Leaving Russia: Hello Barcelona

Leaving Russia: Hello Barcelona

The day before we were scheduled to leave Russia was spent packing all our crap up once again into our various backpacks and getting ready to head off to the Moscow Domodedovo airport. As Fiona & my next flight was leaving at the ungodly hour of 5:40am the next morning we had decided to check-in to the local airport hotel the night before to make the transition a little less painful, and Yates decided to do the same even though his flight left a far more reasonable time of 9:00am. Packed and ready, we left the apartment in as good a condition as we found it, including a toilet lid fix, (don’t ask..!), and crammed ourselves into an Uber to the airport hotel. We all chilled out for a while before heading over to the airport itself to check out the dining options for the evening, and we collectively decided that our final meal in Russia was going to be Burger King.... After eating we made our way back to the Airport hotel at around 8pm and said our goodbyes to Yates, as we wanted to get an early night if we were going to get up at 3am for our check-in and flight.

It’s always sad having to say goodbye to friends at the end of a great holiday, and this time was no

exception, maybe I’m just getting a bit soft in my old age, but as this might be the last World Cup we attend together, I had a real lump in my throat as I hugged Yates goodbye. I know I am not the easiest person in the world to get along with when confined in my exclusive company for 6 weeks or more, (just ask Fiona, she’ll tell ya.!), but Yates always does a great job at hiding any annoyance or irritation I cause and has a cheery smile and a positive attitude at all times. This trip has been a little different from the past, as Yates has had the distraction and additional responsibility for looking after his family members that joined us throughout this trip, helping them solve the myriad of issues associated with such an ambitious adventure, and I think both Fiona & I have a new found respect for Yates’s patience and perseverance. Without these abilities, none of these World Cup trips would have been possible over the past 24 years, and for that reason alone, I will be forever grateful, so long mate, see you next time wherever that may be...

When I was planning this trip a couple of years ago, the fact that this year we would be potentially still be traveling over Fiona’s fiftieth birthday needed to be taken into account, so I asked her where she wanted to spend this significant birthday. As we would be on the other side of the World to home the week before the big day, I told her that she could choose anywhere in the world to spend her special day as it would invariably be on our way home, and so the next leg of our adventure was going to be a week in Barcelona. Our flight out of Moscow was uneventful and we had  a pleasant enough time with lounge access at Heathrow during our stop-over there, before an equally humdrum flight and swift airport bus into the heart of the city, and we arrived at our swanky hotel midway between ‘Plaça de Catalynya’ and ‘Plaça Universitet’, by mid-afternoon. After a brush & wash up, and being only 3 minutes from Las Rambla, we went out into the streets to reacquaint ourselves with this mesmerising Spanish city. It had been 17 years since we had both coincidentally been in Barcelona last and things didn’t seem to have changed much, maybe a bit busier and more hectic, it’s hard to tell in a city like Barcelona. Having just come from

Moscow the one thing that we noticed immediately was how much dirtier and scruffy Barcelona was in comparison, but I guess that has always been a part of its charm. It wasn’t long before we were wandering done Las Ramla, dodging street performers, hawkers, and wave upon wave of fellow tourists, before we headed off into some of the side streets to look for food. Fortunately, we stumbled into the back of the Boqueria market which fortunately was still in the process of closing up, and found a fabulous outdoor market stall cum restaurant called theRambelero, and sat down for some well earned Tapas. I’m not sure if it was the heat, our hunger, or the tiredness of travel, but once we started eating & drinking we just couldn’t stop, it was delicious, so delicious in fact that we found ourselves ordering a second round of Tapas and drinks, and stuffed ourselves completely. Even though it was comparatively early, most people were heading out to look for something to eat as we waddled back to our hotel, we still found time to head to the roof-top terrace for a couple of nightcaps. What a start to the week in Barcelona.

