Quote of the Moment

"I'm not saying I was directly responsible for the fall of the Berlin Wall, just that I made a contribution through the gift of music" - David Hasslehoff.

We've just spent a quality two days in Berlin with Karim and Polly, who managed to get us beds in their hostel - the little angels.

Berlin has gone pretty football crazy. They've closed off about half a mile of street from the Brandenberg Gate all the way down to that roundabout with the statue of some woman on top - you know where I mean - it's from that really famous photo of loads of Nazis giving it large back in the day. And they've filled the street with big screens, beer tents and a stage where it appears the prerequisite for a performance is that you must be completely devoid of any talent whatsoever.

They also opened up a new Central Train Station especially. That's very generous of them. Most places might just open an extra Hotdog stand, but Berlin wanted to show off. It's nice, too. On about four floors with escalators going up and sideways so it looks like one of those optical illusions and it takes all your concentration not to go upside down and back to front.

So we had two great days there, staying at this hostel called Circus, which to be fair is the nicest hostel either of us has ever stayed in. Big bar, big rooms, nice beds. And the beer was cheap too, which is a definite plus when you embark on a drinking session that only ends when they kick us out because it's time to set up for breakfast and it's light outside.

The big game in Berlin while we were there was Brazil Croatia last night. The Croation fans are the closest we've seen so far to the English - loud, singing, drunk.... the whole package. No trouble though. Bless.

We got a night train into Nuremberg last night, ready for the Trinidad game tomorrow night. There are some more people we know kicking around here somewhere who we'll track down at some stage. In the meantime, we just have to wait. We don't have anywhere to stay for the next two nights so we expect our smell to upgrade to Battle-Ready status at some point. There are a lot of nice parks and grass verges to make our own so it's no real concern.

Nuremberg is preparing for the English invasion as if it were, well, an invasion. They have put boards up around statues (whether this was in reaction to the Frankfurt statue we're not sure) and they're putting up a wall around two of the cathedrals.... Where's the trust?

Massive thanks and love to Karim and Polly for sorting out our accomadation, showing us how to get places, showing us how to abuse the Metro, taking us to the Berlin Wall even though they'd been, buying us dinner and basically being all round legends.

Oh, one more thing. I didn't realise when I started this thing how popular is was going to be and how diverse the readership.... That being the case, I'm going to tone down my language ever so slightly in the future for the benefit of all - but mostly for Vinny's mum.

The last few days in numbers......

Number of times walked into buildings of historical interest, only to leave straight away when it turned out we were going to have to pay : 8

Number of times we have been convinced we have had something of value lost or stolen only to find it minutes later: Mike 0, Vinny 6

Number of times Mike told everyone else to f*** off the day after the night before: 12

Number of times Mike expressed an unfair prejudice towards Mexicans: 7

Number of times Karim talked about his own hair, the hair of other people, or hair grooming products: 57

Number of times Vinny knocked into things in the sandal shop due to the overtly attractive shop assistant: 5

Number of times we discovered, rather graphically, that Karim shaves his back : 1 (enough)

Number of jokes made where David Hasslehoff was the main or supporting character: 26




s***head Challenge

Mike 38
Vinny 34