Trinidad & Tobago 1, Wales 2 (Played in Graz)
Friday 26/5/06.
At the start of this trip I was feling anxious. Was a late train a foretaste of what was to come? Would I now miss my connection from London to Stansted? What if the plane was late or even didn't arrive? What if it crashed while I was on it? What if I missed my train in Salzburg? Luckliy before hyperventilation was needed the train turned up, only 5 minutes late.
All in all it was an uneventful trip to London and I even managed to find a seat with a table. In London my calm progress was about to be halted. When I arrived at Liverpool St. Station I thought that I had plenty of time to catch the Standsted train. Unfortunately the last one left as I was still on the underground. That's the last time I believe the national train information line. After considering my option I was told that there was a coach service available.
Friday 26/5/06.
At the start of this trip I was feling anxious. Was a late train a foretaste of what was to come? Would I now miss my connection from London to Stansted? What if the plane was late or even didn't arrive? What if it crashed while I was on it? What if I missed my train in Salzburg? Luckliy before hyperventilation was needed the train turned up, only 5 minutes late.
All in all it was an uneventful trip to London and I even managed to find a seat with a table. In London my calm progress was about to be halted. When I arrived at Liverpool St. Station I thought that I had plenty of time to catch the Standsted train. Unfortunately the last one left as I was still on the underground. That's the last time I believe the national train information line. After considering my option I was told that there was a coach service available.
Saturday 27/5/06
This day started at midnight, for a change, with me in Victoria coach station waiting for the Stansted Express at 1am. After leaving the station the Express wound its way through the throughfares of the metropolis picking up waifs and strays as it went. London seems picturesque at this time. This is probably because there aren't any people to ruin the view, tread on your feet or tut as you stop to look at something.
The coach arrived with about 4 hours to go to the flight so I had much time to kill. It would have been longer if I had actually caught the train though. I had dreaded this part of my trip. I couldn't book a hotel in London as my flight was too early so I thought, why not stay awake all night in the airport? I've done it before. Now that I'm not a student my standards have increased and my tolerance of sleepless has lessened in a directly proportional way. What if I fell asleep on the train to Graz, stayed on it and missed the game? What if I fell asleep at the game? To help kill time and to ponder how I'd manage with my insomnia I strolled around twice and this left me with 2 hours 'til check in. I must have fallen asleep because I then only had 30 minutes to wait.
The flight was OK apart from near the end. I now know why Dennis Bergkamp hates flying. As soon as we disembarked I was struck by the enormity of the landscape, you don't see hills like this in Rhyl. A couple of short bus rides later and I was outside my temproary abode. The Salzburg Youth Hostel is a very clean establishment. I had a bit of time to kill after getting changed so I took an informal bus tour of Salzburg. It wasn't too much of a tour mind you as I had tommorrow to think about.
The next step was the epic train journey. I had to change in Bischoffen and the scenery on the way was again amazing; it's always good to feel that you are actually in a different place when travelling. I had a look around the town and noticed a lot of signs that look familiar but are different upon closer inspection. I have always liked the sense of disorientation brought on by signs in another language. When tiredness is mixed in it amplifies the feeling.
The leg of the journey from Bischoffen to Graz seemed to take forever. This was mainly due to my falling in and out of conciousness and the habit of Austrian trains entering a station in one direction and leaving 20 minutes later in the opposite direction. The effects of exhaustion probably blurred the division between reality and my sub-conscious so the journey started to take a very bizarre tinge as well, I felt sat some points that we kept seeing the same stations.
We were slightly late arriving into Graz so I only had about 45 minutes to get to the ground. I used my excellent German and even better knowledge of the international language of hand gestures to find out where I had to go. Apparently I needed to get 2 trams to the ground. The sight of Red shirt-wearing men at one stop reassured me that I was heading in the right direction. We got the ground with about 10 minutes to go and were met with a rather large queue.
The queue turned out to be the result of rather over-enthusiastic stewards checking every piece of baggage, even those owned by kids. The idea that Wales and T&T are two of the biggest rivals in world football had obviously passed me by. I didn't realise that I would be with such dangerous company. There was about 150ish of us, were we going to take the home end? Were the Swansea and Cardiff fans going to bring knives in to stab each other? What a difference from Vienna last year and it pissed off mostly everyone. The really ironic thing was that they still served beer to us.
My mood was not enhanced by my flag being deemed "Too Politisch" for the organisers. I can honestly say that was the first time I'd been censored at a match. I should think so too, just think how the proletarian revolution will have be triggered by my flag and how FIFA's Capitalist organisation will have been overthrown. Another irony was that the Far-right Party, the FPO, was freely advertising in Austrian streets.
The security overkill continued as two security guards were stationed over the fence from us. A common occurrance you might say but there is also a moat. Oh, I forgot to say that as part of the deal with ticket we were given advanced training to storm football stadiums. How did the Austrian authorities find out about this? There must have been a mole. The presence of the two custodians of the peace stopped this insurrection.
The game was quite good but a bit of a non-event, especially in comparison to last week in Bilbao as everyone that went there testified to. The new yellow shirts look better live. Earnshaw scored both goals, one very late on. The highlight for the fans seemed to be twirling their shirts above their heads, although one fan went further and attempted to try the same thing with his trousers.
After the game and it was off to Hooters, but not before swiping a souvenier sign. Some pints with my new friends, Karl and his wife and their two friends, and some cross-cultural bonding. My time socialising was followed by a mad dash to get a tram and then a taxi, which I shared with the Welsh mascot and his Dad, back to the station. I arrived with 30 seconds left to spare, only six and a half hours to kill to get to Salzburg then.
In other words, another session of slipping in and out of sleep as we passed throught the Austrian countryside.
Sunday 28/5/06
The first part of this day was spent waiting in Bischoffshofen for another train. Exploration was made, lasted 30 minutes with me going slowly. I bet this town is jumping in the daytime. I arrived back in Salzburg at 4:30 and proceeded on a leisurly stroll back to the Hostel.
I arose to find it chucking in down, my dreams of exploring Mozart's city dashed. After waiting for about two hours I thought "Sod it, it can't get any worse". Unfortunately it did and a soaking ensued. I did see Mozart's house, some statues, some nice buildings and the Salzburg Redbulls' over-commercialised new ground. By the time I got the bus back to the airport the rain had stopped.
Flight on time, arrived on time train to London on time, Youth hostel on time, first proper sleep for 96 hours, bliss.
Monday 29/5/06
Feelings of anticlimax were dissapated slightly by witnessing the scale of St.Paul's. I also saw the new Wembley on train home and it looks quite big.
Generally speaking it was a good weekend even if it did feel like a week.
