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Bremsstrahlung
13-06-2018, 03:38 PM
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.

Bremsstrahlung
13-06-2018, 03:41 PM
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.

Bon
13-06-2018, 03:41 PM
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..

Bremsstrahlung
13-06-2018, 03:49 PM
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!

Bremsstrahlung
13-06-2018, 03:54 PM
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..

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.

Jeterpool
13-06-2018, 04:00 PM
5 star thread

Frodo
13-06-2018, 04:11 PM
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.

380
13-06-2018, 04:15 PM
Looking forward to this, My favorite thread now

goaliepersempre
13-06-2018, 04:32 PM
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..

MFKS
13-06-2018, 04:43 PM
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

StannyCFCJET
13-06-2018, 04:44 PM
Fantastic thread. Enjoying it immensely

plague
13-06-2018, 04:47 PM
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.

this thread is already full of mistruths and trash opinions.

Bremsstrahlung
13-06-2018, 05:09 PM
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!

MFKS
13-06-2018, 05:35 PM
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

goaliepersempre
13-06-2018, 05:35 PM
Aktion packed..

After Australia vs Peru back home? or some finals games?

boz-monaut
13-06-2018, 05:57 PM
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

Bon
13-06-2018, 06:25 PM
needs more photos, particularly ones of Russian ladies

Absolutely. I second this request..
Something needs to rival the Tennis Thread..

belchardo
13-06-2018, 08:37 PM
mods, need to make sure this thread is backed up for foz v3.

boz-monaut
13-06-2018, 08:39 PM
if we could back up threads there's plenty we'd have saved from the first few fozzez

pv4
13-06-2018, 09:40 PM
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

pv4
13-06-2018, 09:51 PM
a dancing burger and taco came to lighten the mood a little.

Andy Samberg told us so


https://youtu.be/FPlWssdjG30

Bremsstrahlung
14-06-2018, 01:37 AM
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.

Bremsstrahlung
14-06-2018, 02:01 AM
Also on the females, any aged between like 20-26 have the worst taste in clothing.
Those grandma jeans, fmd.

Jeterpool
14-06-2018, 06:45 AM
Andy Samberg told us so


https://youtu.be/FPlWssdjG30

Bravo

Bremsstrahlung
14-06-2018, 02:55 PM
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!

goaliepersempre
14-06-2018, 04:13 PM
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?

MFKS
14-06-2018, 04:15 PM
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

Bremsstrahlung
14-06-2018, 04:31 PM
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.

Bremsstrahlung
14-06-2018, 04:42 PM
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?

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.

goaliepersempre
14-06-2018, 04:51 PM
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...

MFKS
14-06-2018, 05:16 PM
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.

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

Bremsstrahlung
15-06-2018, 01:24 PM
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.

pv4
15-06-2018, 01:50 PM
Loving this thread still Brem, keep it up. Thanks (spiceba) pal.

The Dunster
15-06-2018, 01:53 PM
Enjoying the updates Bremsstrahlung. Great work.

MFKS
15-06-2018, 02:03 PM
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

Bremsstrahlung
15-06-2018, 03:49 PM
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!

plague
15-06-2018, 04:27 PM
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!

Nah mate, having Aussie colour is a good thing.

If you go street clothes people may mistake you for English or American and that's when people get in trouble.

Legit good move is to pair a home country scarf with your aussie shirt. Covers all bases.

baldrick
15-06-2018, 06:39 PM
Great stuff mate :thumbsup:

Couscous
15-06-2018, 07:33 PM
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.

Bremsstrahlung
16-06-2018, 02:22 AM
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.

MFKS
16-06-2018, 03:23 PM
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.

So you have topped me 4 hour taxi ride from Curitibia to Florianopolis
Cant wait to hear this story

Bremsstrahlung
17-06-2018, 01:42 AM
Day 5 - Friday 15th June

Todays plan was to do one last stroll through Moscow, get our flight to Kazan and find a pub to watch the Egypt game and then another one to watch the Spain V Portugal game.

Today did not go to plan.

