Originally in the ballot I spent over 2k on tickets but was unfortunate in that I didn’t get any Wales tickets. I had a load of group games, some in Wales’ group but for every game in the group other than a Wales one!
Still, this was not the reason I sacked all of them off in the end, there were plenty of opportunity to get Wales tickets. With my trip to South America approaching and knowing what travelling can be done for the cost of going to France during a tournament, I decided against taking a lot of time off for it.
I did however keep the Paris Q/F in Stade de France as it coincided with my mates birthday so it was a good opportunity to catch-up, experience a small part of the tournament and would cover his birthday present too. As the tournament group stages were underway, we predicted it was more than likely to be France Vs Wales (as runner up of the group) but maybe France England if Wales pulled off a miracle. Either way, it was looking like the host nation, in the national stadium so that would be epic in itself.
Given Wales’ amazing performances and England’s inability to beat Slovakia, me seeing Wales in the Stade de France was ruled out so it was nailed on France Vs England. Lee being English was probably like me at first, looking forward to seeing his country play the host nation in the national stadium.
Unfortunately for him and England, Iceland happened! The clapping vikings had embarrassed England so not only did England screw up my opportunity to see Wales in this Q/F but they also screwed up Lee’s opportunity to see them in it too. On a plus note, there would be no split loyalties between me and Lee on the game so could just enjoy it as neutrals.
We headed out to Paris on the Saturday with an early morning Eurostar from Kings X. I got the early train from Birmingham while Lee drove down and parked in Cockfosters. We’d taken a stash of Westons for the journey out there to start the Euro party early.
The Eurostar out went without delay and the Westons went down ok for so early in the morning. Once we arrived we headed to our apartment which I’d booked ages ago so got a decent enough price. There was no collecting the keys or anything though, simply rock up and enter the code to this jumbo padlock in which the keys to the apartment was in.
After a wander around and a stop in the Magnum Store for one of those custom made Magnums it was back to the apartment to drink again before heading out to the fan zone to watch Germany Vs Italy at the Eiffel Tower.
The security to get in was ok and moved pretty fast to be honest and the fan zone was full. I had expected there to be cider or spirits but I was disappointed so my drinking was over for the night. We perched at the front near the screen for the quite terrible game in all fairness.
The atmosphere was good and I managed to get a snap with some Iceland fans who had done Wales a great service by knocking England out the night before.
The game went all the way to penalties which was definitely the highlight, but in extra time, a couple of hundred people started running towards the emergency exit so even though I was pretty calm, I just told Lee to run and we did a little sprint to the emergency exit which was a very short distance away. It looked minor because only a small amount of people ran but better to be safe than sorry. We got back in within minutes and only later did we realise at the back of the fanzone (quite a way from us) there was thousands of people stampeding to the exit back there after firecrackers were let off. It was only when we saw the video we realised the magnitude of what was going on back there, a lot worse than the tiny little school sports race that was going on down our end of the fanzone.
Anyway, after Germany had sorted the Italians out on penalties we headed back to the apartment but not without drama. At the metro station the platform had got full, so as we were going up the escalator, people could not get off it so we were all squashed on that, with our legs running beneath us to keep up with the escalator. Thankfully, an English bloke on the platform had the sense to shout down the platform to tell everybody to move down urgently. A few minutes later somebody from down the bottom must have also hit the emergency button to end my unwanted cardio session.
The plan for matchday was to get some breakfast at the Irish bar, do a little sightseeing and then get on the alcohol ready for the match. That plan did not materialise…
We were in the Irish bar at 9am, we were in there all of 2 minutes before an English guy (we thought was bar staff) came up to me and said ‘I want to buy you a drink to congratulate Wales’. We went up to the bar and he got what everybody really wants at 9am, jagerbombs! So once we had one, we had breakfast then returned the favour. The 3 lads were from the midlands so we stayed with them and polished off a few jagers before deciding to stick together and go on a pub crawl. Bar after bar, jager after jager (30 quid rounds) we got messier and messier. At around midday it was looking pretty grim already as we were all pretty much gone. Each bar was giving us control over the sound system for Zombienation, Will Griggs’ on fire etc and the bar staff were peppering us with random shots as well as our continuing rounds of jagerbombs.
