So I drive to Vienna. Continue travelling. Visiting old and new friends. Three lads from Kelheim join me via Mitfahrgelegenheit.de. Lowers the adrenaline level when refuelling. We arrive four hours later and there’s no major traffic jam for the final game. For the first time I’m really happy about my sat nav. Across Vienna to Sabine. I haven’t seen her for three years.
It’s good to meet people who have been out of sight for a long time. It makes my own travelling seem slower. I drop my camera on the way to the first beer garden. Broken. Only mobile phone pictures today. On to Karlsplatz, extreme drumming, making a boat and listening to a favourite yodel. Finally to the Schickaneder. A pub that fits like a glove. And smoke. Inside!
The day after the European Championship final is quite over. Attempts at catering with a lavish breakfast. In vain. Sleep on until shortly before the final. We go to the fan zone. Colourful flags, lots of people and the feeling of being a kid at a carnival. Expensive beer, roaring Germans and singing Spaniards. All full, but relaxed. Nice.
Well, the European Championship final could have been better, and could have ended differently. But it didn’t, and rightly so. Five minutes of sadness. Then back to laughing. Off to the Museumsquartier, where Sabine’s brother jokes about my loss and then announces that “da Russ ois ibanehma wiad”. Nice weird night. My head is spinning.
Frank Woelky, born in 1973. Kitesurfer since 1998. Since 2006, I have been combining kitesurfing and web design on trips lasting several months off the beaten track.