Day 4 continued from Frankfurt to Dortmund and back to Frankfurt!!Highlights : Well gentlemen, I am up late provided the blog report from this end... we came into Dortmund at 4am... I have no voice, Destra mash me up, Maximus Dan surprised us with his song...a PERSON was picked up at traffic light by a fittie and her grannies (names cannot be mentioned) .. oh yeah BTW a small matter.... Trinidad beat Sweden!! Wait the score was 0-0... and how is that a win? these questions to be answered in this edition of the blog
(by the way people, thanks for the very nice e-mails)The morning started off nice and bright and not a cloud in sight.... blah blah blah!! Details....
The morning crew was the usual now.... Friday (who has been an amazing and gracious host to deal with all of us . big up!!), Slade, TTCom and Mrs TTCom, NYGill, Bagosoldier, Gary and myself. We all linked up at the Marriott downtown Frankfurt, TTCom came with a case of beers c/o the US Army (thanks Dubya!!) and we all trundled in and off we were.
The drive was 2 hours, parking was hell..and there was trini like rain.... everywhere was red, white and black!!
Once we parked and got in, the original plan was to head to Limerick pub to meet up TI and the other crew there... but from directions on this/other sites... (no names mentioned * cough cough*) we were led to beleive that Limerick was actually close to the Westfallon Stadium .. this was not the case!!!! So of course we just limed there.
TT Tourism had a booth there, Sherwawyne was there greeting (we all get some pics with him), got some FREE trinidad shirts, flags, bandanas and the kitchen sink... did I mention it was FREE... the high price allows that sponsorship doesn´t it *lol* We lime and drink in the huge concert style bar under till about 4 pm, when my
´FINDING TI´adventure was about to start. TI was in contact with Bagosoldier, my phone was cutting in and out, as were everyone´s phone in the stadium... who knew why? Anyway, I had tickets for TI´s uncle, so I had to get them to him, but coordinating was quite difficult, and in the end I could not get the ticket in time to TI
, however
Rikki Jai was there looking for a ticket.. and didnt have a ticket cause his complimentary was in traffic. So at 5.52pm... 8 minutes to kickoff, I sold Rikki the tix (face value of course) took a pic with him as proof and off I went running through the gates to get to my seat on time.
Walking through the gates, then down the aisle with the Trinis singing Warrior and chanting was a simply electric feeling, it was like running through your dreams, most of that match felt like a dream. I got to my seat 30 secs before the Anthem played and we were seated in a couple rows of Swedes with only us as the Red, white and black. Singing the anthem there, drew ONE tear to my eye!! it was phenomenal, seeing a huge block of Trinis in the sun, then another huge block in the North eastern corner of the stadium, but we had about 1/4 of the seats there, which was amazing!
Kick off time, and we started slowly and what I noticed immediately was the Birchall and Edwards were slipping on the turf... maybe it was only me who noticed that, but that 45 mins was gutwrenching tension, every slip, misplay, blocked shot was greeted by Swedish cheers and Heart Failure on the Trini side. I think I aged 10 years for every minute of stress, but the first half closed off with 0-0 and the Swedes on my side were a bit pissed but they still seemed confident about their chances for the second half. They were very good sports about everything who cheered good plays and boo-ed the bad ones.
Halftime came and time for a drink! Well it took 40 minutes to get a Coke, such was the mass of people who came at halftime, but it was entertaining, from meeting a man living Texas who from Marabella, to tantie brooklyn to the woman who have a head that look like a bottle of Javex hit it...Cisse can attempt to pull off dotish hairstyle but this woman with platinum blonde hair just was a walking disaster... but she entertained the three of us while we there getting the cokes.
Got back to the my seats, and 12 mins had elapsed and we still were 0-0. Avery was gone and I didnt know. As the time moved on, the Swedes were getting more and more antsy and we getting louder and louder, and WE means all the trinis! We were growing in confidence with every passing minute and the play reflected it, and conversely the play of the Swedes reflected their surprise and of course SHAKA just own them, but then again this is not a TOUCHES match report... so back to the experience!
With the final minutes, there were huge OLE and WARRIOR chants, one could easily think Trinidad had won! Once the final whistle blew, the Swedes around me were shocked. In fact, shocked is an understatement, they were dismayed, mortified, disgusted and sad all in one, and yet they were good sports. They all shook hands with Gary and I, commented on the brilliance of Shaka and moved on. I swapped shirts with a Swede, another Swede gave me his hat to wear, which I did for about 10 minutes, since I was heading Limericks and I could not be in a Swedish shirt and hat for the night, I felt naked being without the the flag draped around me. To the Swedes, the fact that they could not beat a 10 man `Banana republic´ was quite sobering for them, and everywhere we went, it could be seen that the Swedes considered this a loss. Good souvenirs and pics though!
So once that matter of beating Sweden was done, it was back to the car, link up some more men, who we had met earlier and had directions to Limericks. And off we went, our thirst quenched by the Army beers! Drove down to Limericks, passed thousands of Trinis going back to the Haubtbahnof, saw meh padna Kyle Johnson from Naps... in fact it is amazing how many people I recognized from home.
So we got to Limericks and it was rocking!! I got to the front of the stage, and Destra played for a full hour with a characteristically high energy performance, except when she started on this pro-feminist rant type speech... boring!!! She rocked the house, and then Maximus came on and closed with Warrior!! Now what time you think this was all done by? 2 ? 3 ? 4am? Not at all, the Europeans are religious etc and the show was done by 11.30pm!! However we limed there.. watch some more fit woman, got some food and then was back on our way to Frankfurt!
Of course, the cheers and props from everyone was just great!!! Even the stinking bloody English gave us some props!!
On our way back, we stopped at a light and the grannie mobile (What is up with these older women in Germany.... dread seriously!!!), anyway a man said hi, the women said hi and then a man told Friday to stop the car... then a man jumped out and got their numbers - note here .. that man was not me, but cannot be named due to privacy issues from the Schengen Treaty and the Rupee law .. yanno, what happens in Germany.. stays in Germany!!!
so 4 am that was the night... a long long amazing day in all!!!!
Day 5 starts out with Gary and I heading to the Angola v Portugal match.. to try and gamble for a ticket!! Otherwise sightseeing in Cologne!!!
Naps, over and out!!!