Met a few Aussies around Moscow obviously doing the same routine of getting up early and beat all the crowds. Got some breakfast and headed back to the hotel.
At about 9, (for a 11:45 flight) Reception offered to organise a taxi so she could talk to them in Russian so “there won’t be any issues”. Told her we were headed to “SVO, sheremetveyo”.
Taxi came and greeted us with “Aeroport?”
We said yes, SVO.
Off we went. Traffic was pretty shit through the CBD so we thought we were headed to the outer ring of Moscow where we would then take off towards the airport.
After about 15 minutes, we tried to confirm, and did my best pronunciation of “sheremetveo”. He said Da da da.
Anyway, another 15 minutes later it became obvious we were getting absolutely no closer, so we showed him the airport and he nodded. And he said something. So I did my rendition of it again and he looked at me puzzled, and he was like “VKO?”.
“No! SVO, sheremetveo”
So then he busted out google translate and offered us “pork to get to which knuckle.”
Fearing there was some kind of miscommunication there, we tried our google translate which probably told him we liked flowers and wild Putin’s.
Anyway he started saying sheremetveo and changed the route.
Traffic in Moscow is horrendously bad. Never seen anything so terrible. It’s like being on the M1 bumper to bumper, then up to 100km an hour, and slam on brakes. Anyway. We arrived to the airport at 12:00. Missed our flight so we began rapidly trying to source a plan b, c, d, e and f. We tried to book a 6pm flight, but wouldn’t accept our cards, we then booked a different one through Expedia as cards didn’t work on their site again (not my idea) and it said there would be 30 minute until confirmation.
Meanwhile the earlier flights had now sold out. We were fast running out of options.
We waited 45 minutes for confirmation, nothing. So we tried to cancel. 30 minutes to see if the cancellation worked. I said f**k it, and went and booked us onto a flight from one of the other airports at 8:30.
We left
Our airport at 3:45 and arrived at the other 2:45hours later. Traffic is a joke. Then in a final nail to our coffin, my mate was turfing everything of if his bag and suitcase trying to find passport. He was convinced her left it at the airport. Was ready to say see ya, when he felt it inside his jacket pocket. FMD, it’s a shame they don’t sell brains sometimes. Natural selection just doesn’t cut it.

Got to airport and there were a lot of Aussie frantically running for their 7pm flight. A lot of people missed their flights earlier and a lot were almost Going to miss this one. At this point all other flights were sold out. The only option, hire a car for 12 hours of death defying driving in Russia or take a taxi for $300 for 12 hour ride.

Anyway, made our next flight and got to our hotel in kazan! Turns out we are staying at the fanatics hotel, next minute who walks in, Daryl Braithwaite! He’d performed for the fanatics (seemingly a group of 40+ year olds) opening night! And the lobby broke out into a rendition of horses. What a time to be Alive.

Finally, after 5+ hours in a cab, 3 airports, we finally arrived in Kazan! Bring on match day!

Place is buzzing!

Bremsstrahlung
17-06-2018, 01:43 AM
So you have topped me 4 hour taxi ride from Curitibia to Florianopolis
Cant wait to hear this story

Not straight. You still got the record bud

Bremsstrahlung
18-06-2018, 05:52 AM
Day 6 - Saturday 16th June

Game day!

Woke up at 7 this morning to grab some brekky nice and early. Now, I’ve figured out why breakfast is free in most places...it’s trash. Maybe not all places and my taste in probs a little picky, but bloody hell, these guys do breakfast weird.
There were “fried” eggs, which strangely resembled boiled eggs with shells on. There was some steamed carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. Some bread pies with minced need inside. Garden salad. Potato chips. Just nothing really breakfasty. Though the bread pies were delicious, so literally filled up on those. All the Fanatics were having a whinge that there was no fruit or cereal.

Went for a wander to suss out where the shuttles were to today’s game. Plenty of Aussies up and about early. A lot of people surprisingly headed to the game at 9am. Checked out the Kazan Mosque, which is quite the piece of art. I really love their grand architecture and design of the religious buildings and buildings of importance. Some really nice places around.

Kazan itself is pretty much a one street wonder as far as I can see. Just one long mall type street with heaps of bars, karaoke and food, and people! I’m actually reasonably impressed and a little surprised, communicating here seems a lot easier than Moscow. Haven’t had many issues here at all compared to Moscow.

