Germans Know How To Party After Game Wins!

I've been quite inactive here lately, but I've been busy with...well, traveling mostly, among other things. The first three weekends in May were spent traveling. But this past weekend we just had to stay in Munich.

Why?

Because it was the Champions League Final and Bayern Munich was playing. I am not a sports nerd, but I do watch soccer...or well, football as the Europeans call it, from time to time. My favourite team is Spain. And boy have I been lucky in the sports department with Spain being the current World Cup and Euro Cup champions?! Among these club football teams, I root for Real Madrid mainly, and then Barcelona. I followed their games and it was very heart breaking to see both my Spanish teams lose in the semi-finals to German teams. 

But heartbreaks aside, Saturday was quite festive in Munich. The entire city was going nuts all day. We were in Marienplatz for some shopping, and there were hordes of people singing and walking around, cheering for the game tonight. I have never seen the city so packed and buzzing with such excitement.

Needless to say, all restaurants with TVs were booked, so we decided to watch the game at our place with a couple of our friends. It was an exciting game, more so made by Umair and his conversations with the Bayern players. 

In the end, we won. And the reason why I was rooting for Bayern Munich is to experience this: 

Just 10 minutes walking from where we live is the street where these guys party after every win. The cops close off the roads to the cars and the long stretch of a road becomes a pedestrian only party area. The above video gives you an idea of how packed the street gets. There's singing, there's music, there's honking...tons and tons of honking, and a lot of smoke and fire. Yep, just like at new year's, they lit up fireworks on their own. But this time wasn't scary! Just smokey. 

And they also do weird things:

It was a lot of fun actually, just seeing these Germans go crazy happy. Also fun to finally experience what it's like to win in Germany. And the best part was - there was zero violence during the celebrations. No one smashed car windows or shop windows. They just sang and danced and jumped and lit fireworks. Till the early hours of morning. 

And when Umair and I were walking home, while crossing the street, a group of very drunk Germans stopped and waited for the green walking man, even though the road was made pedestrians only. Gotta love how these Germans follow rules to the tee, regardless of the situation. 

I have to say I absolutely love living in the city, we have access to everything so easily. I'm not sure if I can ever go back to the suburban life. Maybe in the far future. 

All in all, an entertaining night. 

Smoke! And there's a Cup!