Over the next few days, we did quite a bit of sightseeing and touristy things that you just seem to find yourself doing when in Barcelona. We took ourselves on a little excursion around the hillside attractions of Montjuic, riding on the cable car up to wander around the castle, before stopping off on the way down again at Miramar for a sit in the shade, and then heading over to sit outside the MNAC art gallery and taking in the commanding view down across the city down into Plaça d'Espanya and beyond. We have also taken part in the traditional ritual for all visitors to Barcelona that is wandering the streets and looking up at the buildings designed by Gaudi, before finding a shady park area, of which there are not that many

in the heart of the city, to rest, eat an ice cream and do that other traditional pastime in Barcelona; people-watch, there is always something to see if you sit around long enough. We spent Sunday morning in the park and then along the seafront afternoon, taking the aerial tram from the port to Miramar, and having a well-earned drink overlooking the city once again.

Every day so far has been burning hot day, maybe too hot for this sort of meanderings, but you’ve got

to do it if you want to absorb this city and see it in all its glory. By mid-afternoon most days we were headed back to the air-conditioned luxury of our room for a little siesta, (you know, when in Rome....) Most evenings we have been tired and didn’t venture too far from the hotel to look for dinner, but the choice of places to eat close by is astounding. Fiona indulged me with dinner and few beers at the BrewDog bar which is not too far away, and we had a really nice Indian meal too. The thing that draws most of these days to a close is heading up to the rooftop bar at the hotel for a Cava & Sangria or two, just for a change.

2 Weeks in Moscow: From High to Low and Back Again

Moscow is a furnace. The distinctive European heat builds up across the plains from mild warmth first thing in the morning, through to a stifling humid blanket during the middle of the day, then strengthening blasts of hot wind kick-in during the afternoon until the thunderstorms of early evening, and even then there is little release from the humidity that stokes the embers of the dying day and makes the night sticky and uncomfortable. This has been constant for the past week or so, sucking the energy

from us and even despite our best efforts, has sent us scurrying back to the apartment for mid-afternoon naps, or into bars to wait out the storms, and whilst we have started to acclimatise to it, we are nowhere near being as used to it as the local Muscovites are. I had forgotten what a central European summer was like....

After the euphoria of the England win over Columbia we need to prepare ourselves for the upcoming Quarterfinals game with Sweden, and we decided to head to the Moscow Fan Fest to enjoy the experience. We got there in the sunshine and rode out the inevitable rain and bag ourselves a prime spot with a table close to

one of the giant screens with high hopes and fingers crossed.. We needn’t have worried, England cruised past the Swedes with ease and before we knew it we were celebrating England making it to a World Cup Semi-final for the first time in 28 years, more time that both Yates & I had been doing these World Cup trips, and to cap it off, we had tickets to the game.

At this point in the competition, we had a couple of days with no matches so we plotted out our sightseeing schedule to fill in the gaps. We spent an afternoon doing a self-guided tour of the Moscow underground which is quite rightly described as ‘the most beautiful underground in the World’, which is no idle boast with some of the stations and platforms are genuine works-of-art. We also had the chance to once again celebrate my birthday on this

trip as we invariably do every four years, this time clocking over to 57 years young and what better way to celebrate such an auspicious occasion than by visiting a Soviet Cold War era bunker situated 65m below the streets of Moscow. It was an impressive complex, with 18 flights of stairs to get down to 4 massive underground tunnels converted into a cold war command centre, 2 of which are still

accessible, 1 being a museum and a recreation of

how the bunker would be used, and the other into a bar & nightclub. Suffice to say, we spent a couple of hours in a bar before heading down to Bunker-42, and then a couple of hours drinking White Russians in the bar after the tour. Just to round of the day, there was a cake, with candles, waiting for me when we returned to the apartment and several vodka shots, most of which got snorted through my nose.... Don’t ask...

We were soon back into Football mode with the Quarterfinals kicking off, and our hardest decision was where we were going to watch them, lucky there are plenty of bars and restaurants within a few minutes of our Lomomovsky Prospect apartment. The day of the England semi-final was spent walking around Gorky Park, (a far cry from what is depicted in most films), eating at a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant and then a slow and leisurely walk along the Moscow River towards Sparrow Hills and the Luzhniki Stadium.  There was a good buzz around the area and we found a Russin place for the pre-match dinner where we shared the garden patio with fans from England, Croatia and a heap of others besides. 

