Go team!

The first night Patrick and Karrie arrived, I had a big plans for them: we were going to a Dortmund soccer match. 

Now soccer in Europe is a big deal, but in Dortmund it's a REALLY big deal. They are in love with their team here. And with good reason. Last year Borussia Dortmund, or the BVB,  won the Germany championship, and they are well on their way to winning it again this year. 

So right after arriving, after a nap and a currywurst, the three of us headed off to the Signal Iduna Park stadium (the largest stadium in Germany, btw) for our very first live soccer match! 

When we arrived, the atmosphere was just as lively and as exciting as I had hoped! The crowds were insane. I mean, this was the line* to get into the stadium. 

*of course by "line" I mean "giant mob of people"

And the crowds didn't end there. We had stehplätze, which literally means standing places. So we went to head to our standing block only to find it was just as crowded as outside. This was our view of the field, and with the crushing amounts of people, it didn't look like it would get any better. 

I'm not going to lie, the excitement of it all kind of faded when we realized we probably wouldn't be able to see the game. So we did the next best thing: went in search of some beer. We couldn't have wondered around very long till we found this nice little opening to stand in. 

It wasn't the best view, but at least we could breath. Since we found a reasonable place to stand, I headed off to grab us all some beers, and when I got back, our luck really turned around.

See the stadium worker in that last picture? She tried to talk to Patrick and Karrie while I was gone, but since she didn't speak too much English, it didn't go over so well. So when I got back, she approached me and the conversation went something like this

Her: Do you guys work here?

Me: Oh no, we were just wandering around...

Her: Ok, well it's just that you're not actually allowed to stand here.

Me: Well, we have Stehplätze, but there is not even room to breath down there. And they've come from the US to visit me, so we were just walking around to find a place to see the game.

Her: Well you wait here for a second, let me check something.

She then went and gave her section a once-over. After about 30 seconds she came back to us and told us she had found some free seats and to follow her. She led us through a few secret locked doors and around the stadium to another section where she walked up to the ticket checker there and explained our situation. He then told us that if we had any problems with our seats (i.e. if the people with the actual tickets came) to just come let him know and he'd help us out. 

It was the nicest thing and so exciting! So, just before the first half ended, we settled into our new seats, which had a much better view of the action. 

The rest of the game was great and we were all so glad that we got hooked up with some new seats. It really made the whole experience that much better!