My return from Berlin was one of mixed feelings. Berlin was comfortable, despite its busy bustling lifestyle. There seemed just so much to do, and coming back to Salzburg seemed a bit of a bore in comparison. This isn’t meant as a bash to Salzburg — I still love the city — but it simply doesn’t hold the same buzz… nowhere near as much history, a tiny population in comparison, and quite frankly, not as much to do on the surface.

On the other hand, I was feeling a bit refreshed on my return, and looked forward to meeting back up with friends, and re-entering my gentle life here. Most of all, I was fired up for a soccer tournament on Friday afternoon! For lack of the ability to upload photos, I’ll be brief with a description of what my scrawnily tall frame looked like: green dress socks pulled up my shins, a bright orange shirt that I had custom made in Berlin with IRLAND (Ireland in German, duh!) across the front, and white short shorts that are outlengthed by my boxers. Sure, the shirt’s pretty awesome, but the rest of it isn’t the most flattering.

Unfortunately, however, my uniform is still hung in the closet! Two Fridays ago saw nothing but rain, and the tournament was postponed until yesterday. As our luck would have it, we actually saw nothing but rain all week long. EUGH!! So the tournament has been postponed once again, until next Saturday afternoon.

The weather reports don’t predict much change until Tuesday. It’s been a bit of a bust, to be honest. What am I to do with crap weather in the summer? The beer gardens close, the lakesides are deserted, and there’s only so much time that I can bear sitting at an internet cafe. So what have I been doing? Vegging out with some friends here mostly, watching movies, sipping whiskey and wine, playing backgammon for the first time in my life. I’ve been chatting relationships, politics and religion with a great American on their way through the city, and getting my hopes way to high when the sun breaks through the clouds for a few sparse moments.

My week has had one major highlight event though, fortunately. For those not familiar with European soccer, there is a tournament called Champions League, which is made up of the best teams from all of Europe’s many leagues. Salzburg finished second in the Austrian Bundeslige (sp?) last year, which gives them the right to compete in the Champions League this year. Now even though Salzburg’s Red Bulls may be a good team by Austrian standards, the Austrian league itself is not very strong, especially when compared to the powerhouse leagues of England, Spain, Germany or Italy.

With this brief introduction done, when Salzburg drew a match against Valencia, who finished second in the Spanish league last year, most people (even here in Salzburg) figured it was an extremely one-sided matchup.

With a couple friends, we decided to try to get some tickets for the first of the two games, held here in Salzburg. The box-office was sold out, but we haggled with a discreet scalper and managed to get some tickets! They were grossly overpriced (double the face value) but well worth it all the same! I realized after the game that I actually paid less for a World Cup match than I did for the Champions League match!

The stadium was packed, and especially loud for us as our seats were beside the dedicated loud fan section behind one of the nets. The crowd never stopped cheering, with an ever changing cheer that ranged from the polite and supportive (Go out and score a goal!) to the downright disgusting and vile (a long stream of profanities yelled at the goalie following a goal kick, topped off with acts supposedly already performed with his mother…) The home team came out firing, and actually dominated play for most of the first half. Unfortunately, none of their hard work paid off in a goal.

The second half didn’t start off as smoothly, with Valencia showing a lot more cool, and maintaining a lot more ball possession. Salzburg rallied though, and at about the 80th minute.. a short pass inside the box, a short pass back out to a winger, a short cross back in and boom! a header into the back of the net!! Salzburg scoooooorrrreess!!! An ecstatic crowd went wild, jumping, shouting, cheering, clapping and hugging.

The last ten minutes were tense, as Valencia made several strong pushes to the net, but to no avail; Salzburg held on and won the game! We went out that night, along with many other Salzburgers, and everywhere in the bars smiling faces could be seen on people wearing the teams paraphernalia. I can’t wait for the second match in Valencia… I’ll be sure not to miss it.

On a less exciting note, I’ve sorted out some accommodations to last me the rest of the summer! I stopped by one of the student flats that I lived at two years ago, and as my luck would have it, there was an empty room that won’t be occupied until September! In a hilarious consequential circumstance, I’m actually staying in the same big room, with a beautiful balcony to relax upon. Life’s good.

What’s upcoming for me? I’ve got plenty of plans, and only a few weeks to execute them in. Let’s just hope the weather plays nice so I can do all of them…