We arrived early at the stadium, gathered some beers and marched up the 6 levels of stairs to our seats in the Gods. I was a lot calmer about this game than I had been the Columbia game, and this sense of calm soon turned into an air of expectancy when Tripper scored in the 5^th minute of the game, regardless of the little voice in my head say “they score too early”. We played well in the first half and had chances to

increase our lead, but as the half wore on, Croatia got a bigger foothold in the game. The Second half was terrible, England spent far too much time back-passing to the keeper and sitting back and inviting pressure upon themselves that it was kind of inevitable that the Croatian pressure would bear fruit and they drew in the 61^st minute. England clung on for the last half an hour and the game went to extra time, and I could tell that they had run out of imagination as the Croats got stronger and stronger. Then in the 2^nd half of Extra time came the 2^nd Croatian goal and from that point on it was all over for England, they just didn’t have the creativity or imagination needed to prise open the Croatian defense. Well Done Croatia, and hard luck England. Even though they lost we stayed to celebrate their hearty display and when all is said and done, England did far better than most people expected and I for one was proud of their effort.

The next day was a write-off, we were all so very tired and drained from both the exertion of the previous day, the emotional highs & lows of the football, and the stifling heat & humidity, I don’t think we left the apartment until 5pm to search out some food. Feeling exceedingly slovenly and repentant, we resolved to go and see something the following day, regardless of the heat or the effort. We ended

up visiting a park called VDNKh, or Vystavka Dostizheniy Narodnogo Khozyaystva to give it it’s full name, mainly because I wanted to ride on the Monorail that they there. Once that slightly underwhelming achievement was done we wandered into VDNKh took in the spectacular buildings and displays and retreated to a shady bar for a solid 2 hours of ‘people-watching’ and the occasional beer.

The following day was the 3^rd/4^th play-off game between England & Belgium, and even though I can’t remember ever having watched this dead-rubber of a game in all my time watching World Cup football, I decided as it was England’s last chance to salvage a 3^rd place medal I thought we should give it a watch.

Before the Kick-off, Yates was off to the Moscow State Circus which is alarmingly close to the apartment, while Fiona & I went to Victory Park, created to celebrate what the Russians call the’1941-1945 Great Patriotic War’. We met up in our local bar to watch the game and were not too disheartened by the lackluster result; at least we had a couple of beers to cheer us up. We decided to go to the same place to watch the final, all firmly supporting Croatia, and help to create a great atmosphere in the bar as we watched the closing ceremony and the kick-off. The game had a bit of everything in it, from a dodgy free kick, and VAR penalty, a howler from the French keeper,  (he plays for Tottenham you know...?), and

a couple of stunning goals from the French to seal the deal. Overall the French probably deserved it, and the Croatians finally ran out of energy, and apart from the massive thunderstorm during the presentations, that was it for another World Cup. In my mind, this had been the best World Cup ever, both from the perspective of the quality of the Football, but also for the excellent organisation and the first class venues, and the warmth and friendliness of the Russian people. Russia should be very proud of what they have done in the last month.

The last couple of days have been back into the hardcore sightseeing, trying to get to see all those things that you thought you had ages to get to, only to realise that there was only 3 days left to cram them all in, plus pack and get ready for the slow return to New Zealand for us, and back to Colorado for Yates.  Yesterday we rode the Metro back to Gorky park for another slap-up lunch at the Vietnamese restaurant we had found last week on our travels, and we also went to a ‘Banksy’ exhibition at Moscow’s central  art centre just along the river, which Fiona & I really

enjoyed, and I think Yates liked too. Today we braved the excessive heat and the crush of the Metro to go back to the centre of the city to visit the Kremlin and to walk in the spectacular grounds and visit the stunning buildings in Cathedral Square. Moscow has an awful lot to offer its visitors, and like St. Petersburg before it, Moscow has blown us away with its beauty, its heritage, and its friendly openness. So to paraphrase the words of the great philosopher, Ferris Bueller, “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend it”.