Headed back and got ready for the game. Ticket, Fan ID, wallet, passport. Good to go! Walking back through the main street there was a lot more gold. It helps when we have one main colour, yellow, and it’s obvious as. French were all wearing white red or blue, so it’s not quite as impressive. I actually expected some kind of ordered line at the shuttle stop, however it was seemingly a jostle for position and then pack out the bus. Once it was packed we took off, and then tried to squeeze more people in from the fan fest. which was never gonna be a good idea, but not we were all squeezed up a little too close to eachother.
We stopped in traffic and must’ve been close enough to the stop so driver just opened the doors and off we went.


1.6km to the stadium, felt like 5km. The walk there was a sea of gold, looked so good. Was really happy to be a part of something like that. The close you get to the stadium the more excited you get. Locals were all on their balcony’s yelling out “welcome to kazan”. Passers by were saying welcome and Goodluck! Families were stopping to get pictures. Really amazing atmosphere and feel to this. Managed to get one of the volunteers with a megaphone to do an “Aussie Aussie Aussie” while her friends filmed her. They were genuinely pretty happy with that little moment.

Got closer to the ground and another Aussie had gotten to the next girl, she was playing land down under on the megaphone through her phone.

Was in Gate 6 which was literally the furthest gate from anywhere. Got there, got some beers and went through to the stadium. Pretty damn nice stadium! All look a treat and the view was pretty awesome. Everyone I spoke to said they had a good view of the game.

Atmosphere felt pretty awesome pregame. Land down under rendition was good! There was a lot of noise and chants and everyone was pumped. Game was a bit of a surreal experience. Supporters were cheering every kick, every tackle, every save, hurling abuse at every dive or decision that went against us.
My experience and thoughts on national team active support is that we really struggle because there’s no real structure to it, there’s no main organiser, it’s pockets of fans trying to start something and can often end up drowning each other out. There were a few great moments, unfortunately by the time a lot of people pick up on the chant and it gets going, it’s too late. But still, massive effort and at the ground it was a great atmosphere.

Match details and opinions covered elsewhere.

The whole team came and clapped and showed thanks to the obvious Australian sections of the crowd. Crowd game them a massive cheer.

Headed to a pub to watch Iceland Argentina and bloody hell those Icelandic guys can scrap. And my goodness are Argentina impotent as ever. They seriously struggle.
I’d be backing Iceland and Croatia through....

Anyway, went To bed at 3am with no voice and happy have seen my first World Cup game!
And dancing with some Russian girls and doing body shots was pretty fun too I guess.

MFKS
18-06-2018, 05:16 PM
That why it always wise to never book breakfast with your hotel room.
If it comes as part of the deal ok

But your insane paying for it.

My favourite Thai hotel charges $15 for breakfast and it average

I can get breakfast anywhere in town for $5/6 and it tastes better

Bremsstrahlung
18-06-2018, 06:02 PM
Yeh it was included.
Hate breakfast generally, so I would never pay for it haha.
Although, I arrived in Nizhny via overnight train this morning and the cafe had no eggs, juice. Bread, bacon, sausages or fruit. Travesty.

This whole city is completely overrun and overwhelmed at the moment.

Bremsstrahlung
18-06-2018, 06:23 PM
Swedish :wub:

Bremsstrahlung
20-06-2018, 03:11 PM
Day 7 - Sunday 17th June

Woke up a few times and eventually wrestled myself out of bed. Feeling a little dusty, there wasn’t really much else to see in Kazan. Too myself for a wander off the Main Street and found pretty much nothing. Just offices and plain buildings. Headed up towards the Mosque again, (it’s the thing that comes up when you google Kazan, cause there’s not much else). Had some lunch at one of the cafes along the Main Street before getting a taxi to the train station. We wandered around a nice little promenade area before heading to the station for the train.
There were a few other Aussies there, but not too many. We were lucky? Enough to have 2 other Australians in our cabin which made things a bit better, spoke about the game and their plans for anymore games.
There’s a lot of Australian fans that didn’t get tickets to many games, but are here to see one game and seeing some random teams, so good on them.
Eventually got to sleep for all of 30 minutes. Was a very on/off night of sleep, trains are rickety and you can literally feel every bump.
The conductor Elena was a 120kg stereotypical babushka Russian lady. She came in and barged open the doors at 6am and yelled. Not a care given. Scared the sh** out of everyone else though.

