I've had the opportunity to see much of Alice's town of Munster here in Germany. Its a great city of around 230,000 people, with a huge university population. Last night I got to see them in celebration mode after advancing in the world cup. It was definitely worth seeing. After watching the game from a public viewing area in a "pool," as Alice called it (basically a wading pool with dirty water), all the students head to "Rabbit Island." This is basically a huge roundabout with a good size grassy area in the middle. During the day, tons of rabbits stay on the grass because they can't leave during the day or they will get hit by cars or bikes. Anyhoo, whenever something great happens to celebrate, all the students go there. There was a lot of German pride for the game, which as Alice has explained to me, is a pretty new concept as of late. After World War 2, almost no one showed national pride by flying German flags or wearing the national colors. They have been very careful about that up until around 2006 when they hosted the World Cup. Since then, it has become more acceptable to support the country so loudly (carry flags, paint faces, etc)....but only for sporting events.
Speaking of bikes, Munster is unofficially known as the bike capital of Germany. Its estimated that there are 2 bikes for every person. I've had to do a lot of walking since I got here just because I don't have a bike to ride like everyone else. Whenever I'm in Germany, I always forget about how bike crazy they are, and nearly get hit by several when I'm walking down the streets.
I'm looking forward to seeing more today...Munster is the site of the signing of the Peace Treaty of Westphalia and has a rich history which I hope to explore.
