Just a few days left until the beginning of what some people call, "the greatest sporting event in the world!" The Soccer World Cup, or as the rest of the world would call it, "The Football World Cup", began in 1930 and has happened every four years since then (except for a 12 year pause during World War II).

The 2006 World Cup will be hosted in Germany and begins on June 9th. This will be my second World Cup since moving to Sweden 5 years ago, the last one noteworthy for being the first one held in Asia (co-hosted by Korea and Japan). The World Cup and soccer in general, is a phenomenon that fascinates me, especially since it draws so much attention from people and countries around the world.

Strangely, hardly anyone in the US seems to pay attention to it. In 1994, the World Cup was actually hosted in the United States, but I don’t think I was even much aware of it at the time. While we’re busy with our basketball, baseball and American football, the rest of the world is crazy about soccer. While we’re looking inward at our own teams, our own sport culture, the rest of the world has created a culture around soccer that is international, transcending boundaries. In the past, the American soccer team was never considered among the best. One of the most shocking events in all of soccer history was in 1950 when the USA won against England 1-0. England, a country where soccer is practically the national religion, had underestimated the Americans and not taken the match so seriously. This year, the American team is said to be pretty good, with Brian McBride, Landon Donovan and Jonathan Spector, said to be among the most promising players.

Many of my friends here in Sweden (especially my boyfriend Henrik, who is a soccer-fanatic) have been looking forward to this event for the past four years. Henrik still remembers watching his first World Cup at the age of seven, and how his father used to surprise him with packets of cards (like baseball cards) hidden around the house. Since then, the World Cup has been the highlight of his life—filling him with an anticipation that is only quenched once every four years.

Visiting Budapest
By Rose Martin
Sweden Correspondent

I recently made a trip to Budapest (actually two cities, "Buda" and "Pest") with my boyfriend and his parents. We were able to stay at a great hotel in "Pest" (one of the luxuries of traveling with adults—something I don’t really consider myself yet) and were only a short walk from the center of town. The weather was great. It has been pretty cold in Sweden so it was nice to go somewhere a little warmer.

One thing I learned in Budapest is that there are lots of horrible drivers in Hungary. I thought I was going to die in the taxi on the way to the hotel, and I’ve nicknamed their city buses "suicide buses" because of the way they speed through the streets, straddling the center-line between the wheels and making everyone on the side-walk jump backwards in sheer panic.

I also learned how to relax the Hungarian way, by visiting one of Europe's largest thermal baths, the Szechenyi Bath. It had dozens of different indoor and outdoor pools, and saunas—each pool containing different minerals and kept at different temperatures. Sometimes the pools even had different themes, like one where people swam around in a whirlpool, and another where people could work-out with weights in the water.

It was even raining a little that day, but it didn't matter because even when sitting in the outdoor pools, the water was always warm. There were tons of couples of all ages everywhere I looked and it seemed like the perfect way to spend a romantic afternoon. However, the best part for me was watching all of the other people. In one of the outdoor pools they had chessboards in the water, which were always surrounded by a bunch of pot-bellied Hungarian men.

Besides that, the architecture was beautiful, old and burnt-looking. It was obvious that the city had a history of both splendor and hardship. Unfortunately, not much of it survived the destruction of World War II. I also learned a little about Hun-garian people. Understandably, Hungarians are much better at speaking German with tourists than they are at speaking English, since the nation was once joined together with Austria, and they speak a dialect of German there.

The food they eat is also very much "meat and potatoes" sort of food, but they have lots of interesting blends of meats and even use lots of berries, nuts and dried fruits in their meals.

I loved goulash which is probably what Hungarians are most famous for, but my favourite meal was probably turkey-breast covered in almonds and stuffed with cheese and dried plums—unusual, but very tasty.

We even had time to watch a musical there ("A Beautiful Game" by Andrew Lloyd Webber—awesome in spite of the fact that we watched it in Hungarian!!), and on our last evening, we ate dinner on an old paddle-boat with a great view of Buda up on the hill.

Overall, I would say it was a pretty fantastic trip and I would recommend it to anyone who likes good, cheap food, and soaking themselves in hot spas.