Bremsstrahlung
20-06-2018, 03:12 PM
Day 8 - Monday 18th June
Arrived in at Nizhniy Novgorod train station at 0800 and the place was overflowing with people already. Mostly Swedes rocking their yellow! I’ve always loved the Swedish kit, the yellow and blue always looks really nice and they keep their kits reasonably simple.
After waiting 20 minutes for a taxi, and many “taxi” operators offering us a ridiculous price of 2000 ($40) rubles to take us to hotel, which was all of 6 kilometres away. (We paid 2,200 rubles to drive for 2.5 hours across Russia).

We definitely got a guided tour of the place. The taxi took about 5-6 turns up barricaded or closed streets for the game. The whole city was in absolute meltdown. The place was practically at a stand still. Really showed me how having an event in Moscow is all well and good, but when 45,000 people descend on a place like Nizhniy, hell breaks lose.

We got to hotel and it was clear they don’t like people checking in early here. We headed down the Main Street and grabbed some breakfast. We got a place with a few Swedes in it drinking already and we grabbed some menus. Pretty typical breakfast menu. Ordered the omelette, “no omelette”, wanted some eggs, no eggs, no bacon, wanted an orange juice, no juice. Wtf do you have?
I ordered a chicken sandwich. And she showed me some drink that she mentioned juice in, so I got that. This little cafe had 3 girls working there. They were absolutely smashed the whole time. So flustered. Anyway, I got my orange juice and syrup and sparkling water juice, and a salmon sandwich. They got confused when I said I ordered chicken. So I just swapped with my mate.

We ran into the other Australian guys from the train in the Main Street and decided to grab some beers. They’ve put bans on grocery stores selling alcohol on game days it seems. They’ve roped it all off. So we headed to the pub that was packed out full of Swedes. Walked in and they have a beer on table, bottle of vodka. Shot and chase it down with some beer. Didn’t quite expect that from Sweden. They’d give most aussies a run for their money. We finally got to the front. No beers. So we grabbed 4 shots each and took off to the next place. Grabbed few more rounds of drinks and took off towards the stadium.

Transport to games has been pretty good. Pretty centralised/easy options to get to the ground. It’s a pain in the ass when you leave though. End up virtually walking back to wherever you came from.

Also, the volunteers have been absolutely unreal! Lots of high school students I assume that are incredibly helpful and polite and enthusiastic and eager about helping people out. Cannot commend them enough. I daresay
They have made this World Cup so much easier.

Had seats close to the Swedish fans so it was a pretty good atmosphere for me! Seats behind the goal where penalty was scored. Interesting. As soon as tackle came in, I called penalty and knew they’d surely have to call it back. The Swedish played with their arms in the air for the next 30 seconds or so. Anyway, pen was awarded and away we go.

Bit of a lacklustre game. It’s funny how the draw can completely change a teams approach. If Sweden played Mexico or Germany, I reckon they lose (based on Mexico’s performance). But now they’ve pinched 3 points. And basically could feel happy to scrounge 2 draws or at least one and roll the dice.

Getting back into town was a screw around. Walked for like 3 kilometres at least. Made our way to the train station. Somebody told us to go to the station in front of us and blah blah. No luck, they were intercity trains.
We eventually found the right place to be after much confusion.
I prefer to take the approach of follow the crowd. Because 90% of the people/Swedish and Koreans would be headed for the main tourist/hotel/CBD area.
Went back to the hotel and had a quick nap as I was absolutely wrecked from the train trip. Very minimal sleep.
Woke up and went to a pub and watched the England game. Man, if there’s ever an underperforming nation, it’s them. Probably because their domestic league is focussed on developing other superstars from other nations. Anyway. Bit of a drab game.
Lots of Swedes still doing shots at 11:30pm. Crazy! What a party though. They are incredibly nice people and have very good looking women.

MFKS
20-06-2018, 04:27 PM
Your bang on about Swedish women
Lovely as

Dont know why blokes on here are big on Russian women

See plenty of them in Thailand and they very masculine women that for sure.


One lot that I found great was the Iranian women in Brazil.
Many with out the muslim attire one would expect just wearing TShirts and shorts etc

Some absolute honeys from Iran

Bremsstrahlung
20-06-2018, 05:45 PM
Scandinavian in general are amazing.

