Thank you

Aimee and I want to post a quick thank you note to all of the people that have been writting to the blog. It is great to see what a great group of friends we have.

Thanks to all..

Joe:
beer gardens are everywhere. You have them from the most traditional to the one that were just created for the world cup.

Vic:
I am sorry about the US, but now I can share your feeling... we are out too.

Everyone:
thanks for reading and posting your notes....

We played like we never had before, we lost like always

The day could have not started better, Aimee and I got hoocked up with tickets to Mexico vs Argentina game in Leipzin, Germany. We traveled from Nuremberg to Leizing (about a 4 hour ride in train) at 630 in the morning to make sure that I was going to really get hooked up with the tickets. I did get the tickets and not just any cheap tickets, but the ones on category one close to the ground and among soccer celebrities and players family.

The city was hot and thousands of Mexicans and Argentinas walked trough main square to party for what was going to be a great match.



There were all sort of unusal chants from both sides but at the end a friendly festive celebration was what we all care about.

We spent all day drinking, singing and walking though the streets of main square. We took many pics and eat a good Argentinian steak, as a methaphor for what I wished for the Argentinian team that night.

There was all sort of unsual characters at the stadium, Mexicans in bycicles, people dress as the characters from TV, and of course the Mexicans who love to dress as King Aztecs.


We got to the stadium about 7:30 pm and it is beatifull. It is defenitly one of the most beautifull places I have seen so far. When I got there, I could not believe my eyes for the seats we got. We were among soccer royalty and we saw everything really, really close.

The game was great, but we ended up loosing and we are out of the world cup. It is unfortunate because Mexicans are a few of the people who bring the best athmosphere to the towns where the games are happening.

The best thing of all for me was to see Aimee really into the game. She jumped and yelled when Mexico scored, and sadden along with anger when we lost. It was good to see her so excited and that makes me very happy.



We came back to Nuremberg this morning, but had to spend the night at the train station because there was no trains until 3:45 am this morning. The central stations of Leipzing was full of Mexicans waiting for all sort of destinations and it was quite an spectacle to see them all sleeping on the floor wrapped with the Mexican flag or people sleeping with a bit sombrero on top of them.

I am sad that we are out, but it is what it is and the world cup moves on. I will be watching from Nurember the game Portugal vs Holland and then I will move on to Dortmund to watch Brazil vs Ghana.

We will be posting soon.

Essen, boring -- Gelsenkirchen, Mexican Town

Boring Essen
Essen is one of those cities where it is on the way to everything. It is close to Dortmund, Cologne, and Gelsenkirchen (which is where we are going but because we can not find any hotels there we ended up staying here). It is a nice city but there is really not much to do, plus is only Monday and everything seems to close early. I suppose the most relevant thing we saw here is Wal-Mart inside the mall and couple of girls being arrested for something which I can only assume was shoplifting. The town is not that far from where the Mexico game took place. It is about 45 min by subway or 10 min by DB. Because of its location there are lots of Mexicans Nationals coming to stay at the hotel where I am staying since there are zero hotel disposability at Gersenkirthen.

GelsenKirchen, Mexican Town
The town is full of Mexicans. All you see is green shirts, the "Cielito Lindo" is being sang everywhere. It is sang so much that I getting really tired of it. The estimates on the street is close to 85000 thousand Mexicans in a little town whose organization was really poor.The fanfest placed by the city is definitely the worst I have seen. Yet, local people are very proud of the fanfest taking place at the old stadium since it has a lot of history. The town consist mainly of blue workers who are willing to spend time and tell you about the town, the stadium and its history. For example, a Germany lady at the fan fest started explaining to me the greatest day of the old stadium. "The greatest day was a match between France and vs Germany right after the WW2. The capacity of the stadium is 35,000 and that glorious day the stadium fit 75,000". As I said, people here are proud of the old stadium.

The game
Mexico lost the game against Portugal 2 - 1 as you all know by now. Yet we still made to the next round and we go against Argentina where it will probably be the end of the world cup for us. The game was ours to win, We failed a penalty shot and Omar Bravo had couple of shots that should have been goal if he was much better skilled. Yet, the atmosphere was great. People sang all game, chanted Mexican sayings and never stop supporting. We were definitely the louder in comparison with the Portuguese, Televisa (Mexican TV network, largest Spanish TV network in the world) once again kick ass. They put their own fanfest (which I could not attend because I was working on getting my tickets for the game) where there was couple of huge TV screens, Mexican food, actors, music, games and lots of free gifts. There were a lot of poster like the ones on the pic that basically say "Germany is Mexican town" and or "Mexioo plays local in Germany". The tickets went for close to 1000 euros. I met people who paid 800 euros for one tickets that is worth 63 euros. There are people sleeping at the train station because they could not find any hotels since Mexican took every room in town. All I can say is even if you do not have tickets for the games, it is definitely worth it to come because of the fanfest and party atmosphere that goes on each city where games are played, specially where Mexico, England, and Brazil are playing.

