Ever since I arrived in Poland a year ago it's been practically all anyone talks about : Euro 2012. And for the past 8 weeks it's all I've worked on as we've made five specially-produced football guides in eight languages for all the crazed football fans who will descend on Poland (where can you get a kebab? which are the best strip clubs? how much should you expect to pay for a beer? yah, we know what football fans want). Last night the tournament kicked off here in Warsaw with Poland playing Greece at the new National Stadium. Since this is probably the only time I will live in a city with such a major event going on I figured I should take in as much of the atmosphere as possible while simultaneously avoiding any beatdowns or hooligan insanity when possible. So I went to the Fan Zone with some friends to watch the game.
What madness! The Fan Zone sits at the base of the Palace of Culture and covers 120,000 square meters and can hold 100,000 people. And last night it was at critical mass. I was squashed amongst crazed Polska fans and though there's six giant screens in the Fan Zone I couldn't see shit. Things thinned out once the Poland-Greece game ended so we were able to find seats in the stands for the Russia-Czech Republic game and actually get our hands on some watered-down 8zl (that's $2.35 to you) Carlsberg beers (you have the option of adding a shot of raspberry syrup to your beer, which only girls do, and then they drink it with a straw. I know.)
My friend Tanya who accompanied me to the Fan Zone is Russian and was pretty fired up watching the game. I was slightly concerned the crazed Polish fans would want to knife her over her pro-Russia enthusiasm, but we didn't have any problems. I initially thought the Fan Zone to be completely devoid of police since I saw no hulking cops wandering the grounds until Kevin pointed out they were mostly in plain clothes, only to be distinguished by the tanks on their backs -- tear gas in case we all decided to tear down the scaffolding around the screens (or whatever it is hooligans do). Kevin being Kevin, he also noted that tear gas in large enclosed crowds is the easiest way to incite a murderous stampede.
Seeing no need to remain in the Fan Zone for one of the many no-name acts that plays after every game (Mateusz Krautwurst? The fuck?) we decided to walk home amongst the lurching drunks and facepainted fans. My closest brush with fuckery came when a Polish fan lassoed me with his scarf and pulled me in for the grossest celebratory bear hug of my life. I'm still counting the night as an overall success.
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