Agree with the Iranian sentiment. Know a few Persian girls and they are absolutely amazing. Whole extended family was good looking.

Trying to post photos from my phone but once I add from camera roll, it won’t let me hit okay.

boz-monaut
20-06-2018, 07:07 PM
can you host them somewhere and link?

there are number and size limits on how many photos you can attach on the forum - I'll look into it

Bremsstrahlung
20-06-2018, 09:23 PM
Was just trialling the site with these. Will add more later.
Kazan: https://ibb.co/jjT7LJ
My fave pedestrian crossing in Kazan https://ibb.co/dZ4a7y
Nizhniy Novgorod https://ibb.co/dqg57y
Kazan photo op https://ibb.co/fwhj0J

goaliepersempre
20-06-2018, 09:47 PM
really only one photo of value haha

Couscous
20-06-2018, 09:54 PM
In my experience, Iranian women have disturbingly large heads, and short, fat fingers and toes.

MFKS
21-06-2018, 11:57 AM
In my experience, Iranian women have disturbingly large heads, and short, fat fingers and toes.

Couscous

You dont look at the mantlepiece whilst stoking the fire do you??

Bremsstrahlung
23-06-2018, 09:24 PM
Day 9- Tuesday 19th June

Woke up today and went for a wander down to the Nizhniy Kremlin, they also kind of have a few war memorials and exhibits inside and a heap of nice gardens. Their political and military stuff is idolised here.

We caught got in a massive storm that brought torrential downpour for a good 90 minutes before the sun came out again! Stopped into a little cafe and had an acai bowl. Which was essentially berry blended yoghurt with a few flakes of muesli, but still not bad for 200 ruble, $4. We have noticed that nothing happens quickly here, waiters don’t serve attentively, food doesn’t come out quickly, and getting the bill/paying takes just long. You’d be hard pressed to get out of anywhere within 60-90 minutes.

Had an afternoon train at 4pm so we endeavoured to find a taxi but whenever they came to get us, they all gave up and canceled due to the road closures and traffic, so we had to catch a train which probably was a little easier in the first instance, but he station was a good 1.5km up hill.

We splurged the extra $10 and got first class cabins which is basically 2 beds instead of 4 I a Room. No other benefits really, other than a doona instead of a blanket. We had a babe of a conductor this time. 2 of them in fact that, when everyone was in the food cart/beer cart having a bit of a party, they came in in their civilian clothes and took pics with all the supporters, pretty cool for them and us to be able to do that.

Got to sleep eventually and woke up in Samara at 9am local time

Bremsstrahlung
23-06-2018, 09:24 PM
Day 10 Wednesday 20th

Arrived in Samara at 9am local time and headed to our accommodation. Thankfully this one was within walking distance so we didn’t need to deal with the shitfight of getting a cab. Deadset, I thought people were overreacting when they said there’s heaps of people offering taxi rides outside stations and airports, but bloody hell, these guys are everywhere. Would never get in one unless I was desperate as all hell. Idk how they get people gullible enough. I guess their inflated prices are still cheaper than Australian taxis.
Headed to the hotel and we found the pub part. We were lucky the owner was there early doing some stuff because he took us about 300 metres across the road and down a driveway, I thought that’s where it was gonna end. And turns out they have a pub whose address they give, and just direct everyone to the hotel. Anyway, they didn’t speak a word of English but were incredibly friendly and tried with google translate to communicate with us. I was rather impressed.
Ventured out into Samara and soon realised there was sweet F all to do there. They had a nice embankment near the river that is equivalent of like Nobbies Breakwall or Warner’s bay. Few stalls and games for kids along there. But there was maybe 1-2 pubs in the whole place. And every second building was run down.
We found a restaurant to have some food and watch the evening game. Service is pretty lax. Literally wait so long, despite waving them over. They bring everything out as it’s ready though. So often leads to one person having their meal for a good 20 minutes before the other person. Anyway.

Headed off to fanfest because there was literally no place that was going off or even had games on as far as we could tell, asked another group of guys on the other side of samara and they had nothing their way.
There were mostly Aussies drinking at the back of the fan fest, a group of Australians were showing their class doing shoeys and thong-eys.
Russian girls were in abundance and wearing a good jersey meant you at least got 5 pictures I reckon. Spain v Iran was a bit dire and it was getting cold so we bailed home to watch second half.

