What a whirlwind few days!
Probably safe to say the most eventful away day I've done. The nuts and bolts of the trip itself went fine; no issues with flights, hotel, no delays or anything, fairly unspectacular from that viewpoint.
I travelled solo (first time since Copenhagen away in 2009) but got talking to an older gentleman called Chris at check in (about 2/3 of that early flight were City fans). There are 50,000+ seats at Eastlands, yet he happens to sit in the row in front of me. One of lifes little quirks.
Landing so early (08.30) meant there was no time pressure, couldn't check in for a few hours anyway. We decided to brave public transport to the city centre, a bus to the central station and then the underground/metro to the area we needed to be. A taxi would have been much more straightforward but equally much less adventurous. Trying to decipher the language was the hardest thing as nothing away from the airport was in English. You can usually blag it in places like France, Spain, Germany etc (or the locals will speak/understand some English, really not the case in Ukraine) but this was different gravy out here.
So we went for a wander, took some photos and whatnot. Think we ended up a fair way out the main tourist centre, pretty easy to get disorientated, but we managed to navigate our way back to the middle.
Got to about midday and headed to my hotel to check in and drop my bag off, then went to the Radisson to collect the match ticket. Didn't realise it at the time, but this was a poor move from City, essentially leaving fans as sitting ducks for the local hooligans.
After a bite to eat and a couple of pints in a nearby Irish bar (about a fiver for a filet mignon steak and pint
) set off back to my hotel to have a shower and probably a nap. Got about a minute around the corner before being jumped from behind by some Kiev fans. Probably only lasted 15 seconds, but it was very surreal situation and a bit of a blur tbh. It ended up with me in the road, on the wet ground, minus my scarf. Various blows to the head, not to mention being strangled by my own scarf. The crowning glory was a boot to the face when I was on the deck, before they ran off. Headed back to the boozer to warn the City fans in there that there were Kiev hooligans out for trouble (and clothing!) in the vicinity.
Transpired it was far from an isolated incident. Hung around with the Blues from the pub, went to their hotel bar which was very convenient for the stadium. For the rest of the evening all the stories were of people being confronted by Kiev fans at various places in town. Some were wandering in to the hotel lobby battered and bloody. There are plenty of City fans who are no shrinking violets, but bearing in mind we only took, for varying reasons, 500 fans, the atmosphere in and around Kiev was certainly intense. Numbers being so few really made this trip feel like way more of an experience, almost an 'I was there' game.
Build up to the game, and the game itself and aftermath, went off without a hitch despite the hopelessly inept local police. We won obviously
very pleasing performance, another one like that in 2 weeks should see us through to the quarters.
Was supposed to go to Chernobyl on the Thursday, but suffice to say after a mountain of lager, very little sleep and a sore head/face, I just really didn't fancy it when the alarm went off at 06.30. Kinda regret it now, but in the moment I was in no state to do a 12 hour tour. I guess I have a reason to return
Think I'd put Kiev up there with Munich and Porto as the best away day, was a rollercoaster of a trip but certainly one that will live long in the memory.
Had a fun night at DTD last night, still suffering a bit now tbh. A certain friend was taking great pleasure in pointing out my bruised eye/swollen cheek to various people, cheers Jackson. Think there are more than a few people 'next door' who will be over the moon about the kicking!
Really hope we do the business tomorrow. 08.58 train down to Kings Cross. It's not bloody cheap following City!
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