Orright, thought I’d give it a crack. Good way for me to remember this trip too!
This ain’t gonna live up to previous World Cup Diaries, just a heads up.
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Orright, thought I’d give it a crack. Good way for me to remember this trip too!
This ain’t gonna live up to previous World Cup Diaries, just a heads up.
Day 1 - Monday 11th June:
Wake up at 2:30am, and head to the airport for a 6am flight, this being my first early morning international long haul flight, it’s probably gonna be my last as I much prefer landing early morning. Checked in online a day or two prior and thank Lordy i did, the line was practically out the door for check -in. So I waltzed right up and dumped my bag and headed through the new facial recognition stuff they have there.
Got some aisle seats for a change (wanted to be able to get up easily and stretch my ACL-less leg out). Must say, I’m pretty much sold on an aisle seat. Always was told window seats are the best, you know, I’m not convinced now. May be different if i was trying to visit the land of nod a bit more than I did. Anyway, downed a couple of whiskeys in hope that that would see me through for a few hours of shut eye. Not meant to be. Instead I had to flick through the catalogue of movies and tv shows and try to rank it all from terrible to foreign language to “okay, if I can’t find anything better than this, I’ll come back”. What has happened to Emirates and their entertainment. FMD, you know you’re in strife when 9/10 people on the plane are watching Harry Potter at some point in their journey. Taking nothing away from haz pots but the best tv show available was god damn family guy.
Last time i flew I watched half a season of Brooklyn 99, Vikings, game of thrones and suits when it was in its prime. Anyway.
Landed in Dubai and why people were walking so damn slow through the glass walkway when it’s 41 degrees outside I’ll never know. Ran into a few people I recognised through a mutual friend so grabbed some real food before jumping back on the second leg of the flight. Had a seat right next to the shitter. If somebody was pooping and opened the door I’d be staring them straight in the eye. Or eyes. Thankfully, they came and locked it and stuck a big do not use sign on it. Wooh!
Landed in Moscow at 8:30pm and headed to customs. What a mess this was. I think another 2 flights arrived at very similar times, no English translations anywhere, didn’t know if there was a Russian only line or what, took the stairs as directed by some guy with a gun (hey whose gonna argue with some Russian with a gun before you’re even land side.) and found another customs area, slightly more organised and shorter. Old mate that was getting interrogated next to me served as an example one way or another, and I’m not sure which one.
1. Took a good few minutes to locate his fan ID when there’s pictures everywhere “passport + fan ID”
2. Asked if he flew from Dubai, he said no, then asked where he flew from responded “Dubai”.
3. When asked if he had match tickets he said no, he was gonna try buy them here. (How’d you get a fan ID?”)
4. Second opinion was called when he couldn’t give them a name for hotel, how long he’s staying for and she wasn’t convinced his picture was him, despite turning the spotlight on and off a few times.
So either he got denied and security is serious or he got let through and it’s pretty lax.
Had a stereotypical blonde Russian female customs official too which made things slightly better.
Got a cab, and somehow made it out of the airport alive, then cabbie really started to flirt with danger, texting, beeping at “sexy babe” and indicators are seemingly optional as is staying in the lines. He did however call my hotel because it was impossible to find. So finally opened my hotel room door at 11:15 and crashed out about 1.
Awesome work, mate!!!
Looking forward to reading/seeing what you get up to over there..
Edit: Now that I've read your first day, that amount of travel has made me exhausted..
I'm flying Qatar airways to Sweden next week, hoping they don't have the same entertainment lineup..
Day 2 - Tuesday 12th June
So after 4 hours of sleep in the last 30 odd hours, the sun shine was unrelenting and I was annoyed to discover that it was 5am.
Laid in bed for 2 hours trying to sleep before i gave up, showered and laid on my bed to google some things. Next minute I Woke up at a much more respectable 10am.
Headed to grab some breakfast, Russian pancakes! Which are virtually just really thin crepe esque pancakes.
Ventured out to grab a SIM card which was relatively easy. Needed to pass through a few checkpoints to get there and metal detector to enter the shopping centre but I was cleared to proceed. 1000 rubles, 30GB, Optus and Telstra eat your heart out.