Bremsstrahlung
23-06-2018, 09:25 PM
Getting behind. Last 72 hours have been frantic.

380
23-06-2018, 09:28 PM
Still waiting for the Lady pics Brem, Don't let the team down please.

Bremsstrahlung
23-06-2018, 11:20 PM
Still waiting for the Lady pics Brem, Don't let the team down please.

How’d you like the pedestrian crossing?

380
24-06-2018, 12:25 AM
6/10

Bremsstrahlung
24-06-2018, 07:24 PM
Day 11 Thursday 21st
Woke up at 9 and had breakfast at the hotel, only because the owner ushered us into a dining room on our way out and we thought it was rude after we already declined twice, to leave the heated rice porridge there. Wasn’t too bad, tasted like overcooked rice.

We checked out and headed to the shuttle zone. Enroute we found a group of Aussies so we had a few drinks with them, did some shots, got a bit merry and ready for the game.
Aussies proved a hit with everyone passing by. Many stopping to get pictures with the groups. The usual chants were all busted out, the drunken guys to the side started an increasing whoahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,.... ahhhhh when an attractive lady walked past and waved back at them, took a turn when some drunken guy decided to start a “we love big vaginas” chant. Left after that. Was becoming a little embarrassing.
Took off towards the shuttle and hopped straight on and off we went. All the shuttles have been great. Can’t fault them getting everyone to the ground, and by “the ground” I mean within 5km.
We walked up towards the stadium. Samara is a very visually impressive stadium. Very cool! Got a few beers and headed to our seats in the Australian supporters group. When I got there I thought a few of the other guys had had a big morning on the beverages as they were vomiting, however, turns out it was an not of food poisoning from the night before! No good.

Again the prematch song “we came from the land down under” was belted our among the supporters. I hope it is actually as loud as it feels it is haha. Probably not though. Massive welcome to the boys. Atmosphere at these games is amazing. Everyone is there to sing and chant and have a good time.

Most impressive for me was when we went down. The very first thing after the stunned silence was a massive “come on Aussie” chant that the whole Aussie contingent got behind and the next 5-10 minutes were constant chanting which is great encouragement. That impressed me. Often the loudest group is the one that scored, but I think it was us encouraging them on.

Pretty much if the ref stops play to consult VAR, we are gonna get a pen. Everyone went crazy (which I don’t usually like to partake in until we score it). Jedinak cool as a cucumber slots it home. And I’m now covered in beer. The Russian row of supporters in the front row are having a cry cause they are covered in beer while all the Aussies jump around crazily.

Match views are covered elsewhere.

We left the stadium pretty quickly to grab our transport. My mate with me for the first part jetted off home and I hopped on my overnight train to Volgograd, sweaty, smelly and covered in beer. I tried my best to give myself a sponge bath and grabbed a new shirt, but, oops, apologies to those sharing my cabin haha.

Bremsstrahlung
24-06-2018, 07:25 PM
Day 12 Friday 22nd
After 17 hours on a train I arrived in Volgograd at 4:15 for the Nigeria vs Iceland game at 6. Cutting it fine I dumped my bags at the train station with a few other Aussies I met on the train and headed to the game. Got a shuttle fairly easy and was inside the ground 20 minutes before kickoff, happy days!
Iceland had a host of chances and were seriously unlucky not to get something on any of them. Thought they played the better first half. The Icelandic clap was immense and the whole ground was trying their best to partake which looked amazing. Definite soft
Spot for Scandinavian teams minus Denmark haha. They always have this underdog feel to them, much like Australia.
Second half was all Nigeria and a great goal by Musa, put them in the box seat, could’ve been a lot more! Left as soon as full time flew and Bee lined for a shuttle. Got on one pretty quickly and retrieved my bag from station before the massive line started. Tried my best for 45minutes to get a taxi but they were all trying to rip me off so I kept trying to get a legit one through app. (The taxi app gives you a lock in price, and you can choose to accept that or pay by the meter). Fixed price is usually better in my experimentation.
Jumped in cab and drove for an hour to the airport for my flight into Sochi. Arrived at airport at like 10pm for my 1am flight.

