Leaving On a Jet Plane

Well, it's on and I'm outta here.

The cup started today with some shaky German defense and a mild upset by Ecuador over Poland. Both games were entertaining with lots of scoring opportunities and eight total goals between the two games. Hopefully, those games will set a tone for the rest of the tournament.

I'm flying out tomorrow in the early afternoon to go to Newark where I'll grab an evening flight on Continental to Frankfurt. I'll arrive in Frankfurt on Sunday morning probably feeling like shit since I don't sleep well on planes and I haven't been sleeping much this week. But I'm banking on a healthy dose of adrenalin to help me.

I'll then meet up with some friends and take the train up to Gelsenkirchen. It should be about a three hour train ride which will get us up there in time for dinner and a chance to check out the city. However, I hear the city is a bit of a shithole. Kind of like when the World Cup was in the US and people traveled from all around the world and wound up having to go to Detroit for some of the matches. Gelsenkirchen is an industrial and mining town. But I don't care. I'm there for the cup; not the sight-seeing. Museums and cathedrals will be there in a hundred years. The cup will be gone in a month.

On Monday, we'll probably catch a bit of the Australia v Japan match on TV, meet up with a bunch of fellow US fans at a local bar and make our way to the stadium. Gametime 6pm in Germany. Noon here. After the game, if the US wins, we may stay and party in the city for a while and then take a late night train back to Wiesbaden. If we lose, we may stay and party in the city for a while and then take a late night train back to Wiesbaden. Either way, it's a party.

I'm hoping to find bits of time here and there to post to False 45th. However, I'm not bringing a computer so I'll have to find computers to use in cafes, hotel lobbies, libraries, etc. So, there may be a bunch of posts here about my travels...or there may be none. I have no idea what the week will bring. However, there isn't going to be much downtime between Saturday and Monday. So, I'm guessing, if I am able to post anything here, it won't be until Tuesday.

By the way, in the meantime, spinachdip nyc is doing a daily guide to the matches of the day. They're great. Insightful and amusing. Better than the dry crap you'll get on the big sites.