After checking out a little more of Amsterdam, I went to the train station 90 minutes early. I met two American girls who seemed to be hopelessly lost, had the backpacker conversation and showed them where to validate their rail passes. On the train I sat next to a friendly Dutch guy who was on his way to Hamburg to see one of the World Cup games with his friends. He talked non-stop for the duration of the train ride to Berlin, which was fine because he was funny as hell. He talked about European stereotypes and made impressions of different European accents in English.

My ETA to Berlin put smack dab in the middle of the Germany Vs. Argentina game. I tried calling my friend in Berlin, Marc, to let him know I was arriving in town but something was wrong with the cell network. I hoped Germany would win for the sake of the general atmosphere in Berlin. You don’t want to spend the last few days of your vacation in a city where the residents are bummed out because their national team is out of the World Cup they’re hosting. That would be depressing. I love Berlin, I spent a few days here in summer 2005 and I think this is one place I would really like to live in for a while.

Arrived at 17:35 in Berlin’s new shiny Hauptbanhof. The place is huge, probably the largest in Europe, and crawling with people. Check it out:

I am sitting in a Chinese food place in the station’s food court (yes,the station has its own full size food court). People have converged in large groups around areas with TV screens so that they can watch the game. In the half time break I call Marc and he instructs me to take the bus to the Postdamer Platz. I go there and go into the Arcadium (sp?) and watch the second half of the game. Germany wins by penalty shootout. The Germans went wild.

People are all over the street.They’re surrounding Argentinian fans and singing “Don’t cry for me Argentina”. Brutal.

30 minutes later I took the U-bahn to Senfelderplatz where I met Marc and Angela in a sea of happy fans.