When in Spain–Or Vienna–Do as the Spaniards Do

Eyegal and I are back home from our D.C. excursion, a little exhausted, but full of stories and good memories of the people and places we saw.

But our travels pale in comparison to Number Two Son. He’s currently on a 3-week tour of Germany, Austria and Switzerland with a group of students from Huntsville. About a year ago he approached us with the idea of going, and since then he has worked hard to help pay for it, including a lot of 5:00 am lifeguarding shifts at the local YMCA.

All that hard work has payed off. From what we’ve heard, he’s having an incredible experience so far. The group is led by an experienced guide who’s been taking groups from Huntsville there for the past 30 years. He’s focusing on mostly smaller towns in Germany, but occasionally he takes them to larger cities as well–such as Vienna.

That’s where Number Two was this past Sunday when he texted us with the following message: The youth hostel we’re staying in is wild! And SCARY!!

Hostels can be like that, especially when they’re full of rabid Spanish and Italian soccer futbol fans who just happen to be in the same town for the big quarterfinal match in Euro ’08. According to Number Two, match day in Vienna during Euro makes Game Day in T-town look like a tea party. We told him to watch his stuff closely and to sleep with one eye open.

Although he’s rooting for Germany (they’re in the semifinal against Turkey this week), Sunday he found himself surrounded by mostly Spaniards while watching the match at the hostel.

So, what did he do?

Well, duh. When in Spain–or Vienna–do as the Spaniards do! And since they held on to win in kicks from the mark, he was not disappointed.

More importantly, he was safe.