A final post on the 17-day Euro-trip before I resume regular programming.
The sport of soccer is a big deal in all of the countries I visited and I was able to attend three professional matches on this trip.
1. Charlton vs. Huddersfield Town – 9-15-15 – My cousin Cynthia and I took a commuter train out to Greenwich in southeast London for this Football League Championship match between two clubs near the bottom of the table. The League Championship is England’s second best level of pro soccer, one demotion from the Premier League. About a month before I left for Europe, I bought tickets to see Fulham play Wolverhampton at Craven Cottage on the night after this Charlton match. Fulham had a long run in the Premier League before getting knocked down two seasons ago. I wanted to see Fulham because Tim Ream plays there and the team’s home ground is supposed to be great. But just twelve days before the Fulham match was to be played, I received an e-mail from the club saying it had been forced to reschedule the game because UEFA had set up Chelsea’s opening Champions League date for the same night. Fulham said both the police and local neighborhood organizations insisted simultaneous events at both Chelsea and Fulham would not be practical. So Chelsea (and even nearby QPR) retained their dates and Fulham got the shaft. I was promised a refund so this Charlton match acted as a sort-of makeup date for me. Charlton’s home venue is called “The Valley,” a great, refurbished but classic feeling stadium in the middle of a working class neighborhood. We had a couple rounds beforehand at the Pickwick. A pint of Carling cost three pounds. “Little by Little” by Oasis sounded really good on the juke. We bought tix at the box office and walked in. Capacity is 27,111 and about half the seats were filled on a crisp, cool night. Perfect for soccer. I placed a ten pound bet to win on Huddersfield Town at odds of 2-1 at a non-descript betting window inside the venue and then ordered a beer and a meat pie. You must drink the beer in the concourse but at least you can get a beer. And bet. How cool is that? My cousin got hit in the head with a flying soccer ball during pre-game warmups but she shook it off nicely. The crowd was enthusiastic throughout. Huddersfield won 2-1 and I collected 30 pounds at a difficult-to-locate cash-out office outside the venue after it was over.
2. Chelsea vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv – 9-16-15 – I was content with the Charlton experience the night before and fully satisfied with the effort to see English football but this Champions League match at Stamford Bridge was sitting there as an opportunity. My cousin and I were soaked from a pretty heavy day-long rain. We were ducking into pubs throughout the afternoon when the precip was really thrashing and got to talking about where the night would take us. I suggested we pay a visit to Chelsea just to feel out whether people might be unloading tickets because of the miserable weather. It was coming down cats and dogs about an hour before kickoff but then stopped as the big, excited crowd entered the famed venue. Several streets near the Bridge were shut off to allow for movement of heavy foot traffic. We set a cap of 25 pounds per ticket should anybody be selling and just kinda stood there watching the people pass. A few minutes before the start, a guy approached us and offered us a pair for 60. I countered at 50 and we had a deal. We sat way up high but about even with what would be the 20-yard-line or so on an American field. Stamford Bridge has banks of electric heaters facing the seats up high so it was really comfortable – and dry. At UEFA’s request, no beer was sold so I did what my cousin’s boyfriend says is customary and ordered a hot tea. Chelsea dominated a punchless Tel Aviv squad 4-nil and the home boosters serenaded Jose Mourinho who has had a rough ride with a loaded roster during the current campaign. Maccabi had a lot of fans on hand. They made a lot of noise. Outside the train stop before the match, a significant cluster of activists used the visit from Maccabi to protest Israeli occupation of contested territories. I still don’t really understand why Fulham was forced to reschedule its match given what seemed like a pretty basic security protocol for the Chelsea match but perhaps there’s more to it than what you see. My cousin and I took the bus back to her home after it was over.
3. Toulouse FC vs. Marseille – 9-23-15 – Sebastian scored a pair of tickets for this contest which is a big one in Toulouse given the heavyweight stature of Marseille, long a dominant force in the top French league. Municipal Stadium in Toulouse is getting a facelift to be fit in the eyes of UEFA as it prepares to host some matches during next year’s European Championship tournament. As the rehab plays out, TFC is playing home Ligue 1 dates with vast amounts of seating shut off. When I was there, almost the entire opposite sideline seating from top to bottom was unoccupied because of the work. Otherwise, the place was full. The trademark characteristic of Municipal Stadium is its claw-like lighting infrastructure. It drives Sebastian crazy, but Marseille fans outnumber Toulouse supporters in Toulouse because of all the turncoats in the area who have abandoned their local squad. The concession stand on the upper level near our seat sold beer but Seb advised me not to bother buying it because he said the club poured non-alcohol beer when Marseille was in town to avoid trouble. It wasn’t advertised as non-alcohol beer – and plenty of people were drinking it – but Seb has inside knowledge of the tactic and I trusted what he was saying although it’s kind of hard to believe the club can get away with it. The Toulouse supporters behind one of the goals were pretty rowdy, especially after their lone score. Young Toulouse fans rushed the barriers to taunt the Marseille keeper and some of their non-starters who were warming up in the area. That prompted a bolstered police involvement and a relocation of the Marseille subs. Two late red cards against Toulouse set the stage for a Marseille equalizer in the 90th minute and a very disappointing draw for the home team.
The common theme at all three matches I attended was the overbearing effort by security to isolate and protect the away team supporters. In all three instances, men in brightly colored jackets would encircle the visitors. At match’s end, additional security would position themselves to protect the playing surface. And in all three venues, as I mentioned, there were varying levels of wariness over the sale of beer.
