Taking the Good with the Bad, and hoping for Karma

Taking the Good with the Bad, and hoping for Karma: World Cup 2018 Russia

I’m writing this sitting on a high-speed train travelling at up to 220kph between St. Petersburg and Moscow, sipping on a Leffe Bruin beer after having a tasty light breakfast, this is the way to travel for sure. Today marks the day when we start the second part of our Russian World Cup odyssey by taking up residence in Moscow for the final stages of the competition.

The past week in St.Petersburg has been a continuation of the previous couple of weeks, with back-to-back football, either on the TV or lives at the stadium. We have been lucky to see some great games and soak-in the full World Cup experience, having seen Brazil just about squeeze past Costa Rica with 2 goals in injury time, and Argentina narrowly

defeat Nigeria to progress to the next round. I have also seen more than my fair share of games on TV, including England’s demolition of Panama, Germanys exit at the hands of the Swedes, and of course England less than convincing display against Belgium in a game that really didn’t mean much. However, like many things in life, there is nearly always a silver lining to every cloud, and our silver-lining is that England finishing second in the group mean that we will get to attend the Columbia v England Group of 16 match next week, so it’s not all bad.

In between times, Yates has been occupied acting as a tour guide and chaperone to his family that have arrived in the past week. I think Yates has probably spent more time at the airport in St.Petersburg than at the football stadium, either picking people up, dropping people of, or picking up missing bags, I

hope his family appreciates the hard work he has put in. Fiona & I have been left to our own devices and have had a wonderfully relaxed time touring the city and its many sites, attractions and parks, (and craft beer bars, Thanks Fiona). It really has been a great time for us.

Having the luxury of spending 3 weeks in the city, I think we have all found time to fall in love with St.Petersburg which is a city of truly splendid beauty & grandeur that genuinely rivals Rome, Paris or Barcelona. This may mean that Moscow may pale in comparison, but you never know, Russia has surprised us at every turn so far. I don’t know what I expected of Russia, but it has excelled in every way possible, the people are exceeding helpful  and nice, (exception ahead), the food and drink has been the equal of anywhere else I have traveled, and certainly

St.Petersburg was as far from the drab & dower perception of Russian cities as I can imagine. It just goes to show that you should never trust the media whose agenda is to downplay Russia at every opportunity or make the mistake of assuming that the country and people are reflective of the presiding regime. Russia is not Putin, and Putin is not Russia...! I can’t urge you more to visit this country and its people, it will change the way you see the world.

However, there is always a dark side to every bright side, and even though everyone we have met on our travels has been a credit to their country, there will always be an exception, and in this case, it is the AirBnB host we booked with for our Moscow apartment. Two days before we were due to arrive he contacted me to tell me he was cancelling our booking which had been in place for over a year, as

he had some guests in the apartment that were prepared to pay far more than we had previously agreed. This arse-munch was prepared to break our agreement for a short-term gain and leave us in the lurch to try and find accommodation for 8 people in Moscow during the final 2 weeks of the World Cup. Decency prevents me from using the language this sort of behavior deserves, but suffice to say that this guy should be ashamed of himself and that has done a massive disservice to his fellow Russians. Let’s hope that Karma gets this Knob-Jockey...!!!

The good news is that AirBnB customer support came to the rescue, helping us find alternative accommodation at short notice, and even helped with making up the difference in the cost, so hopefully, within the next couple of hours, we will see what our new apartment is like.

We have 3 more matches to

attend over the next 2 weeks, and we are now located conveniently close to the Moscow Fan Fest to be able to pick and choose which games to watch

there. Yates’s family are with us right now, but in a week or so it will just be me, Fiona and Yates, so we need to make the most the time we have left together. Let’s hope that Moscow is as friendly & inviting as St.Petersburg has been....