Soccer German-style

By Kelly Enright

Today’s adventure was embarked upon by Whitney and myself. Whitney is an avid soccer fan and had mentioned a few days ago that she wanted to find tickets to the last Munich soccer game of the season. Even though sports aren’t my thing, I couldn’t let my dear friend wander around Munich alone, especially when she would be surrounded by drunk Germans. Now that’s a scary thought.

Let me give you some insight into my personal thoughts before we left:

This is going to be such a waste of time. There is absolutely no way we’re going to find a ticket, but I know that Whitney would go with me if I wanted to go. And I am definitely not spending more than 40 euros on a soccer ticket. I wouldn’t even spend two cents at home!

So with my rather negative mindset, we ate lunch and began our soccer adventure. We managed to successfully find the train station and the correct stop for the stadium. As we began walking toward the stadium, we were surrounded by chanting people wearing white and red (the Munich team’s colors -- duh).

There Whitney, who is usually rather quiet and observant, began asking every person that passed by if he had tickets. Each would all say no. NO. In every language, no means no. Eventually the game started … and the first half ended. We were about to give up. Although we had a great time catching our ticket-finding nightmare on video, it was hot and we were, needless to say, disappointed. But we didn’t lose hope.

At halftime people began trickling out of the stadium. We kept asking for tickets, and they kept saying no. But then a miracle occurred. A man with his wife and two young children had passed us, but turned around when he heard us ask for tickets.

Man: You need tickets?
Us: YES! YES!! We need tickets!
Man: (reaches into pocket to reveal two tickets) Here you go.
Us: Oh my gosh! Really? Thank you so much!
Man: Have fun!

Well there you have it: yesterday’s miracle. Yes, the dear man handed us his tickets. For free. And said, “Have fun!”

So we went to the gate to be frisked. This included more than just the light patting down we experience from time to time in the States. Instead I felt like I was being felt up by a drunk man at a bar. After we passed the gate, we just looked at each other and screamed! We found our seats, which had a great view. And enjoyed the game. Yes, that is all I have to say. We enjoyed the game.

Oh wait: that didn’t seem like my typical storytelling did it? The game was amazing! German fans chant a lot, instead of the normal Gamecock football game “I have to scream until I’m mute” fan. The stadium held 69,000 people, and everyone was focused completely on the game. We did not witness the usual drunk person falling and throwing up all over the place at Williams-Brice. Instead, everyone cheered, chanted and had a great time. Oh, and Munich won. Even better.

After the game was over, we gave into our tourist instincts and headed to the mega-store to buy the team gear. We were ecstatic we had made it into the game, and a little surprised ourselves. Now you would think the adventure would end here, but it doesn’t. The train ride home was an entire adventure in itself.

At Carolina football games everyone leaves at the same time, but they also scatter to every possible place around the stadium to find their cars. Well in Munich, probably 95 percent of soccer fans use public transportation. This means that approximately (if my percentage is correct) 65,550 people are all headed to one underground train station. Well, this was quite exciting, and quite smelly. Whitney and I stuck together and made it to the station. When the train came, every person was squished up against another, charging toward the train -- and squished is exactly the word I want to use. Whitney and I held hands for dear life. Earlier we’d witnessed two friends being separated by the train doors, and we were not about to experience this -- especially not in Germany.

We continued with the pack and made it onto the train and onto our little square inch of space. The stench was of German body odor, alcohol and probably sausages and was less than pleasant. No further explanation is needed.

After a torturous 16 minutes, just when I felt that my lungs had stopped working, we made it off the train (and to the right station). Nothing could have been better, except that right afterward we found an Irish pub, which meant American-style food, which meant no more sausages! Whitney was so relieved, and promptly ordered a cheeseburger. We saw some friends we had made earlier during our ticket search and joined them for dinner, before eventually walking back to the hotel, where our adventure ended.

Today was great, and I thought I’d let you know I take back all those negative thoughts I had earlier. I am so happy I went with Whitney, and I really feel that I was able to experience something special to Munich and to Germany as a whole. We just watched the video from our adventure and it is quite humorous. We hope to post some of it as soon as we can find some editing time, which may be hard to find between all of our cross-Atlantic adventures. But I must say, this has been the best I’ve had yet.