Blog Extra: England vs Columbia, 3rd July 2018

Blog Extra: England vs Colombia, 3rd July 2018

It was intense. The Spartak Stadium was filled with a sea of yellow-shirted Colombian fans and what seemed like only a few thousand England supporters in small pockets around the stadium. The noise of the Colombian passionate singing was okay but once the game kicked-off and the jeering  & whistling started, it was both deafening and intimidating and drowned out any noise the small number England fans could make. 

The game was a dirty one, the South Americans playing a style of football we don't see very often in the modern era. There were some crunching tackles, punches, pulling and pushing, but England kept their composure and pushed on. England scored first from a penalty putting us into rapture and the Colombians around us incensed and even louder in their booing and hissing, but as time ticked on toward the final whistle, the pressure started to build and England started to wilt a little. We reached 5 minutes of injury time and surely nothing was going to stop England clinging on to this important win this late in the game...  A last-minute corner for Colombia led to a desperate header hitting the ground right in front of where we were standing, and bouncing up and over the despairing keeper & defender and creeping into the goal. 

FFFFUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK.....!!!

By now I was thinking that this was only going to end one way, just like it had so many times before for England, we would play 30 minutes of extra time, and then get beaten on penalties, the most inglorious way of losing and being dispatched from a tournament. I watched the first 15 minutes of extra time with a deepening sense of dread, as the Colombians were all over of us, the England team looked all out of ideas and dead on their feet. The 2^nd half of extra time was a little better with England threatening to steal the game at the death, but each attempt, each half chance, each shot, each limp effort to get that ball into the back of their net just seem to either head off over the bar or trickle achingly just past the post. And then the final whistle blew full time and it was upon us, penalties. 

I have a history with watching England penalties shoot-outs, in the early days I would watch in hope as England let themselves down badly time & time again, so I started not watching them as it became increasingly more painful, so I don’t think I have actually watched an England penalty shoot-out for 20 years, and this time was going to be the same. As the Colombian players walked up to the spot, I would watch their efforts in hope that the England goalkeeper would make a brave save, but when it came to one of our players taking a penalty, I simply turned my back on the action, muttered, “come on England, score”, under my breath repeatedly and with increasing urgency in my voice, and watch the sea of Colombian fans behind me for their reaction. On the 3^rd penalty for England, I watched the exquisite joy and excitement in the eyes of the Colombian fans as England had one of the penalties saved and I thought for a final time, “Here we go again”....

The next penalty stunned the Colombian reaction into a surreal momentary silence as their player missed the goal and hit the bar, and I instantly recognised the look of fear and worry in their fans eyes, thinking that they surely couldn’t lose it from here, could they..? I still couldn’t watch the next England penalty, and with my back turned, I could again see increasing disappointment in the Colombian faces around me as England scored again. It was now 3 penalties each, with one more for each team to be taken and any mistakes from here on would spell disaster for either team. The 5th Colombian penalty taker stepped up, shot well towards the right-hand side of the goal but the English keeper reached out his hand and swatted the ball out of harm’s way. With one penalty left, if the England player could put

this away, England would win, could it be possible, would 30 years of disappointment be ended here and now for me in the stadium and all England fans across the globe, would a dream come true..? If it was going to happen I wasn’t going to see it, I couldn’t watch, I turned my back and growled to myself, “score, Score, SCORE”... The crowd erupted around me, and for an instant, I couldn't work out if we had scored or not, until I saw Fiona & Yates were jumping around wildly, whooping & cheering, England had done it, we had finally got that penalty monkey off our backs and we are heading to the quarterfinals. 

I was drained both physically & emotionally, but I had a smile-a- mile-wide and endlessly sang my heart out singing “Football's Coming Home”, I wanted to savour this historic moment for all it was worth. I  did not want to leave the ground, I wanted to hear the small group of England fans at the far end of the stadium singing, and even after the bulk of the defeated Colombian fans had left their seats, and Yates and his family had gone, I wanted to eke out a few final moments to enjoy the atmosphere. What a night....

