As usual the alarms went off early, far to early.... Once again we managed to miss breakfast...at this stage we have yet to make breakfast in any hostel to date! Awoken from our slumber (of a few short hours) the itinerary for the day, pre match, was outlined!! First destination - the Mercedes Benz Museum located directly opposite the the stadium for tonight´s match. Museum might suggest a location in which an accurate reflection of the history of the subject is portrayed!! Yet, this "museum" seemed to have a rather peculiar view of history. In fact one could not be blamed for thinking that the experts behind this "museum" had taken a night class in rewriting history It accredited the Merc with everything from bringing down the Berlin Wall to ending communism, to transporting the Pope and assisting the police. Whilst, it mentioned bringing down the Berlin Wall it failed to mention why the wall was built in the first place. It had a detailed timeline of world events on the walls of the "museum" yet the timeline from 1933 until 1949 could only be described as sketchy at best. It´s one reference to "Adolf" included a comment about him being from Austria as opposed to Germany! The air of denial and the Basil Fawlty reference of not mentioning the war could be seen by a visually impaired man!!
Nonetheless, the place was really impressive, very well laid out and included a motor racing simulator - best "museum" ever!!
After the museum came lunch in the VBG Stuttgart training ground with the stadium in our view as well as being able to hear the German "Garda" band in the background warming up for the spectacle that awaited us tonight. We even heard them rehearsing "Amhran na bFiann"! Lunch was good but not quite as good as the look on Stephen´s face when his food arrived. Our trainee German teacher and unofficial trip translator "ordered" a bowl of vegetable soup in his best German (!) only to receive a platter of salad!
Back in the German "Stephen´s Green" we enjoyed the company of our compatriots and indeed the German fans who started appearing out of the woodwork! Though, the comment by one Spanish man asking "Where are all the German fans?" gives you some idea at the presence and atmosphere created by Jackie´s Army with their favourite chant "We all dream of a team of Gary Breens!"
On leaving "Stephen`s Green" Rob and Stephen headed back to the hostel to await the arrival of Stephen´s luggage while Michael and Simon headed out to the ground. The tram journeys were incredible, the Irish sung their hearts out and were joined in by most of the Germans. Despite the tram nearly rolling over we eventually reached the `Damlier Crysler Stadt`.
Once we finally got past the security and their many body searchs outside the ground we fought our way to our seats and, my god the atmosphere was incredible! We sang from start to finish but despite all our best efforts, you know how it ends......
Shattered, tired, emotional and grumpy( well that was just Rob) we headed back to the city centre meeting Stephen´s friend, Flynner enroute. Ironically now that the match was over Stephen´s luggage complete with a brand new Irish soccer jersey finally arrived. We stayed out till the early hours, disheartened nonetheless. Once again, bumping into this blog´s favourite girls -Baldilocks and Variety and two Austrian´s, Mario and Luigi and a host of others - full stories to be told in time.....
All that was left to do was head back to the hostel and dream of a team of Gary Breens...........
Donnerstag, September 07, 2006
Sonntag, September 03, 2006
Taking the piss!
It´s one of life´s little wonders how you can manage to pack a bagpack and everything fits perfectly yet take one thing out and good luck trying to get in back in! That´s a good summation of how Friday morning begin. Finally though after a lot of stuffing and squashing the bags closed and we bid farewell to Frankfurt. We arrived in the train station to be met by a group of Dublin´s finest soccer fans looking frazzled and frustrated - "There was a bomb, we´ve been delayed for hours" was the opening remark from these Dubs. They claimed that their train from Framkfurt to Stuttgart had been delayed for hours owing to a bomb scare - yet oddly enough this "bomb scare" did not feature on German news, in German newspapers, it did not delay our schedualed departure of 10.30 nor was their a policeman to be seen in the station. Whether our fellow Irish men we´re hiding their embarrassment at missing their early morning train owing to a hangover or whether the language barrier caused them to entirely misinterpret a notice in the train station we´ll never quite now!!! Relieved nonetheless that such a "scare" seemed only to exist in the minds of these members of Jackie´s Army we boarded our train headed for Stuttgart.
Group harmony was tested to the limit when our train arrived in Stuttgart and we went about the task of finding our accomodation. The only difficulty lay in the fact that this pre-arranged accomodation was located in the very scenic but socially remote town of Ludwigsburg. Pre-made plans were abandoned and a mutiny averted as alternative accomodation was sought. Back in the centre of Stuttgart we visited the Tourist Information Office to seek last minute alternative accomodation. Bearing in mind that we were in a city about to host a European Soccer Qualifer and amongst 15,000 Irish people this was no easy job. Next thing we knew we had booked to stay on the floor in a "hall" (of sorts) in a youth hostel located up a hill which would put Kilimanjaro to shame and with more steps enroute than one would find at the internationally renowned Spanish Steps in Rome!!!! Nonetheless, we arrived, out of breath but ready for the craic!
