Fussball

In case you haven't heard yet, the city of Vienna has been overtaken by very enthusiastic fussball (that's soccer for all of you who aren't so cosmopolitan) fans. In fact, Tamika and I had the distinct pleasure of sharing our train back home from Bosnia with A LOT of Croatian fans. If you've never witnessed the enthusiasm for fussball first hand, it is almost impossible to accurately describe it. Let's just say it starts off as terrifying , followed by funny and then just turns into annoying. I will admit as Americans we don't truly appreciate all the hype.
Well, Jake had the opportunity to go to a UEFA game of few weeks ago. How, does one come by such a coveted thing as a ticket to one of these games. There are many ways of doing this, some of which are a bit on the shady side, but Jake actually won a ticket. Last summer Jake began collecting Coke bottle lids to earn points for free i-tunes. Well, one day as he was entering in his codes a message popped up that he had won a ticket to the upcoming games. Let me refer back to the aforementioned statement of Americans not appreciating soccer. We really thought nothing of this and even forgot about for awhile. As the start of the EM (europmeisterschaft) approached it entered our minds again, but just barely.
One day Jake was speaking with someone and casually mentioned he had a ticket to the game. Well, the person nearly came unglued. Apparently, this is like winning a ticket to the Superbowl or something. Suddenly, we understood this was a big deal. However, for us it still wasn't a big deal, really. In fact, Jake had even told Bart he could have the ticket. But as it turned out, Jake got a special letter in the mail with his name on it saying he would have to pick up the ticket in person. We broke the bad news to Bart and Jake began looking forward to going to the game. He really was looking forward to it after he realized the game he would attend was right the day after I returned from Bosnia. Remember, Jake was on his own with Abby for a whole week. And as it turns out, the game his ticket to was the Austria vs. Croatia game.
Jake went to the game and had a great time. Since he won his ticket from Coca Cola there was a pregame reception that he also attended. Thankfully, he came home in one piece. Here are some pics of the big event.



And here is a short video that attetempts to capture the "fun"