Croatian Celebrations!
The European Championship is held in Europe, but outside of the host country, it can only really be celebrated in New York. Where else could you find an Irish bar, a Croatian bar, and a Spanish bar all within a three block radius? Each with enough cultural gusto to drown out the slightest sense of English. Since the first kick-off on June 8, the celebrations have been boozy and ethnic; all of them international trips via the subway.
The first weekend's marquee cultural match was Croatia vs Ireland. We sided with the Croatians in this battle of the boozehounds, and made our way to Bar Scorpio for the game. Scorp had it all: Karlovascko beer, a clock set to Zagreb time, and a house filled to the rafters with fans wearing Croatian jerseys. Dewalt and I enjoyed the 3:1 victory, then met Cesar and his cousin after the game.
Cesar turned to me at one point and said, "See that big guy with the shaved head and the tattoos?" Considering that description fits every Slavic male between the ages of 18 and 55, I just nodded in agreement. "Well that's David Diehl, football player for the New York Giants." Sure enough, about five minutes later, an announcement was made welcoming Offensive Lineman David Diehl to the party. After that, it wasn't too hard to find the guy. He was taking pictures with just about anyone who was around him. Buying drinks, drinking drinks, celebrating as if Croatia had just won the Super Bowl! If you ever doubted he was Croatian, he could show you the massive Croatian coat of arms tattoo on his upper arm.
The party continued outside, where there seemed to be a spring of Karlovasko. One guy we spoke with had been in the Croatian army. Another told tales of soccer hooliganism in Split. I wish I could remember what the others had talked of, but the Karlovasko had already begun to take its hold.
We eventually made our way home, only to find that Diehl may have taken those celebrations about 10 beers too far. The next morning, he was in the tabloids after having run his car into four or five parked cars not more than four blocks away from the bar. He was a man about it though - he took the blame and vowed to be a better person. From all accounts, he's one of the good guys in a league in which there are so many bad guys. He, like all of us, just got a little too excited over a child's game.