Took off towards Red Square and St Basil’s cathedral to do the touristy thing, but they were setting up massive big screens and grand stands for Russia Day celebrations. To their credit there were limited drunken Russians roaming the streets with their shirts off wearing national paraphernalia. So red square was completely blocked off, Moscow Kremlin was blocked off, and the embankment near Moscow river was also blocked off. Roamed around a little longer and they had opened up a checkpoint so I headed on in and Sussed out the river embankment area, when it started to piss down. Headed for shelter with another 1000 odd people. Eventually decided to grin an bear it for a while and walked towards St Basil’s to see if there was a back entrance that may be open now. Managed to get up a little closer but the main Red Square was still blocked off. While I was somewhat nearby I ventured towards Moscow Kremlin to have a gander, only to see some 10 metres high brick wall everywhere. Some fortress. The lineup to go into some other restricted area was longer than the line to get into the Moscow Kremlin ticket line which allowed you to join the line to get past the wall and into another line.
Something to do early one morning I think.
Tried to head back but there’s 0 crossings to get across 8 lanes of crazy traffics without walking 750 metres back to where you started. Eventually made my way back to a little mall/strip that leads into Red Square which seemingly has become the temporary fan hub until Red Square reopens.
Large contingent of Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia and Egypt fans all dancing and having a grand time. Pretty awesome atmosphere. Until they realised hey kind of hated each other and Uruguay and Brazil fans had a few words with each other before a dancing burger and taco came to lighten the mood a little. Headed back to hotel after walking some 20km according to iPhone. Crashed out just after some fireworks went off celebrating Russia Day!
Thanks mate!
Sweden, nice! Im off to Norway after this on the 27th!
Fingers are crossed for you. The entertainment is usually a guilty pleasure of mine and something I genuinely look forward to. There’s normally too much you wanna watch and not enough time. This time was the complete opposite.
5 star thread
Love it Brem. Looking forward to reading the rest of your trip.
Feel free to add as many Dancing Taco and Burger people as you possible.
Looking forward to this, My favorite thread now
Will just be the 4 days in Russia.. Heading early friday morning, via vienna to Krasnodar. Sunday Matchday with a bus to Rostov on don, for the Swiss - Brasilia game. Fly back Monday lunchtime.
Mates are going to the Swiss - Serbia game. Flying to Gdansk, Poland and then grabbing a taxi haha im sure that will be an epic trip....
Keen to reading what you get up to mate..
This is a really good idea for a thread.
Torch has been passed
What Airline you go with and give us a bit of a preview as to where you going city wise etc what games you going to see etc
Fantastic thread. Enjoying it immensely
Flew with Emirates and will return with them as well! Flew with them before and was rather impressed, this time was average. Nothing amazing, nothing terrible except entertainment.
The days ahead:
Im gonna be in Moscow for another few days.
Fly to Kazan, see Australia V France
Train to Nizhny to see Sweden vs South Korea,
Train onto Samara for Aus vs Denmark
Then train straight after to Volgograd for Iceland V Nigeria ( Steering clear of those sightseeing cruises)
Flight straight after to Sochi for Germany Vs Sweden and then finally get some rest before taking in Australia vs Peru!
Not a great fan of Emirates
Not a fan of the 3-4-3 set up
People usually fap about them due to the Entertainment system
Your precisely right on the aisle seat being king.
Enjoy the football and remember to take in as much of the football as you can. Despite seeing 12 games in Brazil I remember little of the other matches as I missed watching it on TV a lot of the time
As for match days
In Brazil they had massive Security perimeters around the grounds
City to city was different due to the terrain around the grounds etc but you want to allow a fair bit of time to get to the ground and get through all their security check points
In Porto Alegre where Timmy scored the goal V Holland it must have been a 5km walk from the first check point to the ground.
It was a long way so dont think it be a quick stroll into the ground
Aktion packed..
After Australia vs Peru back home? or some finals games?
should we make this thread sticky? can't see if moving off the front page to be honest
needs more photos, particularly ones of Russian ladies
mods, need to make sure this thread is backed up for foz v3.
if we could back up threads there's plenty we'd have saved from the first few fozzez
I have only read the thread title and already I'm convinced this has been the best thread for a long time on this foz
Andy Samberg told us so
https://youtu.be/FPlWssdjG30
Been taking a few mental pictures, sorry guys.
Order of the day is short tight dresses. Brems almost lost his strahlung a few times.
Agreed member, I’m actually really looking forward to just hitting up a pub, spending the afternoon there watching the games and heading out or back to hotel. Suns been setting at like 10pm.
Also on the females, any aged between like 20-26 have the worst taste in clothing.
Those grandma jeans, fmd.
Day 3 - Wednesday 13th June:
Today also started with a 5:30am wake up. Fortunately this one quickly turned into a nap and 9:30 get up.
Best thing about waking up early on day two was you miss all the people.
But there must have been a shitload of flights that arrived yesterday because the city was absolutely buzzing this morning by 10am. People everywhere. Flags everywhere. Jerseys galore. Visibly more Aussies getting around in their Brazil esque jerseys.
