After a long night farewelling my friends in Baden I caught a 6:30am train to Munich. I decided to add on the side trip (originally I planned to go direct from Zurich to Budapest) to take up an offer from a Brazilian mate Marcelo to join him and a bunch of his friends from ALSTOM for the Brazil vs. Australia match there. Andreas, one of the other ALSTOM guys, has an apartment near the centre of the city and so it was great to know I had a place to crash.
I arrived in Munich in the late morning and found the Hauptbahnhof jam-packed with Aussie and Brazilian supporters – LOTS of green and gold everywhere! I made my way to Andreas’s apartment which was close by and found the lads recovering from a big party night. It was a surprise to see Ruben (a Spanish mate from work) there as well I roused them out of bed and we walked to Marienplatz in the centre of the city, where a big street party was well underway. After a meal and a few German-sized beers we made the decision to head to massive "Fan Zone" set up in the old Olympic Park (any idea we had to get some tickets to the match were quickly quashed when we found out the going price – 600 euro!!).
Marcelo and I in Marienplatz. Some of the many Brazilians…
We caught a jam-packed U-bahn train to the Olympic Park and found it already at capacity – there would have to have been over 50,000 spectators there surrounding a HUGE screen that showed the matches and a DJ cranking out the tunes in-between the matches and at half-time. We had to muscle our way in to the central section of the amphitheatre but it was well worth it to be in the middle of all the action – heaps of Aussies, Brazilians and Germans (pretending to be Brazilian!) dancing, drinking and enjoying the great weather.
The "Fan Zone" in the Olympic Park.
(L) Ruben and I toast the end of a great match. (R) Partying through the night on the streets.
The game was an exciting one and the Aussies were unlucky to go down goal-less: I thought the Socceroos deserved a goal in their 2:0 defeat. Still, after the game the party kept raging and the beer was still cold, so all was soon forgotten… We samba-d for a few hours after the game until it got dark, and then went back into town to continue the festivities. We ended up back at Marienplatz at around midnight and there was a great impromptu street party going on there with capoiera (spelling!) and samba dancing. We continued on into the wee small hours of the morning.
I rolled out of bed early to catch the morning train to Budapest and I’m there now with a few friends from Berkeley. First impressions are good, but I’ll write more in a couple of days.
It’s been great fun being back in Switzerland for the past week…
Last weekend I joined some of my rugby mates at one of our traditional summer tournaments – the St. Gallen "Bishop’s Cup" 10’s tournament in eastern Switzerland. Sure enough I couldn’t avoid pulling on the boots again and I played a handful of games, including the final in which we defeated a Hungarian side comfortably to win the cup! We camped out and had perfect weather the whole weekend, and the party on Saturday night was just as wild as I remember from past years.
Flags are out in the Baden Altstadt in preparation for Swiss National Day.
Earlier in the week I spent my days preparing for my travels through Eastern Europe, did some research on the Silk Road (my destination once I leave Europe at the end of summer), watched a fair bit of the World Cup (including Australia’s 3:1 victory over Japan!), and had a ball catching up with lots of people I haven’t seen in a year or two. Everyone’s just the same albeit a little bit older, married, with kids etc.
Zurich and the Limmat River.
The Zurich Altstadt at sunset.
Andy, Ian and I took advantage of a public holiday on Thursday and headed into the Alps for the day. It was too hot and too hazy to make a hike worthwhile, so we instead drove up to a small mountain pass near Schwyz for a lazy outdoor and very Swiss lunch. We then drove down to Brunnen on Vierwaldstaettersee (Lake Luzern) and caught a 100-year-old paddle steamer around Urnersee, the most dramatic and beautiful part of the lake. It was fantastic to chill out and enjoy the views – I used to spend many of my weekends in the Alps snowboarding and hiking, and I’ve missed having such a great outdoor asset just outside my doorstep.
A vintage paddle steamer on Urnersee, part of the Vierwaldstaettersee in Central Switzerland.
A lakeside church near Fluelen. Andy and Ian.
The Grand Tour began at 4:30am on 6 June at the corner of Greenwich and Grant St in San Francisco. My taxi didn’t show and I was therefore rushed to make my flight on time. It all worked out OK and I had an uneventful flight and seamless transfer in Toronto. It was a clear morning as we made our approach into Zurich airport and I had great views over the rivers and rolling green hills of the Swiss Mitteland to the Alps beyond. I could pick out all the well-known giants of the Swiss Alps, including Eiger and Jungfrau, the Matterhorn, and even Mont Blanc in the distance.
I caught the train to Baden (the small town just outside Zurich where I used to live) and have been staying with some friends from my old work for the past few days. It’s been fun to catch up with the old Baden crowd at the local biergarten, and with the Rugby Club Zurich crowd at the Oliver Twist Pub (the club’s favourite haunt). In fact, I have to admit that it’s great to be back in Switzerland, and it feels like I never left! But I guess you get that after living somewhere for five years…