reichstag, though my cousin tells me the lines to get in are horrificlly long. What I really want to see however, apart from the various museaums and art galleries and the famous Berlin Zoo, is the Sachsenhausen concentration camp which is about an hour north of Berlin.

Even though I know it will be depressing and certainly not a "fun" excursion, I've always told myself that if I ever got the opportunity, I would go to one of the concentration camps. Mainly because even though the images from the Holocaust are powerful and make you question the nature of humanity's soul, I've always found them to be still a bit of an abstraction, though not completely of course.
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I'll try and get some pics uploaded soon, but it might be a little tricky. Of all the things I neglected to bring with me, it was my link cable for my camera. I now realise that not everyone has an SD slot built into their computer like I do. So if you don't see any new pics within the week, you'll have to wait untill I get home. But if you do, you should know they are off the internet.

Till next time....