Poland has invaded!

Havin some fun on the deserted U thanks to the game going on

Do you have spirit? Austria has spirit!! Europeans LOVE football - and nutella :) This is all over the U stops

Go Polska! aka Poland...

Just hanging out in Vindabona with Marcus Aurelis

Mmmmm - gelato!

...but he has a ton of Polska spirit!

Cheering in the streets - sure the game doesn't start for another five hours, but they'll still be going strong then!

EVERY store has something to do with soccer right now.

What you all have been waiting for - the Euro Cup!

It is inescapable around here. Every store has something to do with the Euro Cup, whether they have country scarves or t-shirts or jerseys or crazy hats or even eurocup underwear sets and boxers. It's everywhere. Today for class we headed over to the Jewish quarter and polizei were already setting up and pubs were setting out their tables. On our way back by St. Stephens, Poland fans were already chanting in the streets and taking every available table on the street in order to watch the game tonight - it was insane. There was pretty much a continuous parade through that area of crazy fans getting psyched for the game tonight. Aside from that, I had German class today and booked my train to and from Salzburg this weekend. We went over to Paige's again for dinner, then came back downtown for really good gelato and then walked around the area catching the games as we passed by each restaurant's big screen TV. The city stops once the games start for the evening. No one is on the subways or streets, the sidewalks just have clusters of people around each TV, whenever something happens you can hear fans screaming from all over, otherwise it is pretty quiet, everyone intensely watching the game. For the second half of the Poland Austria game we went to this place called 1516 and watched the game on their projector screen, to which the Austria fans were closest to, and Poland on the other side of the room :) It is really fun getting caught up in all of it.

Some random things I've experienced:

• A 3 euro coffee flavored gelato counts as your morning coffee, it's basically like a frappucino :)
• The strawberry gelato I had tonight tasted JUST like the fruit - soo soo good.
• The 3rd district in which I live used to be a civil town outside the military town of Vindabona - for some reason when I learned that this morning I felt really proud of my district, it's starting to feel like a second (or maybe third or fourth) home.
• Mozart makes beautiful music and Mostly Mozart makes beautiful chocolate.
• Cramming on to a U with a bazillon soccer fans does not smell good.
• Old ladies in Europe flatulate in public with absolutely NO shame.
• The weather in Vienna is almost more impossible to predict than the weather in Michigan.
• Never sit next to someone eating a hot dog wrapped in a crossaint and scalding hot cheese, you just might get a surprise burn on your back from the cheese squirting out when they bite into it.

Hope you all are having a great week!
Love,
Andi