Tourists flooding into Munich for the World Cup

OK, Munich is being overrun by reporters, tourists, fans, friends and long lost rellies that your mother never told you about...

Let's hear it...

What weirdness have you witnessed?? - (no drunks or normal fans) - legit ones.
Genuine strangeness / public humiliation/exhibition...

There's gotta be some...
and I'm not talking about those friggin' "living statue" street performers - that's another thread...(almost a typo with "threat")...

Iranians drinking beer at Stachus!

Two very suspect ie "good at interior decorating" lads from the UK having a kickabout in Kaufingerstrasse.

Hunky Americans asking me for directions on the 17.
That's my tip for the "get a shag line" for the next few weeks!

My computer at work, my boss, my family and my computer at home.

No weird or strange episodes, at least not yet, only the cheerful and colourful Costa Rican contingent
ambling along Theatinerstrasse this afternoon.

a team from Columbian TV, shooting a spot in the S-Bahn (Wednesday)

I was on Japanese TV last week when I flew back from Barcelona. I guess a connection from somewhere in Europe with a famous Japanese dude had the same luggage collection point.
I resisted the urge to wave and do a "Hi mom, sayanara!" when I walked behind him.

Last Tuesday I saw an inebriated German lad on the U6 wearing the German flag as a cape and yelling "Deutschland" with his arms stretched in victory over his head.

What was funny - the fact that the rather full carriage was wetting themselves laughing! Except for the bloke sitting next to him who was really fascinated in his iPod for the journey. Great moment to see everyone enjoying the joke instead of the usual disapproving looks.

I expect we may see a few more supermen over the next weeks.

I saw a lot of cars today with the German flag hanging out the window. It's nice to see. I've complained before about a lack of national pride here. I understand the reasons for it but it's great to see it changing.

Oh and in the last two days I've given people directions in 3 different languages. Amazed that some French came back to me and quite happy with my knowledge of where various hotels, streets and areas are.

Hee! I am leaving town for 3 weeks! I won't have to deal with any of this really!

oh, are they here already? i thought they would travel in tomorrow since they're not staying in town.

i just got off the train from karlsruhe-münchen and it was pretty quiet. i only saw one carriage full of younguns still drinking and partying after we pulled into "end"station. u-bahn from HBF to Harras was pretty boring.

I can't believe I gave my USA flag to my mother when she was over last. ... What was I thinking?

pray that the germans don't win the cup you never hear the end of it . its bad enough when they win a game

That from an Englishman

Er ... what's the big deal with the WM? I mean, doesn't Munich get overrun with tourists for two weeks every year anyway?
I mean, there are only 6 games in Munich, and only - umm, is it 66,000? - people who can fit in the stadium. That's a total of around 400,000 people spread over a month - nothing compared to 16 solid days of Oktoberfest.

Keydeck, exactly. 40 friggin years later and you would think it was yesterday from the way they go on.

GreenTea, I think that's the point, it isn't every year, and that's what makes it special.

I saw a recyling truck go by today with the Ghana flag hanging out the driver's side. Couldn't see what was on the other side, where the Caucasian guy was sitting, but I found it amusing.

I'm not sure whether it's going to be better or worse for me to be there during World Cup...maybe better b/c I won't feel like I stand out so much when I'm totally lost...or worse since we're not coming for the games (we'll be coming for hubby's work) & I really just wanted to experience Munich w/out all the craziness since I have a baby to consider now & can't join in the partying.

But anyway, only 12 more days!!!

I'm just saying it's annoying have 30+ people on all my castle tours...grrr...

Actually I thought about decorating my office with some German flags, some on the desk, maybe one on the window, just to see the reactions from the office mates. I guess I could add some US flags too but the only place I can think of to get them is at the Rib House. Hell now Im pissed I dont have the lone star flag.

Maybe someone should set up a 'Tourist Bingo' game, and you need photographic evidence of what you saw... like a German Village Boy in German Gear with a Blonde Mullet, A Dutch person all decked out in Orange Gear and one of those hats from Keydeck's thread.

Hey,

coming home from work today I saw two guys wearing a German flag instead of trousers. It actually looked like a skirt with a free view to one leg. They seemed to have chose one that did not go all the way round.

Bunch of people from Mexico with big sparkly red/white/green cowboy hats.

I think I have been inadvertently filmed as background material in a bunch of foreign news reports...

Hehehehe, I need to get downtown more now.

s-bahn this morning. austrian grenzschützpolizei. in uniform and armed, accompanied a german BGS guy. never seen that before. i did want to mention to them that they hadnt qualified...

I have often seen at the Hauptbahnhof and at the Airport Austrian Police/Customs guys- probalby due to the close proximity... sort of like finding US Customs in all Major Canadian Airports.

When I was working at Hauptbahnhof a few years ago, I noticed that the Customs/Immigration police were there every morning to meet the overnight train from Naples.

They always had plenty of time to wait, because the train was always at least an hour late!