Today’s top cheer squads were Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Supporters from Egypt and Iran came together to do some chants together which was a nice touch. Good on them! Obviously having a great time.
Fortunately it appears yesterday’s prison city was due to Russia Day. Unfortunately Red Square is still off limits because the grandstand they built needs to be brought down. So I dare say it’s off limits for at least another day or two. So there goes my tourist pictures of Red Square it seems.
Also good was that there was a lot more, easily accessed today. The Kremlin gardens are pretty special, in fact their gardens and grassed areas in general are really well kept. There were an army (dressed in camouflage overalls) of workers digging up plants and planting new ones. They seemed to be using it as a nursery of sorts. Dig me up and sell em when they are big enough. Plant a slightly smaller one in its place.
Today I also uncovered that McDonalds have menus that you can select your language on, so that explains why Maccas was packed full of Aussies, and other non Russians.
On that, language wise it’s about 50/50 hit and miss for the person you’re talking to. And they either know zero English, or can speak it quite well! Also helps walking the streets when people are thrusting pamphlets at you. Easy to ignore people. Not like those Greenpeace people back home that single you out and make it very obviously they are talking to you.
Went to a Georgian bar for something to eat and literally got a BBQ chicken i reckon. Not too bad though, got a bottle of corked apple cider, by accident and another longneck of cider. All up dinner was about $45 AUD for two.
Our first stop of the evening, on an impromptu pub crawl, was to a little whisky bar off the main drag and the good looking waitress gave us a warm welcome and some menus. Just randomly picked a few drinks and gave them a crack. First one was a 60ml shot, oops. Second was some ghastly concoction. Third, upon her recommendation was a Sour Jim Beam which soon became the drink of the evening. Some good stuff and for 300rub (~$6aud). Stayed a lot longer than expected due to the hospitality of the place and pub crawl turned into more of a sit.
Planned to head out somewhere afterwards but my mate had just arrived and was wrecked and I was pretty gone also. Went for a walk down the main mall area which was still packed with people dancing and singing. A lot of Iran, Egypt and Mexicans dominated the street. There was a small contingent of Aussie fans (3 and a blow up kangaroo).
Public toilets at midnight also seem to be in scarce supply!
was going to ask how it is with the language/English. I guess Moscow will be easier then other places...
Did you learn any russian before hand?
Re McDonalds
Think it was full of Skips not so much because it has an English Menu but more because we are some of the dumbest hypocritical ****s on the planet when it comes to food consumption and play it so safe it not funny
See it in Thailand all the time. World class cuisine every where and ****s eat KFC BK and Maccas every meal
yehhh agreed, it’s legit the easiest thing and requires little to no effort. So of course everyone does it. Don’t get much out of it though. Everyone bangs on about travelling and experiencing cultures, which often translates to taking selfies with monuments and eating fast food.
Yehhh, as I said it’s very hit and miss. I feel somewhat awkward and a little rude walking in somewhere and speaking English. Not sure how they see it.
I tried some duolingo about a month prior and learnt a few phrases but nothing overly helpful tbh. Probably should of stuck to it a bit more diligently.
Know basics like, hi, Thankyou, yes, etc. most Russian stuff is pretty translatable. So like coffee is кафе which is pronounced caffee. Toilet is tulit, kaka kola. The hardest part is everywhere is cryllic. So unless you know the sounds of each letter it is a bit difficult. If you can figure out the sounds you’re generally pretty close to what the word is.
You can generally manage and a lot of places have a staff member who is best at English who draws the short straw. But I try and use what limited Russian I can out of respect.
Yeah Ive been trying to learn a few things.. (although only 4 days there) but I just find it difficult with their alphabet.... (in contrast to south america, easier to pick things up)
Agreed with seeing people just sticking to what they know Maccas annd KFC etc.. There will be typical swiss people on my trip complaining about the food...
I currently trying to expand my knowledge of Thai
30 mins session twice a day.
Been doing it for 3-4 weeks and my knowledge is getting better and I starting to construct sentences more and more
Soon I going to start learning their Alphabet. That I am told will help me piece it together more.
Not easy but not as hard as people make out. It just time that it takes and sticking with it
Day 4 - Thursday 14th June
Opening day! Keen as to get this party started and watch some football.
Woke up at a respectable 8am for a change and bypassed hotel breakfast to find a cafe for a bite to eat. Then headed off towards red square again to have a look at their progress demolishing the grand stand and it’s still blocked off. Had to do a bit of planning for next leg of my trip so retired to a park bench and did some hotel booking.
