Week three of our international ground hopper's Euro 2012 diary on the road in Poland and Ukraine. Parts one and two are here
Sunday Kiev
I am not so much drifting as marooned – the theft of £1,100 in Krakow a week ago and the possible cost of Donetsk knockout games precluding a speculative trip to a Group B decider. Many Dutch, Germans and Portuguese have also stayed in the affordably accessible capital, but Friday night's vanquished are most conspicuous, at the raucous Swedish Corner. I offer some sincere best wishes for Tuesday.
Monday Kiev
Pre-tournament, I reasoned that the combined chances of England being out or winning Group D were better than those of their coming second, so I booked a stay in Kiev and a Warsaw semi-final excursion. FA-sanctioned trips for a quarter-final in Donetsk go for £649; with trains and rooms booked up it could cost me almost as much setting off from here. Spain fans may well be worse off for their team's late winner.
Tuesday Kiev to Donetsk
The 6.05am express takes seven hours but aside from cost and location Donetsk is a green and pleasant surprise and the game a nerve-shredder but a triumph, not least for a cash-strapped traveller with some now-vindicated bookings. The one sour note is struck by some England fans' continuing reaction to the Panorama racism exposé: a sea of white faces singing: "Fuck off Sol Campbell, we'll do what we like."
Wednesday Donetsk to Kiev to the Polish border
I am no gambler but arguably the largest bet of my life has come off, thanks to Wayne Rooney, the absence of goalline technology and the Swedes. Even better, I manage to buy the last remaining train ticket to Warsaw for the first quarter-final. No buffet car for 15 hours, so I have to take the fast-food plunge. The queue for McDonald's is ridiculous – but right next door, in flagrant breach of Uefa's views on ambush marketing and western trademark laws, is a branch of McFoxy; the special sauce's origins are elusive. Four hours in we have a 15-minute stop at Shepetivka and, like something out of a 70s documentary, women selling potato-filled pancakes, salted fish, beer and water are waiting.
Thursday The border to Warsaw
I thank homeward-bound Swedes for Tuesday's result and the atmosphere on the train is good, despite it taking two hours in the middle of the night to change the wheel gauge on the carriages. Contrary to reputation (and surely their job applications) the border police are again sunny; one of the Portuguese gives his name as Cristiano Ronaldo and gets a laugh. On arrival Uefa's website is selling tickets for the game and I see the real Ronaldo.
Friday Warsaw to Krakow to Lviv
A trip to Gdansk for Germany v Greece has foundered on trains back to Kiev being sold out, and the only way there if I don't want to travel during a game is an express to Krakow and thence a coach to Lviv. Half-an-hour late already, the coach clips a car, or possibly vice versa, just outside Krakow. Then we reach our first jam. We were due at Lviv two hours before kick-off; we are at customs as the game starts. An Australian with a Kindle can get scores but all I hear is five minutes of incomprehensible commentary in a taxi, and all I see through a bar window is the players shaking hands.
Saturday Lviv
Had Poland staged the 1938 World Cup, Lwow could well have been a host city. Now as Lviv, like most of Ukraine, it has had its moment: the half-price sale on Euro 2012 merchandise is well under way …
Philip Cornwall writes about following England for Football365.com Read More
انسخ الكود التالى و ضعه فى موقعك او مدونتك.