Living a little bit out of Munich but still within 20km (south) I honestly can't believe there is so little "positive nationalism" (is there such a thing?). The only evidence that anything at all is up is a German flag on the maypole (that in a village of 10k+). Munich is the centre of the world between 16:00 and 20:00 today with hundreds of millions watching and its another sad reflection on the mentality of the people here...
To all Germans out there: Liven up for Gods sake. This year there are 3 times you are allowed to smile and enjoy yourselves (Octoberfest, fasching and the world cup). Try it, it will add to your quality of life (or at least kick-start it!)...

it seems once you leave the centre though (e.g. go to Neuhausen) there isn't much sign of things, even though I assume hotels throughout the city are packed

@chinza and carm.

ah i guess i never noticed them before, not on the s-bahn anyway...

Not in Munich but in Frankfurt there's a guy who walks every day naked around in the street because it's legal to do so. Fair enough, he's an eccentric German and good luck to him. He was interviewed on ESPN last night saying he'd like to go to a game naked too. That may surprise one or two foreign visitors.

A group of Americans walking past my window at 23:16 on Wednesday night chanting 'USA USA'. I thought Germany was being invaded for a second . I'm looking forward to seeing how the city transform itself. It feels like a big city already .

American soccer fans!? What is this world coming to!?

Yeah, apparently the virus has spread to the US as well, according to my trusty sources.

The best one was two 70-something year old American tourists moaning at Marienplatz yesterday about the ZDF Sport Studio and asking themselves what the hell they were doing there anyway, and that all these people around with all this equipment is dangerous and somebody ought to report them to the authorities

It wasn't 'weird', but certainly unusual for Munich (and refreshing!). When walking down Kaufingerstr the other day, a random group of Brazilians just started playing capoeira music in the middle of the street - they'd brought their berimbaus along. They were decked in the national colours and had huge flags wrapped around them and everyone was singing along.

A bunch of drunk people in town as Munich often has in peak tourist times. The sounds of beer bottles breaking as you pass U bahn steps and the smell of vomit.

Passed through the Marienplatz and center of town yesterday and there were a bunch of rowdy obnoxious drunk out of towners. Then there are signs everywhere "munich loves you"...yeah, but everyone else thinks you're a drunken ässhole.

There was some drunk British guy at Muenchener Freiheit the other day who was singing "That's Amore" at the top of his lungs. Not unusual to find inebriated folks there, but the singing part was new. Even stranger than all that was the fact that his voice wasn't all that bad.

Sounds like it could have been me (except the voice bit)

Coming into work I saw a group of Costa Ricans, who were asking the way to the stadium, they were going to camp there the whole day! when told by one of the helpful people which UBahn to take one of them looked at the screen and must have said something like "hey it comes every 5-10 mins and we dont have to go that far" because they looked at the screen said something, laughed and just sat down there and started to play their drums!

Lots of foreign flags hanging out of German-looking windows. A whole group of Costa Ricans arrived with Scogs' flight yesterday, they are so small and cute and bouncy!

what does a 'German-looking window' look like?

faceless, no individual character, uniform

I hope they were on the first train out today, then. Or on NOFXMike's castle tour!

The excitement and energy was palpable at the HBH last night. Quite fun to see so many different people and see the Germans looking like they were having a good time.

An old German lady even...smiled...at me on the train

he wasnt aged around 50ish with grey hair was he? It sounds like someone i know.

The age sounds about right...I didn't notice his hair color. At first I thought he was a bum but then thought better of it... Looked like he might have had a group of buddies there with him...

Haven't noticed anything too strange, but I'm loving the vibe in the city right now. Yesterday I was cruising through Marienplatz and I walked past 4 beautiful Brazilian ladies wearing the flag with pride around their asses. It was an amazing sight, I fell instantly in love (with all 4 of them).

Another Costa Rican doing Ronaldinho like ball juggling tricks for spare change. He was good.

Can't wait for tonight -- Munich is just bursting with energy!!!

Having just ridden down Leopoldstr., there is plenty of German pride being shown. Cars with flags hanging out their windows, people walking around with flags wrapped around their waists or over their shoulders, several horns blowing out that typical "Let's go!" sound. It'll be mental if they get near the finals.

I just came back from Munich trying to get my permanent visa (that's another story) but the awesome vibe of everyone is great. Everyone is taking the "Best smiles for our Guests" slogan pretty seriously cause everyone on the train was smiling for once. Not only did I get stared at but when I stared back they...(gasp)...smiled!!! I'm heading back tonight to share in the festivities...hitting up Kilians. Any takers?

It is really getting on my nerves - everyone at work being so jolly when usually all they do is moan and complain !! Germans everywhere being so happy and smiling when normally they are so rude ... this would not bother me except they are really dull/boring/bad-mannered the rest of the year - not to mention stingy !! the other thing that is winding me up is that the town has gone football mad with shops, companies etc.. putting football logos all over just so they can get more customers/money - well this i do not mind so much as hopefully it will improve the economy and better things over here -- Happy Germans would not be at all bad if they were like this the rest of the year as well !!!

Germans keep coming up to me and my friends and say things like: I hope South Korea gets into the 2nd Round. I'm not Korean.

It's lively. Can't wait for the Brazilians to come play the Socceroos next weekend. More beeeeeautiful Brazilian babes for us to fall in love with, bitte!!!