As already mentioned in a previous quick post, being in one of the two countries that made it to the World Cup final as the last few games were in progress was–well–really really fun. And, as someone who loves novelty, perfect timing.
But sometimes things get lost in translation, and not everything is as cute as this photo of cupcakes and cookies in the signature orange:
It’s actually impossible to overstate how much orange was visible during this time. For every game, fully 50 percent of the folks on the street were decked out in the soccer team’s color of choice. Check out this bikes + fans scene during the semifinals:
The Dutch have a great word, gezellig, which basically means both coziness (in your home) and a sense of conviviality in your gatherings. If America were in the World Cup finals, I’d expect a lot of folks to invite friends over to watch in our big-screen home theaters. In Holland, people connected their TVs to an extension cord, pulled out a rug (or even astroturf) and sat down in the streets and squares to watch together.
Check out this scene of girls in a bar, risking falling into the canal below. That’s dedication.
By the time the finals got here, though, I can admit that I was over the whole thing. There’s just something about seeing anyone with shaved heads waving a giant flag and roaring through the streets, shouting. Hmm. Not so charming.
And then there’s this:
…
Um, WTF is that all about?
So, to summarize: World Cup fun can be cute and charming, weird, slighly scary, and/or all of the above at once.
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