I wish I had taken more photo's or even some video of the key moments of the game, but I was too wrapped up in the heat of the moment to think of doing anything as prescient. 

I have only just now watched the penalties on YouTube 2 days after the event, don't know what all the fuss was about... ;-)

One Week in Moscow: It’s Not What I Thought It Was.

One Week in Moscow: It’s Not What I Thought It Was.

We arrived in Moscow in a heat wave, the mercury pushing 35 degrees, the deceptively pale sunshine and sparse clouds trapping a ferocious heat, this is what greeted us as we arrived at the Moscow train terminus.  For 30 minutes or so my cell phone would not allow me to connect to Uber for some reason to book a car and with the heat and a thin trickle of sweat running down my back, caused my patience to reach its limit and we headed to the underground with all our bags and stuff. I had switched into mission mode and nothing was now going to stop me making to our recently booked apartment, not the heat, the language barrier, not the metro system, not my dodgy knee, not my......, at this point Fiona distracted me with some menial task and Yates wanted me to look up some FIFA stuff, and now I have lost my flow.... Suffice to say, it was a bit of an effort making it from the station to our apartment, and it was hot...

Our 6th Floor apartment was basic but functional with plenty of space for our small party of 5, soon to be 6, to spread out over its 7 rooms. I get the impression that the host has not rented the place out much and certainly not for up to 8 people, as there is not enough cutlery or plates for everyone, but we are a resourceful bunch and it really is not a problem. The great thing about our the place however is the great location once again, just 5

minutes from the 'Univeristet' Metro station and only 2 stops from the Luhzniki Stadium, a functioning lift, a regulation 24 hour mini-supermarket that seem to be built into the ground floor of every apartment complex, a large booze store next door, probably 10 eateries and even a 20-tap Craft Beer bar with a big screen TV within 10 minutes walking distance,..... SCORE..!! The downside to the apartment was that it did not have a TV, and was half-an-hour away from where Yates’s Moms crew were based, having booked somewhere to be close to where our original apartment was going to be, (I’m still sending out bad Karma vibes to a  certain Russian mongrel..!!).

Fiona & I were knackered after the long day of travel and left Yates, David & Emily to backtrack to their Mom’s place that first night, while we investigated what the local area had to offer. Just behind the Metro station we discovered a very American style Wings place called Buffalo’s stuffed to the gills with a Projector and big-screen TV’s and for me it was love-at-first-bite, so much so that we ate there for the first 4 nights in a row in Moscow, way to sample the local culture eh..? For the last of the Group Stage games it was just too convenient to be able to hit the Craft

Beer bar, called “Kraft Brothers” to watch the early game with a few pints, and then swap over to Buffalo’s for a table and good comfort food to watch the second game, followed by a short walk back to the apartment for some sleep. I can, however, attest to the fact that you can have too much of a good thing or at least my digestive system can but I am looking forward to going there again at least once more to enjoy their excellent food.

We had a day of sightseeing in and around Red Square in 36-degree heat which was as much an endurance test as it was fun, and if Yates’s Mom can do it with a smile on her face and spring in her step whilst in her mid-seventies then there is no reason I shouldn’t.  But bloody hell it was hot through, but even an hour or so in a queue to get into St.Basil’s Cathedral and eating lunch in the hottest cafe this side of Hades, was not enough to spoil what was still a great day out. Red Square looked smaller to

what I imagined and in comparison to what I have seen on TV, it looks nowhere near as imposing without the missile launchers and the platoons of goose-stepping soldiers.  I guess being ringed by high-end fashion stores and up-market restaurants & hotels, having a FIFA fan zone covering half of it with kids playing games and having a great time, and thousands of other tourists milling around made it seem less intimidating. The buildings around the centre of the city looked either very beautiful in a classical European architectural style or super modern and slick, Moscow was certainly not turning living up to its cold war billing.

