What an incredible, amazing and exciting week this has been.
For me, it has been twice as exciting as for most people, as Denmark (where I was born and raised) played Ireland to qualify for the World Cup Tuesday afternoon. Some of my Danish friends went to the Houlihan’s Bar in Miraflores to feel like the thousands of Danes, who traveled to Dublin to follow the game on close hold.
We expected that the bar would be full of Irish fans, but I guess they either knew the outcome from a fortune teller or there is just not that many Irish people here in Peru.
We were 8 Danes ready to support our team that was prepared for “combat” and to conquer Ireland like the Vikings did back in the days, so it was hard when Ireland after less than just 10 minutes scored their first goal and messages about how we would be “slaughtered” in Dublin started to tick in through social media.
Nevertheless, the Danish Vikings revenged shortly after and scored 2 goals during a couple of minutes, which now meant that Ireland had to score two goals to qualify for the World Championship in Russia. That never happened and Denmark left Ireland with a 5-1 score.
Danish Dynamite Team
One down – One to Go!
Next challenge was Wednesday night, where Peru needed a Victory over New Zealand after playing a terrible game in Wellington. Peruvian fans had prepared a special HAKA dance in Quechua, the Peruvian army had included the Peru National Soccer t-shirt as part of their uniform for a short time and so did the Peruvian air force when flying over the coast of Miraflores welcoming the national team of New Zealand.
I had already promised to shave my beard off, should Peru win in New Zealand, but that wasn’t necessary. I repeated my promise and this time I had to let my beard go.
The After! Viva Peru!
My youngest son and I saw the games with friends from school and we had an incredible evening. When Peru scored their first goal the machines that measure earthquakes started to alert the authorities but it was “only” the excitement of the Peruvian people and not the earth that shook the country.
The Before!
Later I met up with my team from the office to watch the celebrations in Parque Kennedy and the streets around there. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought we had already won the World Championship. What a party! I’m sure many people appreciated that PPK offered people the following day off if their employer accepted. Most public offices and schools were all closed.
If you missed the game or want to see how we all felt during the last minutes of the game check out this video:
Originally from Denmark, Carsten returned to Peru in 2002 with his wife and eldest son. He started Living in Peru among other ventures in Peru. Before this, Carsten has worked in tourism, living in France, Sicily, and the U.S., and promoted bands like Metallica, Def Leppard and U2 for PolyGram Records (now Universal Music). Carsten loves pisco sours, Peru’s cuisine, and traveling with his family within Peru, a country that he believes is the land of opportunities.