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.
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..
Last edited by Bon; 13-06-2018 at 04:46 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!
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
The Championship Chronicles - The Jetstream's review of the 2007/08 season. www.newcastlefootball.net/chronicles
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..
Amigos Aarau
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
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?
Amigos Aarau
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
OK