EuroCup2008 madness.

Salzburg is all a whirl of yellow and blue and white. I arrived last night in time to watch the Polska v Deutschland match, and all the Sverige and Hellas supporters were out in their garb. The official Fan Mile had been hijacked by Sweden before I got to town, but the hardy Greeks had set up their own on a street right by my hostel. I watched the above match from a Greek tavern, and got to see a group of guitar players belting out traditional Greek tunes during half time. They even had a Swede up there with them, clapping along. I was on the lookout for hooligans when the EuroCup first started, but all I've seen everywhere is good cheer. Probably because the Brits didn't make the Cup. Heh.

I got up early this morning to see as much of Salzburg as I could before it got swamped with tourists and EuroCuppers. In addition to regular fans absolutely everywhere, I met a fancy Swede in a full tux, bow tie and all, except that the shirt was replaced with a signed, yellow Swedish replica jersey. It looked quite nice. I will have to try that if ever I get invited to a ball. At any rate, we both went for the local second breakfast of a light pint. I had my Trumer Pils with a Brezl (pretzel, natch) and apricots from the farmers' market in the square (Universitatsplatz).

I also saw lots of old streets with elaborate gold signs, Mozart's home and birthplace, the park from Sound of Music, and churches with tons of graves. I'm getting sick of church art, but I will press on. Also in the squares and streets were French schoolchildren doing their darndest to incite football violence. They chanted their little lungs out every time they saw a guy in a Sweden shirt. Most of the Swedes and Greeks just chuckled, but a few Swedish youths chanted back while grinning madly. My favorite find of the day was a local Schnapps maker. He must have had thirty or so kinds in the storefront. I wish I had tried a few--it was ten in the morning when I passed by, and I didn't think I could take them to go. I forgot to go back until too late in the day.