Refreshed and luggage-less we descended from our hilly retreat to the large plaza in the centre of the city. Stephen´s Green all of a sudden seemed like a mere grass verge as we encountered what must of been a crowd of in excess of 1,000 Irish people nearly all in Irish jerseys (that looked like they had been worn since they arrived in Germany!) knocking back pitchers of beer. The sight of grey haired men in their Ireland jerseys literally drinking beer out of plastic jugs at a rate of nought is a memory which will remain with us for some time to come. We enjoyed the afternoon in the sun, soaking up the atmosophere and with the motto "If you can´t beat 'em join 'em" in mind drinking pitchers of what we were told was beer!
After a dodgy take-away and a bit of a scrub we headed out for the night, flags drapped across our backs and an array of Irish jerseys we hit what was known within our group as "Breffini" Earlys Irish pub. After queuing for an eternity we finally got in and despite the lack of females, drinking and dancing continued well into the night. After we were kicked out onto the streets with our new friends who were refered to by us "Variety and Baldilocks" (pictures will sum up the last name....!!! and the former just seemed easier to say then her real name!)
"Dalilas", the Stuttgart equivalent to any late night Dublin watering hole was next on the itinerary (actually itinerary makes it sound planned and dignified - really we were just going with the crowd led by our two new female friends). While a certain M & S enjoyed themselves with the new found company the other member of our entourage and Group Organiser was left discussing the world of football and life in general with "Pat and Paul" - two lads from Coolock and Santry. However, "Pat and Paul" didn´t seem to realise that the conversation was over and instead tagged along for the rest of the night!!
Stephen arrived, as expected, later that night after flying into Stuttgart. While some of us were on our way to being legless, Stephen instead turned up bagless - his baggage having been "misplaced" in Heathrow Airport (trust the Brits to deprive an Irish fan of his jersey for the match!). Stephen did his best to catch up but we´d been out at this stage for what seemed like an eternity. Our fun had for one night we headed back home to hilly retreat to find things not quite as we left them..........
On entering through the back door of the hostel we arrived into what seemed at the time like the River Liffey that seemed to have broken its banks. Some clever person (we think it was a jealous English person) had pissed all over our sleeping bags. An extremley annoyed and now fully sober R went ballistic. He managed to get the perceived guilty party thrown out of the Hostel and we got upgraded to a private room with a bathroom. He got this despite asking the manager how she would feel if he pissed all over her bed...!!!! Delighted with the room upgrade but still pissed off with what had happened we all hit the sack eventually, praying for an even better day and an Irish win tomorrow........
Group harmony was tested to the limit when our train arrived in Stuttgart and we went about the task of finding our accomodation. The only difficulty lay in the fact that this pre-arranged accomodation was located in the very scenic but socially remote town of Ludwigsburg. Pre-made plans were abandoned and a mutiny averted as alternative accomodation was sought. Back in the centre of Stuttgart we visited the Tourist Information Office to seek last minute alternative accomodation. Bearing in mind that we were in a city about to host a European Soccer Qualifer and amongst 15,000 Irish people this was no easy job. Next thing we knew we had booked to stay on the floor in a "hall" (of sorts) in a youth hostel located up a hill which would put Kilimanjaro to shame and with more steps enroute than one would find at the internationally renowned Spanish Steps in Rome!!!! Nonetheless, we arrived, out of breath but ready for the craic!
Refreshed and luggage-less we descended from our hilly retreat to the large plaza in the centre of the city. Stephen´s Green all of a sudden seemed like a mere grass verge as we encountered what must of been a crowd of in excess of 1,000 Irish people nearly all in Irish jerseys (that looked like they had been worn since they arrived in Germany!) knocking back pitchers of beer. The sight of grey haired men in their Ireland jerseys literally drinking beer out of plastic jugs at a rate of nought is a memory which will remain with us for some time to come. We enjoyed the afternoon in the sun, soaking up the atmosophere and with the motto "If you can´t beat 'em join 'em" in mind drinking pitchers of what we were told was beer!
After a dodgy take-away and a bit of a scrub we headed out for the night, flags drapped across our backs and an array of Irish jerseys we hit what was known within our group as "Breffini" Earlys Irish pub. After queuing for an eternity we finally got in and despite the lack of females, drinking and dancing continued well into the night. After we were kicked out onto the streets with our new friends who were refered to by us "Variety and Baldilocks" (pictures will sum up the last name....!!! and the former just seemed easier to say then her real name!)