We leave this town today and we are on our way to Nuremberg where I thought I was going to see Mexico play, but as it turns out I will be watching Portugal vs Holland.

Keep Watching because the best is about to come.......

Food anyone?

Cologne, Food and Stuff

Cologne
Cologne is a really small town. It is nice and colorful… If you are more interested to check out the beauties of this city please click here: Cologne and find out for yourself.

There is really not much to do here except to check out the Cathedral, very Gothich impressive piece of architectural structure, and the Chocolate factory, which we visited.

I am proud to say that the world owes Chocolate to Mexico big time since it was there where it was manufactured as to what is known today among many other uses such as medicinal and energetic drink by the Aztecs. Chocolate is one more thing to add to our list of great things. According to the Chocolate factory, Chocolate was taken to Europe with Ernan Cortez (Mexican Conquistador) and once it was introduce to royalty its popularity was widespread to all Europan countries and thus, the world as it was known at that time.


Food
As far as food, we are eating a lot of sausage. There is pizza everywhere, Cold Sandwiches, a lot of fruit, pasta but mainly different kinds of sausages. It drives me nuts the lack of ice here. Drinks are room temperature and even beer is not ice cold like in the USA. I think it has to with the fact that their winter is really long and they only have a few months of hot weather so they do not see the difference between really cold drink and/or room temperature drink.

I can not enough of the sausages here. They are great and the smell of them is so inviting that I barely resist every time. Also, I like the fact that most of their deserts are fruit oriented. It seems healthy. Ice Cream in another big one here desert here and you can find it everywhere.

Surprise, Surprise: Dunkin Donuts is everywhere in Germany. They love those donuts. You can also find a lot of bakeries, with focus on sweet bread.

Finally, Argentinan Cafes are popular here and they are everywhere. I rarely eat there due that they are expensive. It cost about 25 euros to eat a steak and then you have to add the sides and then the drinks.

I have to say that even though cost us a lot of money, we had a great lunch at a Spaniard (not the same as Mexican, or TEXMEX) restaurant. We had the best paella and the best Spanish (from Spain) beer in Holland.

Stuff
We are leaving Cologne today and moving to the Mexico VS Portugal game in Gelsenkirchen.

We will C U there....

Mexico, Same as Usual -- USA, Still a chance -- Cologne, Ghana town -- Brazil, slowly but surely

Mexico, Same as Usual
The last game was not all that. Mexico seemed to play two games: One that should be forgotten on the first half and the second one where they played better. Yet I am comfident the national team will make it to next round.

We still have not got the tickets for Mexico vs Portugal (which should be great) but they still have couple of days to deliver.

A little insight on what is going on here with the Mexican team… Televisa (Mexican TV Network and part of owner of UNIVISION in the USA) has brought music bands that play before the game at the stadiums where Mexico is playing such as Banda el Recodo. People are going to stadium just to party with us and dance. Also, Corona has set up stands of games and typical Mexican food for the enjoyment.

I have to say if the Atlantic was the same as size as the Rio Bravo, Mexicans probably would come here instead of US because Europeans loveeeee the Mexican Culture. Whenever you wear your Mexican jersey they cheer “Mexico, Mexico” and they start singing “Cielito Lindo”. It is really gratifying to see how much they like the Mexican Culture and its people. (P.S. I do not Mexicans can swim this far... hehhehe)

USA, Still a Chance
What a game the Americans put two nights ago. I do not care they tied, they showed courage and will of winning. I will be cheering for them when they play Ghana. GO USA

Cologne, Ghana Town
We got here two days ago and this town is beautiful. My only purpose here is to buy my hurracain glass from the Hard Rock Cafe. Ghana played here VS CR and after their win, the town never went quite. It was loud all night, well at least until 3 A.M. when I went to bed. They played African music all night, and there seemed to be a loud singing competition between Ghana and the ZCheks.

Brazil, slowly but surely

Brazil won and they are now on the next part of the WC. That is all it counts….

Girls Anyone?

If you look at left of the blog ---- under links--- you will see a new link called "Girls!, Girls!, Girls!" Thanks to TV Azteca, you will be able to enjoy the beauties of the World Cup.

Note: I can not really take pics of girls because 1) I would look like a pervert and 2) Aimee is right next to me...

Anyway, the link makes enough justice of what is here.....

Here is a pic of me with some
gorgeous British "GIRLS"