Met up with some other mates and headed towards the Moscow fan fest, which was massive. Got there at like 2:30 and it turns out it opens at 3, which was good because everything else advertised 5. Which didn’t really make sense but anyway. Another hefty search and metal detector to get in.
Headed to grab some beers and it was cash only in most places. They have bud and bud non alcoholic. Oh and don’t need to take a piss. These toilets are literally just buckets of piss and poop. Foulest stench coming from them and your literally pissing on turds. This may be not a surprise to some, but I actually thought they’d be a little more sofisticated.
Anyways, ordered a beer and burger combo for 650 rubles, which is probably about $14. Somebody needs to give These guys a lesson on efficiency. There were 3 people serving. One person operating the cash register, who did not speak English at all. One girl opening beers after money was exchanged. And one guy supervising and telling your order to the chef lady who ran to grab the burgers or assemble it. So I ordered, literally two words beer and burger. And pointed to a big sign that advertised the combo deal. She then got the girl pour beers to ask me what I wanted and I pointed again. Anyway she figured it and gave me the beer and I waited, and waited, and waited. I asked what was happening and they “rushed” to get me a burger. Anyway, I was lined up for about 10 minutes. And they don’t serve the next person, so about 5 people were waiting behind me while they sorted out my burger. My mate went to the bar next door and they had run out of burgers completely. This was 30 minutes after the gates opened. No burgers left. What did they think was going to happen.
Went to get a few beers before we got a spot and they ran out of cups, and refused to serve it in cans, so they were asking people to skull their beer so they could reuse the cup. Again this was about an hour in. So within an hour, ran out of burgers and no cups to serve beers. And there were two people at the beer cart. One person taking money and pouring beer and the other person pouring a second beer if they ordered 2.
I can assure them, 99% of people in the line to the beer cart were after beer. Pour them constantly. Anyway.
Some questionable entertainment prior and we got to tune in to Robbie Williams Eye-f**k the co star. And we were off.
Place went mental when they scored the first. Would’ve liked to have seen how much contact there was on the defender that hit the deck before old mate had a free header.
And again.
And again.
And again. And again.
Some finish with the outside of the boot. Would like to see a reverse angle or something of that.
What a start for them! That’s some opening game. 5-0. Italians are probably at home watching that game feeling sorry for themselves that a Saudi team made it and they didn’t.
Ran into some Irish guys and got chatting. Asked who I supported in a league and he actually knew a fair bit about the a league. Expressed his disappointment we didn’t get 2022 and reckons it would’ve done wonders for our league. Interesting perspective. Asked if they knew of Roy O’Donovan and he threw his leg up in the air! Haha.
Rode and navigated the subway back home! Russians are partying the streets right now. And so they should, what a great start for their World Cup campaign. Puts a bit of pressure on Uruguay and Egypt now. Winner of that game is surely through. Lose faces a big game against Russia.
Loving this thread still Brem, keep it up. Thanks (spiceba) pal.
Enjoying the updates Bremsstrahlung. Great work.
Brought back a lot of memories reading about the fan fest
Reality was most were pretty shit really.
Food and drink and toilet queues were horrendous in Brazil.
Went to the one in Porto Alegre which was just a giant field being used with a big screen
Went the one in Rio and watched Greece v Costa Rica which was a great game sitting on the world famous Copacabana beach in Rio at night watching
Next time Russia play Brem may I suggest find somewhere to watch it with the locals even if it some shitty little bar/restaurant with 100 /200 on the jungle juice.
Because that is where the REAL party will be
Yehhhh just wanted to do fan fest for the opening game. Not overly fussed on the concept but thought If ever there was a time to go, opening game in Moscow was probably gonna be it. Will be great to see the footage of the opening game and 5-0 and see the crowd there at fan fest and know I was there.
So keen for our game now. Meeting more and more aussies and other nations. Everyone is so friendly. Europe’s club scene is somewhat brutal with their ultras and shit that goes with it, but this is like one big party! I was very skeptical about wearing shirt out in public as I wasn’t really sure how it was gonna go down. But it was very evident after 5 minutes that this was a pretty safe place to wear it.
Having a blast and everyone for the most part is helpful, friendly and welcoming!
Great stuff mate :thumbsup:
I remember reading the Member's diary and being concerned that all he was eating was meat, and he was drinking too much.
Please eat some vegetables, Brem. Borshcht, etc.
A lot of Aussies missing flights today due to traffic and a bit of poor planning.
Myself being one of them.
$500 flight and 5 hours in a cab today, not the day I had planned but bugger me its a story to tell!
Checked in and at the gate waiting for our flight take two now.