My flight was from terminal A apparently. So I got out of cab and looked and there was terminal C, Terminal B and another building along from it. I headed over there and the lady refused my entry. So I showed my ticket and she waved me off. The airport has like 3 names and each has a different location on google maps, ever so slightly, so I asked a few more people, and I was literally going around in circles. My flight wasn’t on the board yet which made me a bit nervous but after 30 minutes it popped up and all was good. Turns out Terminal B is actually A, and B. Anyway.

Got chatting to an English guy that works in the press. He wouldn’t tell me who for. But my god he gets around. He knew an awful lot about Newcastle and the A-League and asked how our new owner is doing. Said he came for Asian cup and loved newcastle, always goes to African Cup of nations, euro, Asian cup, he said he came to Australia for a week and caught 10 games of rugby league and AFL before heading home. And he was trying to see 16 games this World Cup. I thought my 72 hours was pretty jam packed but his was massive. He had a hostel booked for 3 nights and the rest was trains and flights. He had 6 tickets, 3 from his mate that he was using and will buy the rest at the grounds. To good effect so far.

Bremsstrahlung
24-06-2018, 07:26 PM
Day 13 Saturday 23rd
Anyway, my flight was delayed to 1:45 and got into Moscow at 3am. Went to get my boarding pass for next flight and I had misplaced my baggage sticker which idk, has never ever been used in any circumstance I’ve flown in, my bags have all turned up. For some reason this was a massive big deal. My bags were being sent straight to Sochi from Volgograd, I just needed a new boarding pass for flight 2. Anyway, I was there for 25 minutes trying to explain and understand why they needed it. The best they could give me other than “ you need it” was “we need to know how much it weighs”. Anyway after 4 supervisors came over and chatted in Russian, she gave me my boarding pass that she printed off originally. So I’m a tad puzzled why it was so complicated. I’m assuming I could’ve made life easier and they just wanted to register the bag or something but surely my baggage number is linked to my ticket when they scanned it the first time.... anyway. I was in Moscow airport again and had 5 hours to kill before next fight. Charged my phone and killed some time at he airport and boarded my flight into sochi.

Moscow was packed with Germans and Mexicans today. Surprising a lot of people leave it to gameday to travel, something I wouldn’t do for Australia games, as that’s pretty much the sole purpose.

Got a cab to Sochi hotel which took 45 minutes for 1000 rubles or $20.
Checked in and the owners were super helpful through google translate and very kind. I was absolutely wrecked and needed to sleep so badly but I didn’t think I’d get up, so headed to fanfest to meet another group of friends and joined them for some beers during the Belgium game. Then half the group had tickets so we all headed back to Adler to the stadium via 40 minute shuttle. Massive walk to the stadium again, this was the longest one so far!
Got there with 30 minutes to spare and settled in near the German supporters.

This game was immense. Massive game. Sweden literally played pretty well. They were so structured in defence and made some crucial last ditch tackles and their keeper had a blinder minus last goal. But I had to few sorry for them. They jagged a great goal, and defended so well. Germany were peppering then all game. Sweden will rue their missed chances in the second half, so many 2 v 1 opportunities where they should have done better and put the game to bed. But alas not.
Don’t know how to feel about result, I wanna watch the Germans play because they are a good team, but they are struggling right now and would’ve loved to see Sweden knock them off and progress. Interesting scenarios on their last day if SWeden and Germany both gets wins. 3 teams on 6 points. Gonna be heartbreaking for one team to be knocked out after getting 6 points.
Got back to hotel at 1:30am as it was pouring rain in Sochi. Jumped into bed and collapsed. What a 72 hours.

MFKS
24-06-2018, 08:47 PM
Travelling on game days done that plenty of times in Brazil

Got screwed once

Fog

Who wuld have predicted it on a day it was 30C plus ???

380
24-06-2018, 08:57 PM
Lov'n the updates Brem. Appreciate you finding the time to do it, been great following this thread.

Keep up the great work champion.

plague
24-06-2018, 09:30 PM
I'm tired just reading about your last72 hours

goaliepersempre
25-06-2018, 04:26 PM
Yeah I can relate to the long distances... Rostov had to walk around the whole stadium east to west outside to then walk inside west to east for our seats...