Got home 7.15pm. Flight was an hour late. It was a fantastic 3-day trip – thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing – except for 90minutes of it. Really was a good trip. No joke.
Fantsastic stadium. Was really impressed with that. It was really well laid out. Been open for nearly 2 years. Big game for Steaua, and they worked so hard for every ball. They aren’t very good, but wanted a result (which says all we need to know about our losing performance). The noise in there was deafening. They’ll have a shock next Thursday at the Bridge – they won’t hear anything. The Steaua players might think it’s being played behind closed doors.
Stayed in the Hilton, which was ok, and just 15 minute walk to the old town. Were in pub called Old City both nights, plus others during the days. 4 hours sleep and 2 hours sleep. Can’t do that anymore, I thought, but managed to. Seriously, it was a great trip. Last night we went on ’til 4am, and the manager of the bar was bringing out indoor fireworks at 2am! Loads & loads of crumpet around – well worth ogling. 😮
As for numbers – embarrassing. Numbers of Chelsea supporters over there, I mean. Ok, a costly trip, and 80 went to Amsterdam as they couldn’t get refunds on their flights and the Bucharest flight tkts were too expensive, but just about 150 went to Bucharest. Plus about 100 Bulgarian Chelsea (who got better treatment than us). So a total of 250 Chelsea fans at the game. Yep – 250, with 100 of them Bulgarians! How embarassing is that? Europa cup, ok, but still a trip away.
And what about this – the official club trip, run by Thomas Cook – price £439, plus £50 single supplement – and cost of match tkt – guess how many paid for that? Guess. They were originally booked on our flights, but they got changed so they arrived very late on Wed evening and had no idea where to go out as it was so late, dark, and they didn’t know where they were. Had Thursday there, then off to game at 6pm. Then their afternoon flight back today was changed to a crack of sparrows one with 5.30 pickup the morning after the game. We were locked in for an hour, too. Fkn joke that was. So they couldn’t really go out after the game as we got back to town at midnight. Anyway, did you guess how many paid to go on the official Thomas Cook trip?
Answer: 5. Yep, 5 supporters, 2 stewards, and Scott the liaison guy. Why doesn’t the club subsidise the trips and we’d see some more go?
Still, 150 of us or not – it was a fantastic trip. Great nights out, both of them. I had 12 TV interviews with Romanian tv (I’ll get my own chat show). Not joking – 12 interviews. 🙂
As for next week – steaua will score and we’ll need 3 but won’t get them ‘cos Torres is shit and none of the others want to play for that fat spanish knt.
Sorry to sound so pessimistic.
Win or lose – up the Blues.