Tuesday 10 September 2013

Ukraine v England 10.9.2013 my 100th England away game!

So its back to one of my favourite countries, the Ukraine. This time it was for more than just the football. Our mate Sed had met his wife to be when we went out to the Euro's last year, so they were now getting married so we headed out to the Ukraine a few days early for the Wedding in Dnipro.

Friday


A well needed first beer for me

I had flown out on the 00.10 flight Friday morning to Kiev and I hit my first problem! Gatwick check in had me going on to Donetsk when I was in fact booked to Dnipro. I had to fly to Kiev and then sort that out. I landed 5am and in took me until 8am to get it sorted, the internal flight was now led by a different airline, hence the problem, but thankfully by 10.30am I was in Dnipro and a short taxi ride later I had got to the hotel and met a few others who had come out 24 hours earlier.

So at 3pm it was time to head to the Wedding.  Sed and Anna had gone off for the morning to complete all the legal elements of the wedding, now it was the time for the party and other Ukranian traditions
They step onto a mat - tradition 1
Breaking the bread - tradition 2
Dogsy picks the ones who spoke little English, but got on surprisingly well..!
The Grooms mate have to dance to win his bride back - tradition 3

Nope I cant explain what me and Jimmy are doing!
Cutting the cake


Saturday To be honest it was a bit of a struggle. I think I woke up some time late afternoon, what a brilliant wedding it had been the day before. I dont recall getting home, apparently I did my usual in the Ukraine and as soon as I got in a taxi fell asleep! Oh well onwards and upwards!
The view from our hotel
We meet up the next day and a few stories come out!
Invited back to the Pivotman bar - a Dnipro Ultras Pub!
Ahhh late night kebabs - this was about 3am , I think, after a night out in the Labyrinth nightclub

Sunday
Our Hotel

So on the Sunday we were challenged to a game of football v Channel 9, colleagues of Anna. It was a bit of a struggle after all the beer and we soon went 4-0 down, but then we stepped up a gear and ran out 6-5 winners! Woo Hoo!


A map of Dnipro

Monday
It was a bit of an early start but we were at Dnipro station for 7am for the 5 1/2 hour train journey to Kiev 
119 kmh confirmed
We went posh - first class as you would expect
A little tiny train, probably the sort Nelson drives
The outskirts of Kiev
Kiev train station
It was a meter long, the sausage you smutty minded people!

Tuesday
Match Day
The very impressive graffiti on the steps into the stadium
This bridge still isn't finished!
Not sure how we missed all this on our last 2 visits
Back outside the Lucky Pub near to the ground


Impressive home support
It started 0-0, it finished 0-0 and if we were still playing now it would be 0-0
Passionate English support
We were kept in for about 45 minutes after the final whistle but we had a good old sing song to pass the time

Wednesday
Today we decided to see the sights that we had missed last time so we headed to first the worlds deepest underground station. Its called Arsenal and its over 105 meters deep. We then moved on to the various World War memorials and peace statues etc.
A view back across Kiev
A peace and famine statue
Mother Motherland statue
Our rather posh apartment - next door to the Lucky Pub

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Congrats to your mate, what a lovely story.