According to Seb, none of this stuff is a factor at European rugby matches. He says fans of opposing rugby teams mingle freely with utmost respect for one another while at the venue – and outside it. After rugby matches, Seb says, fans and players alike go to the same pubs and exchange well wishes and words of support for the hard fought effort completed. That vibe stands in stark contrast to some of the logical pre-match soccer bars – especially in England – which had signs posted in the window saying “Home Fans Only.”
Seb wasn’t able to explain why there was such a behavioral difference between fans of the two sports but said it was clear-cut and had been that way in all his days following both games.
This leads me to a few brushes with politics while in Europe. In London, the city was buzzing hard with news that the UK’s Labour Party had just elected Jeremy Corbyn, a far left MP, as its new leader. Like Bernie Sanders, Corbyn describes himself as a democratic socialist. He has the same regular-guy, frumpy appearance as Bernie and the two have similar positions on many issues. The great papers in London offered blanket coverage of Corbyn’s first few days as leader of the opposition. When he deliberately (but without explicit defiance) declined to sing the national anthem at an event honoring fallen soldiers, the reaction from all parts of the spectrum was strong, compelling, divisive but thoughtful. It was comforting to see a public official at that lofty level stay true to long held beliefs despite unexpected newly-acquired power. The day after the anthem kerfuffle, Corbyn won across-the-board praise for his handling of the Prime Minister questions. He champions affordable housing, free higher education and avoidance of military conflict which are issues clearly resonating with regular voters in advanced democracies hijacked by the influence of the rich and powerful.
Immigration and the flow of refugees fleeing war-town Syria in search of stable, peaceful landscapes is a constant topic of discussion across Europe of course. The mood toward “uchodzcow” or refugees in Poland was less hospitable than in England and France, although David Cameron isn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet. I saw ugly images on Polish TV in my Krakow lodging spot of anti-refugee protests.
Donald Trump’s viability was a question I got a lot. The French contingent I spent a week with is very political, very left and not optimistic about where things are going there both in Toulouse and at the national level. I told them about Bernie and Jeremy Corbyn’s win and how New York City was becoming too expensive to live in. Corbyn and the UK’s liberal electorate are probably a few years ahead of the US in reacting to income inequality, student debt, basic housing and health care issues, etc. but if you really look at Corbyn’s success, it’s not far-fetched to expect an expansion of what could be the start of a revolution. Or at least a powerful backlash.
As we drove back from San Sebastian to Toulouse on that Sunday night a few weeks ago, a French news radio broadcast reported results of the Catalan parliamentary vote which amounted to an inconclusive declaration of intent by Catalans to break away from Spain. As we listened, we looked to our right at the sky and saw a moon that was many times larger than normal. A Super Moon.
I ate well on the trip. The fish and chips plate at Hook in London’s Camden Town neighborhood was memorable for the freshness and quality of the fish and the zip on the breading. Luc and his girlfriend Marie made a great late-night pizza and salad combo at their apartment after a night of left-themed short films at a nearby bar in Toulouse. I returned to the great La Maison Drole in Toulouse for the plat du jour (beef and veggies) and a slice of the heavenly banoffee (Koy’s inventive take on banana cream pie). I already mentioned the fresh anchovies and green olives in Spain and the sausage plate at a small market booth in Krakow. But man, I really consumed the good stuff for much of the 17 days.
The cost of the trip ended up coming in a little below budget. I’m thankful to both Jacques and Cynthia for letting me stay with them in Toulouse (7 nights) and London (3 nights) respectively. My rooms in Krakow (3 nights), Antwerp (1 night) and San Sebastian (1 night) all cost less than $60 per.
I only got seriously lost twice. On arrival in Krakow, I got a little too ambitious with the bus transfers and encountered a driver who was cranky when I tried to right the ship. The traffic circles in San Sebastian messed me up late night as I went back to the hotel earlier than my bunk mates. When I approached an older couple for directions, I think they thought I was homeless. They scurried away from me when I presented them with what I thought was a clean, concise query in Spanish. Fifteen minutes later, a young woman waiting for a bus pointed me in the right direction. Overall, I felt warmth or at least moderate indifference and/or sympathy when I attempted to speak basic requests or questions in Polish, French and Spanish.
Learning Francais is something I need to make a greater commitment to beyond the tapes and instructional manuals I dabbled with in the year between Toulouse visits. I feel light years away from learning enough French to have conversations with my Toulouse friends. I believe some form of intense instruction at regular intervals is the only way I can pull it off. I plan to do that in the months ahead.
Each flight segment on this trip worked well. I used the home team carrier to and from Europe. Easy Jet took me from London to Krakow and from Toulouse to Brussels. Lufthansa was my ride from Krakow to Toulouse via Munich. Easy Jet has won me over for their reliability and pricing. Lufty brings an exceptional level of service which US carriers should aspire to. Public transit was great in London, Krakow, Toulouse. I used it in all three places quite often and at low cost. I also rode a public bus in San Sebastian and took a commuter train back and forth between Brussels and Antwerp.
As great as all of the public transit was in Europe, I’m always glad to return to NYC where the subway is unrivaled for its expansiveness and round-the-clock accessibility. Yeah, it has warts but I’ve yet to find a better in-city public transportation layout. That said, never did I really pine for home during the 17 days away. I mean, I was glad to get back to my own bed when it was over but I got pretty comfortable with the deep separation from the regular life. The Mets were in solid shape when I left so I didn’t really have to worry about them. A neighbor lady told me before I left that she’d keep any eye on my door to remove menus and such. I had a backup jar of instant coffee on the road with me just in case I had trouble finding a cup to get going. All in all, it was great to get away for a substantial amount of time.
