Andy Samberg told us soOriginally Posted by Bremsstrahlung
Andy Samberg told us so
OK
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.
Bravo
The Championship Chronicles - The Jetstream's review of the 2007/08 season. www.newcastlefootball.net/chronicles
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?
Amigos Aarau
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...
Amigos Aarau
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.
OK
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!
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.
Great stuff mate
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.
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