Please consider these clues:
The rare sight of Germans flying German flags?
Wide-screen TVs set up in front of every restaurant and café?
Hard-boiled eggs for sale at the grocery store, their shells dyed...wait for it...black and white so that they resemble miniature soccer balls (seriously??)
Clearly it must be time for...
the European Cup!
I admit, I haven't managed to get particularly excited about this one. The World Cup is always exciting, and the last European Cup four years ago was fun, because Switzerland and Austria hosted, so we got to more or less pretend it was happening here.
This time around, though, I can't help thinking, yeah, so, European men are playing soccer...again.
Still, it's kind of fun to watch an entire country go gaga (someone told me electronics stores' TV sales go through the roof just before every World Cup and European Cup) and there's something bizarre but amusing about walking through the neighborhood at 8 p.m. on a week night and hearing the evening news blaring from every direction, because 8 p.m. is in between the early evening game and the late evening game, so all the restaurants have their sidewalk seating open and their TVs going.
Yes, you read that right, and there's another thing to like about Germany: What do they show during that prime time viewing slot between two games of this wildly popular sport? Overpriced advertising? No – the evening news.
Anyway, here are the soccer ball eggs. I did a special reconnaissance mission to the grocery store just to get a picture of them:
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