"Dalilas", the Stuttgart equivalent to any late night Dublin watering hole was next on the itinerary (actually itinerary makes it sound planned and dignified - really we were just going with the crowd led by our two new female friends). While a certain M & S enjoyed themselves with the new found company the other member of our entourage and Group Organiser was left discussing the world of football and life in general with "Pat and Paul" - two lads from Coolock and Santry. However, "Pat and Paul" didn´t seem to realise that the conversation was over and instead tagged along for the rest of the night!!
Stephen arrived, as expected, later that night after flying into Stuttgart. While some of us were on our way to being legless, Stephen instead turned up bagless - his baggage having been "misplaced" in Heathrow Airport (trust the Brits to deprive an Irish fan of his jersey for the match!). Stephen did his best to catch up but we´d been out at this stage for what seemed like an eternity. Our fun had for one night we headed back home to hilly retreat to find things not quite as we left them..........
On entering through the back door of the hostel we arrived into what seemed at the time like the River Liffey that seemed to have broken its banks. Some clever person (we think it was a jealous English person) had pissed all over our sleeping bags. An extremley annoyed and now fully sober R went ballistic. He managed to get the perceived guilty party thrown out of the Hostel and we got upgraded to a private room with a bathroom. He got this despite asking the manager how she would feel if he pissed all over her bed...!!!! Delighted with the room upgrade but still pissed off with what had happened we all hit the sack eventually, praying for an even better day and an Irish win tomorrow........
We´re all going to the zoo - even Mindy!
Thursday morning came too quickly!! Seemed like we´d only gone asleep after our "socialising" with people from a range of countries when it was time to get up. If last night taught us anything it has to be that you can go a long way in this world with a pack of cards. We had a pack of playing card which made us the centre of attention in the hostel with everyone wanting to play! As the night progressed and our tongues loosened with the help of alcohol we told our new found "friends" of our plans to go to the zoo the next day! Little did we think that a random Canadian girl would knock on our door the next morning and ask what time we were going there so she could come with us!!!!!
So, a little taken a back we set off for "Frankfurt Zoological Gardens" with our random Canadian friend referred to from this point on as "Mindy". The zoo was good - well laid out, a world apart from Dublin Zoo! Except, when it came to the end of the trip the zoo shop was trying to flog postcards of their zoo - postcards including photographs of elephants, a brown bear and a polar bear - all very well you might think except none of those animals were in the zoo!!!! In addition to this the postcard had a photo of camels with one hump when all their camels in the zoo had two humps!! We then headed for lunch with "Mindy" - a lunch which consisted of good food and totally random conversations with our new found Canadian friend! After a stroll around Frankfurt we headed back to our hostel where "Mindy" barely said goodbye and left us in the elevator never to be seen by us again - that´s gratitude!!!
That night we headed to "O´Reilly´s Irish Pub" for dinner and a bit of a sing song. The place was packed with Irish people who, like ourselves, had flown into Frankfurt as a stopover on the way to Stuttgart for the Deutschland v Irland match on Saturday.
Our time in Frankfurt was good, an eye opening experience for any one living in conservative Ireland. Good craic - tomorrow we leave for Stuttgart where we will be joined by 15,000 other Irish soccer fans...
So, a little taken a back we set off for "Frankfurt Zoological Gardens" with our random Canadian friend referred to from this point on as "Mindy". The zoo was good - well laid out, a world apart from Dublin Zoo! Except, when it came to the end of the trip the zoo shop was trying to flog postcards of their zoo - postcards including photographs of elephants, a brown bear and a polar bear - all very well you might think except none of those animals were in the zoo!!!! In addition to this the postcard had a photo of camels with one hump when all their camels in the zoo had two humps!! We then headed for lunch with "Mindy" - a lunch which consisted of good food and totally random conversations with our new found Canadian friend! After a stroll around Frankfurt we headed back to our hostel where "Mindy" barely said goodbye and left us in the elevator never to be seen by us again - that´s gratitude!!!
That night we headed to "O´Reilly´s Irish Pub" for dinner and a bit of a sing song. The place was packed with Irish people who, like ourselves, had flown into Frankfurt as a stopover on the way to Stuttgart for the Deutschland v Irland match on Saturday.
Our time in Frankfurt was good, an eye opening experience for any one living in conservative Ireland. Good craic - tomorrow we leave for Stuttgart where we will be joined by 15,000 other Irish soccer fans...
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