Vienna Report, part III: The Match. Hrvatska - Türkiye

Ernst-Happel. June 2008. Turkey-Croatia Quarter Final.

As a beautiful act of loyalty – respecting the international fraternity, and love for the whole mankind – I sang the national anthems of the both teams! Which was not that difficult since the words ran on the huge screens in karaoke style.

The Croatian cheer went Hrva-Hrva-Hrva! Hrvatska!

Exhausted. Looking forward to the summer of 2008.

This is Vienna, my town of 2008!




Today Miss Funnybunny and I went to a huge shopping mall in Eastern Helsinki.

Why an earth did we do that? That's what I was wondering when we walked home with a lot of heavy groceries, loud crying (<= Miss F.) and (my) painful back and feet.

But we like the Helsinki metro, ice cream, shopping cheap computer hardware and carousels, and of course, there is one. And we met a friend there.

But I am so very tired. I haven't got enough rest after London, and Miss Funnybunny is making me crazy by being rebellious, misbehaving and difficult, like a huge, nearly three-year-old, spoiled drama queen.

No, to tell you the truth, she is wonderful, for most of the time. But it is just a fact that nearly three-year-olds do tricky things to their mothers. Like they always say "no" to anything. And cry if they don't get their will. And cry even when everything is done according to their wishes. And leave forks on the floor causing their mothers, by accident to step on one. (I got it away immediately, but there was blood everywhere, and I am limping a bit. No real harm done. Just that it made me even more tired.)

And, when being at granny's, she had been just perfect: happy, cute, nice, polite, obedient... Everything she has not been with me today. Or yesterday, or day before that...

How do single parents survive? Beats me.

At times like these, I flip through Petite Anglaise's excellent blog and check out how her Tadpole is doing.

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And then, to make my agony worse, some brain-dead idiot has designed this weekends movie schedules on TV. There are three (3!) Tom Cruise films on TV, can you believe it?!?! One of the worst ever is on right now.

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So, why Vienna?

Only 412 days, 21 hours and 16 minutes to... this! And I will be there in Vienna!

Never seen that city. But I have liked Austria a lot: Salzburg and the Alps are great, been there years ago.

OH YES, very important things to add: Miss Funnybunny will be travelling with me, and so does Mr HP, and many friends of ours. Lovely, lovely Vienna!




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PS. About the tragedy at Virginia Tech, a funny and clever blogger, Chase me ladies, I'm in the cavalry, put it bluntly, and I agree:

... The idea is that if one of the Virginia Tech students (other than the killer) had had a gun with him, he could have come to the rescue like Dick Dauntless, and shot the Korean.

Well that’s true. But what if 300 students had guns, and they were all on the look-out for a student with a gun? I’m failing to see the genius of this plan, though no doubt I’ve overlooked something obvious. ...

(Hey. Was the "300 students" referring to Frank Miller's 300? Perhaps not...)

Remembering Germany, but ALLEZ LES BLEUS!

Nice to be back home! It was great to spend almost a week in Frankfurt, especially when Germany and Argentina were playing. (I was wearing the Argentina shirt in the middle of millions of Germans.... and then started the penalties... But I was fine, and so was everybody else, except the Argentinian team.) And on Saturday we had an exciting game there, near the center, at the Frankfurt stadium: when France was playing Brazil the streets were full of people in yellow, or green, shirts.

And most of them, the fans of Brazil, were not Brazilians but Germans, and maybe from some other countries, too. Somebody said, that people who do not know much about football usually support Brazil. How evil thing to say. But true.

But my friends and I, we were wearing blue, white and red, as a minority there. And WE WON!

But I think Germany has won the Wolrd Cup. Already. Doesn't matter how they will play Italy this evening.

Firstly, Germany has organised these games very well. Fans are taken care of in such a funny, friendly and appreciated manner that I almost could not belive I am in Germany. Many people have had ideas of Germany being efficient but boring, clever but with no sense of humour, but NO, no, no: Germany is a lot of fun and beautiful cities and landscapes, warm people and so good food! And everything was surprisingly cheap, too.

Secondly, the German team is now better then ever. Kaiser Beckenbauer and Rudi Völler, and even Klinsi, must be a bit envious when they look how the team is enjoying its task, and of course, playing so well together. Going forward with a lot of pressure, doing fancy stuff and tricks, and winning a match after match. Actually, the only German player I remember fun to watch has been Klinnsman.

I wish you good luck, but anyway, FRANCE will be the winner of the tournament.

ALLEZ LES BLEUS!

IStori

What can I say? It´s a PARTY here!

Now I do think Germany will be the champion.

England will play soon, and I have to get to the river banks, to MainArena. I will watch the game with about 100 000 other fooball fans.

