things that start with s.... (saarbrucken and soccer)

Thomas was a tennis player when I knew him, but he doesn’t play so much anymore. Now that he’s back in germany, he plays soccer. You might know that soccer is a very big deal here. There are all kinds of leagues and clubs, and Thomas belongs to the St. Ingbert soccer club, which was founded in ’09. That’s 1909, not 2009. His team had a game today, so we got to go. But first, we had to take a quick tour of Saarbrucken, the capital of Thomas’ state.

This is the breakfast Thomas’ mom had out for us when we woke up. YUM!

Then we drove on the autobahn! Well, I didn’t drive, Thomas did. But he went 180 km/hour! Maybe even faster! It was so fast! Stephan told us some parts of the autobahn have been badly damaged in the last 2 winters because of heavy snows, so there are speed limits in some places, but there are still stretches where you can go as fast as you’d like, and so we did. WHEE!!!!

See? That’s Saarbrucken. 

And this is another schloss, but it’s been rebuilt a few times from the original. 

Thomas said this was the square of the invisible monument, but he said there was a problem with translation, so I’m not sure what that actually means.

These are the best daffodils ever. 

this the marktplatz in heidleberg. (that means market place. you should be able to get this....)

gentlemen....

When we were at Thomas’ 3^rd place, we met his friend Tim, who plays soccer with Thomas. The deal is, there’s a 1^st team, which is the best players, and 2^nd team is the less strong players. Thomas just moved up from 2^nd team to 1^st, but he says Tim is a much better player than he is. Thomas is better at tennis though, so they’re okay.

Tim is my second favorite german friend, because he gave me this jersey.

Don’t I look terribly german?

doesn't ryan too?

i mean, can you even tell our nationality?

soccer game in progress. T his is supposedly what the real Germans do on the weekend: drink beer and watch soccer. Saturday is for the major league games, and Sunday is for team sports. People take it very seriously! Thomas’ team was playing an away game against the number 1 team in the league, so their fans were OUT in force. Thomas got a yellow card (he’s very proud of it), and they yelled things at him, but he said he just walked away before he could hear too many insults, haha.  

this is my 2nd beer. coincidentally, i don't remember much about the 2nd half...

After the game is the THIRD half. That means drinking beer, and drinking more beer—see?

thomas had a headache. maybe because he kept hitting it with a soccer ball. 

and that's my other new friend, tim. i gave him that daisy bunch. 

This trip was awesome. If you have friends that live in Europe, you should really go visit them. You’ll learn a lot more about the country than you will just staying in a hotel in a big city.

And if you’re lucky, that slice of life experience will enlighten you. Now I know why Thomas moved back here, even if I wish he hadn’t. don't worry, josh-- he is happy, and it totally shows.