Why would you want to come to the World Cup?

July 6th, 2006 | by: Nick O'Neill |

World Cup 2006 is a global event, with millions of people around the world tuning in to watch the games even if their country is not represented, Attending the World Cup is a dream for many, but what is it like to actually come to the World Cup?

Some of the barriers you have to overcome are: Getting time off work, the cost of the airline tickets, accommodation, food, game tickets (if you can get them), souvenirs and beer (the second food group).

World Cup 2006 is in Germany, which has its own set of problems. Germany is a relatively small country, with a great train system. Still, to get from Berlin to Munich takes 6 hours and is expensive ($110 one way!). German domestic transport has airlines, the autobahn (freeway) and the train system. The Hauptbahnhof is the main train station in each town and traveling form one city to another, you will become familiar with many hauptbahnhof’s. Located at the hauptbahnhof are U-bahn and S-bahn, the underground / overground local trains that will get you to the stadium. Most hauptbahnhof will have guest houses and hotels close by as well as bars and restaurants. In many cities, such as Leipzig, ‘old town’ is a stone’s throw from the hauptbahnhof and features cool old buildings, beer gardens and restaurants.

For people not used to public transport, this is a crash course, you have to figure out what platform your train is leaving from, when, what car you are in, all with a herd of football fans.

Traveling by train for a few hours, arriving in a new city, making the trek out to the stadium in a crowded train, waiting in line and being in a noisy stadium really takes it out of you. What you are getting is an up close and personal (energy, smells, songs and shoving) encounter with the World Cup. You won’t get as good of a view as you do at home on TV, and you can’t turn it off at the final whistle.

In Germany all the cities featuring games have a Fan Fest set up. The Berlin Fan Fest is far from the stadium and allows locals, and tourists to watch the game for free is a safe environment. This gives fans another option if you don’t have tickets to the game. Fan Fest is an okay place to watch a game if you don’t find standing up the whole time. Its free and you’ll meet people from all over the world.

For me, attending the World Cup is a great experience and every country that hosts it offers it own unique set of problems and solutions.

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pwnawannab

MMM Thanks – two more games left :)
Laura

Because Germany is an absolutely amazing country and because during the WC there’s parties going on everywhere!!!!
Pragyan

Its Great that Germany has been ousted from the World Cup. A country which prostitutes its women has nothing called National Pride. All that Germans abound in is pimps and prostitutes. The Govt of Germany must be proud of them. Afterall, its a country where money got from the sell of female flesh is considered more valuable than the hard work of players.
Pragyan

All my best wishes to Zidane and his band of boys. France would emerge to be the World Champion.
Lolo

Apart from Argentina-Mexico and Germany-Italy, the 2006 tournament has been complete crap.

I’d rather watch pigs vomiting blood inside an abbatoir.

FACT.
Laura

Oh, Pragyan, shut up and give the world a brake! FYI, Germany’s legislation doesn’t allow pimps to exploit prostitutes, because they’re legal workers and thus, they have social security and decent sanitary conditions, and that’s much more than can be said of many other countries. But, most of all… what the F*** does that have to do with the WC??????
Sid

Oh, Pragyan,…. if you are not smoking you must be sniffing….come back sober to this forum! If you havent been to Germany, or travelled internationally to watch a football match you dont know the innumerable things like airports, hotels, people offering their houses, food, sanitation, currency exchange ….. that go into making a successful spectacle out of a football match. So please take it somewhere else!!!
unseenop

Pragyan must have the right to make comments because his country doesn’t have any prostition. Any documentaries or news reports you may have read about Indian prostitution is are obviously lies. *sarcasm*
Name

Pragyan
So, India doesn’t have prosititutes? Your country has CHILD prostitutes! Plus, Hindu law demands the caste system even if your parliament denies it. Fix your own country (good luck!) before you bemoan Germany.
Lex

why come? Simple – to tap women from around the globe. What better way to breed international camaraderie?
sumyung gei

To Pragyan

Who in the right friggin’ mind would post in a friendly World cup forum and b!^ch about a country’s prostituion laws?? like Germany is the only country with that law towards prostituion, hey Pragyan, Im eatign a hamburger right now, you know why? because in Canada we are allowed to kill cows and cook there delicious flesh and eat them. Boy isn’t the world a messed up place eh buddy? Brothels in Germany and Beef in Canada!! what’s next? Turkish bathhouses in Turkey?

?
Affin

Why would you want to go to the World Cup?

I went this year for 1 match.

Yes, it was such a great hassle getting tickets and OMG the cost was enormous.

But was it worth it? Without a doubt.

Would I do it again? Yes, I’m already hoping to go to South Africa.

Why? The fans. The fans make it worthwhile.

Here in Malaysia people watch the matches on TV and they talk about it the next day.

But you can’t compare that with walking on the street and seeing people in their country’s colours and flags, or seeing the cars drive by with happy people in them waving the country flags.

Or just being able to strike coversations with people on the street about football. EVERYBODY spoke football there.

And yes, most of all being at the stadium (OMG, the size of the stadium and the cheering of the fans just blew me away).

I cannot tell you how glorious my experience was.

If you have a religion you make a pilgrimage to certain cities.

If you love football, you must make a pilgrimage to the World Cup, at least once in your lifetime. More regularly if you can save up for it.

Forget going to Europe or America for holidays. For football fans, it has to be save daily for World Cup.

It is THAT worth it!