See you!
IStori, Frankfurt am Main

...and long live Frankfurt!

As the keyboard of this computer is new to me (not the usual "qwerty") I am not able to write good stories as quickly as I wish, but these pictures are a somewhat good summary of what is going on in here.

Around the town it seemed -- like we say in Finnland -- like pressure right before the thunderstorm. The Germans said (repeatedly) tomorrow is the FINAL GAME.

Auf wiederschreiben!
IStori

Vive l'Argentina!

I used to have friends in Germany.

But I am so afraid of stretching too much that wonderful kindness and friendliness, as tomorrow on Thursday the 29th I will fly to Frankfurt, as a big, old fan of ARGENTINA!!!!

But, to tell you the truth, I am very, very impressed of the succedings of the German team. Klose, Lahm, Frings... they are SO GOOD. So if Argentina is to lose, which is HIGHLY unlikely, but anyway, IF the German team proves to be better – in that case I wish German won the tournament as a whole.

And vive la France! Go and show Brazil!

More on Frankfurt soon.

IStori

Ps. (See you soon, O, F and P. I love you hospitality and appreciate it. Thank you so much!)

Life after Midnight Sun Film Festivals

Oh dear,

Midnight Sun Film Festivals, taking place in Lapland, is one of the best summer festivals I know: Films, good friends, brilliant discussions (especilly the ones by the river Kitinen in the morning, or at the Club anytime), lovely music, endless sunshine (almost endless, and no snow this year!), good parties, football (even a LIVE match: Sodankyla against the rest of the world - and a remark to you, organisers: I would have played if I had only heard about the match beforehand, i.e before joining the fans when the match was to start, in high heels)!

The ones who have never been there, check this out: www.msfilmfestival.fi.

When it comes to football World Cup, I am quite happy with the latest results. But the most difficult and exciting games are yet to be played, of course.

Paljon terveisiä Teille Sodankylän reissaajille:

H, V, A, Aslak-Poro, Mikko I, Satu, Hannu W, Mickael, Sedis, Mervi, Pekka K, Nicke, Kati, Ville, VP, Mailis, Petteri, Timo M, Timo F, Johanna, Satu, Eero, Tape, Ari, Vesa, Kaisa, Vappu... ja kaikki muut!

Ja paikoista ylivoimaisesti eniten terveisiä Seita-baarille, jossa ruoan saanti tosiaan kestää järjettömän kauan, mutta jonka tunnelma on ainutlaatuinen, ja jota kuitenkin huomaan kaipaavansa eniten + Rooperantelle, Revontulelle, Annabellalle, Hotelli Sodankylälle ja Karhulle sekä tietenkin Teltalle!

I. S.

Gene Hackman and today's figures

Luiz Felipe "Gene Hackman" Scolari showed he can sill coach winning team! In my ranking list Portugal will get quite far. (But not until the beautiful end...)

My best scorers in the cup as a whole (I filled in a coupon in Finnish betting system "Veikkaus") they have been Raul, though unfortunately he is a Real Madrid man and I'd prefer Barca, and Crespo. <- Group C is quite difficult, but, well, my ultimate winner is Argentina after all!

But what happened to Sweden!? That was so lame. Be ashamed you lazy neighbours. And, according to the accusing headlines of yours, you are. Perhaps it is true that if one is too sure about winning a match and too easily, then winning will be most difficult.

Today the matches will end like this: ITA-GHA 2-1 (not too personal a choice but couldn't help it...) and USA-CZE 0-4. ou'll see!

Best,
I. S.

Nyt se alkaa! This is how it will go:

A1: GERMANY
A2: EQUADOR
B1: ENGLAND
B2: SWEDEN
C1: ARGENTINA
C2: HOLLAND
D1: MEXICO
D2: PORTUGAL
E1: CZECH
E2: ITALY
F1: BRAZIL
F2: AUSTRALIA
G1: FRANCE
G2: SOUTH KOREA
H1: SPAIN
H2: TUNIS

1. A1 - B2, GERMANY
2. C1 - D2, ARGENTINA
3. B1 - A2, ENGLAND
4. D1 - C2, MEXICO
5. E1 - F2, CZECHIA
6. G1 - H2, FRANCE
7. F1 - E2, BRAZIL
8. H1 - G2, SPAIN

A. 1. - 2., ARGENTINA
B. 3. - 4., MEXICO
C. 5. - 6., CZECHIA
D. 7. - 8., BRAZIL

Finals:
1. ARGENTINA - BRAZIL

WINNER: ARGENTINA
SILVER: BRAZIL
BRONZE: MEXICO
4TH: CZECHIA

Place your bet, let the fun begin...

I. S.