Euro2008 - Austria v Poland

As a few of you may know, Euro2008, the huge soccer tournament, held every 4 years for all of the European teams, has begun. I'm super excited about it, because it's being hosted in Austria and Geneva! The city has been packed with tourists here for the games, and everything is decked out in Euro2008 flags. This past weekend, I saw a motorcycle parade of about 500 bikes go streaming down the main road in Geneva, all waving scarves and flags for Portugal--it was very cool. Unfortunately, tickets ran out about 3 months ago, so I won't get to actually attend a game, but I'm planning on going to watch a few in Plainpalais, the section of Geneva where all of the bars show them. Should be fun.

Last night I went to a gathering to watch the Poland v. Austria game. In support of my new friend Ania, who is Polish, I and several others painted Polish flags on our cheeks and yelled 'Polska!!' throughout the match, mostly just to bother the Austrians we were watching the game with. The game ended in a tie when, in the 92nd minute, Poland, who had been leading 1-0 since the first half, fouled Austria in the box, giving Austria a penalty kick to tie the game. It was quite intense.

I'm looking forward to more games, and to making my few friends and family who are actually into soccer extremely jealous of my proximity to this very exciting event.