We eventually ended up in an Irish bar called ‘Galway Bar’ and we were treated very well there and again had control of the iPod. It was pretty empty at that time of the day but we managed to drag a load of people in throughout the day to get on the jagerbombs with us. Other random shots consumed all day were ‘Irish Flags’, ‘French Flags’ (which we made up when they ran out of the green stuff) and some rank Lime Whiskey.
Hard to remember much of the carnage but met loads of brilliant people (Dan, Joel, James, Ravi (AKA Flo-Rida), Damien, Ben and many others), sang throughout the day and drank more than I can remember for a very long time. I also remember 30-40 quid rounds each time and my card touching that machine way too many times, same went for Lee.
It got close to the time of the game and was long gone now after drinking from 9am to 8pm and needed to go back to the apartment to get tickets and stumble to the Stade de France. We headed to the Metro and for some reason Lee didn’t get on (thinking I was going straight to the stadium and not to get tickets). I might have been ruined but my fairly extensive Champions League Away experience always gets me to the game! So, birthday boy didn’t end up using his present but hey-ho, on I went.
I got back to get the tickets, quickly changed into the Rambo Welsh shirt and bundled my way to the very impressive Stade de France. I was sitting by French fans but was just behind the sea of Iceland fans who were incredibly impressive (especially during the war chant).
The game was great and I got to see Oli G bang in 2 goals which was also good! France showed what any decent team should have been doing to Iceland really so the game probably made the England fans even more angry because they really were shown up to be a poor side. The game ended 5-2, 7 goals at the Stade de France, got to be happy with that!
After the game I headed back and found Lee sititng bare footed on the stairs with a puddle of chunder underneath him. 2nd time in 3 years on that very day I have ended up cleaning up his chunder (last time was his stag 2 years to that very day).
The next morning we headed back to the Galway Bar to leave our suitcases while we did some sightseeing. As soon as we walked in they were shaking their heads asking us ‘how we do it’. They also were chuckling away when we were querying how much they reckon Lee and I spent yesterday! We bumped into a few of the chaps we met outside the bar too, one of which somehow drunkenly convinced me to purchase an Aaron Ramsey doll from China with £19 delivery!
Anyway, Lee and I did the sightseeing stuff, we went to Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Louvre and did the Ferris Wheel at the end of the Champs Elysees. The weather was really decent so the sightseeing day on Monday was a good choice and we weren’t in too bad a state considering.
I remember when I went to Paris in 1995 with Gelli School that I spent my remaining money on one of those wind up flying birds, I always remember it because Mr Reynolds had to loan me money for food on the last day then because I had bought one of these toys. I remember then when I got home that I had a load of Francs in my suitcase which I didn’t know about. The point is, that in exactly the same spot the birds (slightly different version) are being still being sold and Lee snapped one up for one of his sons.
The Eurostar on the way home was a bit brutal, the struggle was really starting to kick in. When we got back to Kings X we bumped into some other guys we’d met who had told us ‘they were doing well, sticking to a budget until they met us two last night’. Despite the frustration in Lee missing the game, it was an absolutely class day on the Sunday and a great trip.
I did ponder whether or not to stay out there for the Wales game Vs Portugal but after the carnage Sunday and the fact I wanted to work as much as possible before the end of my contract, I decided to head back to the UK.
Unfortunately though, the WhatsApp messages for a couple of days after between me and Lee were ‘Another 30 quid has come out of the bank’ or ‘Another 25 quid has come out of the bank’… ‘What bar is that from?’ etc.
Roll on Russia 2018! Don’t takeeeee me hommmme….
[su_custom_gallery source=”media: 440,439,438,437,436,435,434,433″ link=”lightbox”]