We took in the first of our 3 World Cup matches in Moscow with a trip to the Luhzniki Stadium to watch our Russian Hosts play Spain in a ‘Round of 16’ match, and what a game that turned out to be. The very un-fancied Russians would surely be handed a footballing masterclass from the 2010 World Cup winners, but someone wasn’t reading the script, and through some stout defense on the part of the Russians and some lackluster play on the part of the Spanish, we found ourselves going into extra time and eventually at penalties. The Russian goalkeeper performed some personal heroics and before we knew it the Spanish were vanquished and the stadium erupted as the home crowd celebrated an unbelievable win. Well done Russia. 

Our second match in Moscow was our opportunity to watch England play Colombia at the Spartak Stadium, on the outskirts of the North Western part of the city. Fiona & I broke away from the rest of our group and headed out on our own for an afternoon walking through the Sevemoy Tushino park alongside the Moscow canal a few stops further out the where the match was being played. We had a lovely walk by the water and even had a tour of a Russian Submarine at a small museum in the park, then heading to a restaurant to have dinner before heading towards the Stadium

for the 9pm kick-off.  The rest of the game will be remembered as the time England finally won a World Cup game on penalties and was a deeply emotional night for me and probably millions of other England fans that have had to endure the humiliation of losing on penalties for the past 20-30 years. Suffice to say that this was one of the greatest World Cup moments for me, and maybe I’ll write a separate post to cover it.

The next day was lost to the seas of time. Not having gotten back to the apartment until 2am, and still been buzzing with the excitement of the game, I probably didn’t get to sleep until 4am, and therefore Fiona & I slept in late, and even when we did get up to search out some food, most of us just went back to napping for the rest of the day. With no football for 2 days, catching up on our sleep and rest seemed like a good idea. Yates was off to the airport for the umpteenth time to make sure his Mom, Shelly & Dick got away safely on their flight back to the USA. We had said our goodbyes to them at the end of the game last night, and it was awesome having them spend some time with us in our mad, loud, crazy, frantic, tiring but ultimately unique, World Cup experience, something that both they and us will never forget.

Yesterday, however, feeling rejuvenated and still on-top-of-the-world, we decided to get a hard day's worth of sight-seeing done in the absence of any games to see. David & Tony had left by now, and it was just myself, Fiona, Yates, and Emily left and we decided as it looked like being a nice enough day to take in a boat cruise along the Moscow river. It was stunning, and I

am becoming a great believer that taking a slow trip down a long river is one of the best ways to see parts of a city, assuming it has a river of course. We managed to catch a few sights we had not seen before from the luxury of the top deck of a cruise boat, no walking, no metro’s, no crowds just us and a few others tourists letting the

sights float by. After lunch we went to the Federation Tower, a very modern skyscraper in the heart of the new Moscow business district, to visit the ‘Panorama 360’ observation deck to see what the city looked like from the 89th floor. I can report that Moscow looks as surprising from above as it does from street level, with wide swathes of green space and long wooded areas spreading out in all directions from the city centre, making it one of the prettiest cities I have seen for a long time. We stayed up in the rarified atmosphere for an hour or so, enjoying both the view and free ice cream before heading back to the apartment for the now ritualised pre-dinner

napping. As it was Emily’s last night with us we let her choose what she wanted to eat and we ended up in a very nice high-end Italian restaurant about 15 minutes away. Whilst the service was erratic, the food was great and we all ultimately left feeling full and happy for our short walk home.

Moscow has been surprising for me, much like the rest of Russia that we have seen. It is as cultured and as beautiful a city as any of the European capitals, and as vibrant and modern as the USA or anywhere else I

could think of, maybe even more so. It appears that the world has become a very small place in the past 20 years and the homogeneous

shopping centres and the global retail and food chains have invaded, winning the consumerist war in every place it touches. That has allowed Moscow to move away from its austere Soviet past to become just another cosmopolitan world city, which is, on one hand, good, and on the other, not so good. Anyway, I’m off to get some chicken wings and watch some more football...