Fotbal!

I've never really been a sports-watching person - I don't know the rules to football (in gym when I scored a touchdown someone had to inform me of this after the fact), I've never seen a baseball game, and despite running ridiculous amounts and beinginvolved in various such physical endeavours, the whole TV-and chips thing has no interest for me. That said, fotbal (soccer) is impossible to ignore. It's Eurocup season here in Europe, and the excitement is palpable - or was, until recently. But more on that later.

On Sunday night I went to watch the CzechRepublic/Turkey match in Old Town Square, dressed in sturdy pants, running shoes, a hoodie and carrying a conspicuous lack of valuables (I learned earlier on that wearing a skirt of any length in Prague after six PM is not necessarily a good idea). Attire-wise I felt as though I was going to a punk concert, but the tendency of fotbal fans to brawl after beer is not to be underestimated. The scene was crowded and drunk and energetic. I tend to get high off crowd energy, so that was the positive aspect to the night. The negative aspects were present too, however - ignorant drunken comments, the "sponsored" feel to it (hyundai logos were everywhere and Staropramen had a monopoly on beer, selling it for about twice the normal price - hence guess who didn't buy any?). Wanting to avoid the post-match crowds, I left a bit early so I didn't get to see us lose spectacularly (we were winning for 3/4 of the game and then got 3 goals in about the last 15 minutes, which is allthemore heartbreaking). Anyhow, it was a good experience and one that I'm glad I lived through but maybe not one I'd go to again.

I'm adding some photos from the previous day's match (Greece-Russia), but it doesn't really capture the feel because it was during the day, not at night, and everyone was sitting down because there's no reason to get up and jump around if it's not even your country, right?



Thr crowd is seated and boring...

It's a giant footballer!

Ummm, hey, sorry, but would you mind not waving your flag around my city's town square? I have nothing against it and all, but like see the last time you did that it had a hammer and a sickle on it and there was a tank under it, and we kind of weren't cool with that, but I guess it's ok as long as you don't try to take anyone over again and don't mind the US radar that we're going to install. Kthanks! (To be fair, they were drunk - I'm not sure if this would be done when sober)

...and this is the backdrop to all of this.

I've started my "selling handmade clothes to rich artsy people" job. Will post about it soon. It's quite something.