Been A While

It has been far too long since I've updated this...

I have been ticking countries off the list, but the blog was completely neglected last year. I ticked off three countries in 2018, either end of the year visiting Austria and Switzerland respectively, while last summer Russia was ticked off for the small matter of seeing a World Cup game.

The first trip of 2019 has been done too, visiting Warsaw for last Sunday's Euro 2020 qualifier between Poland and Latvia.

Let's talk about Russia first. Despite the pre-tournament fears the World Cup passed off without major incident. I flew to Moscow for a two-night stay, taking in Poland v Senegal on the first Tuesday. The Fan ID cut out a lot of the bureaucracy normally associated with travelling to Russia, acting as a visa, as well as a public transport ticket on matchday (not that the Moscow Metro is ridiculously cheap anyway, with a journey costing about 60p).

Moscow was a perfectly welcoming place, although the security was a perhaps a bit too much - not sure I've had to pass through that many metal detectors in that many places in that short a space of time, but it showed they were leaving nothing to chance. The Spartak Stadium was the venue for our game, a modern venue, although I was annoyed they didn't have the early kickoff on a screen somewhere. I also met a couple of Russians who travelled up from Nizhny Novgorod, who wanted a photo with me, while you couldn't move for South American fans. As for the match, it wasn't the best, but there were three goals as Senegal ran out 2-1 winners.

Two months earlier I was at the much smaller Waldstadion in Pasching as Linz beat Red Bull Salzburg 1-0, the corporate lackies in between Europa League quarter-final legs at the time. Linz were playing in the neighbouring town while they were sorting out a new ground, which made travel there from Vienna awkward - the train to Linz was fine but then buses onward were far and few between. At least the weather was lovely, and the vibe around the match was similar to what you would have in Germany.

In December I then went to Zurich, where Grasshoppers beat St Gallen 2-1 at the Letzigrund, where the home club have had to play in recent years. There were a lot of flares from a group of ultras in boiler suits but they failed to get further than the running track. While in Zurich I did the FIFA World Football Museum, where I heard one guide tip-toe around the subject of Sepp Blatter, who was often "in the news" (her quote!)

And finally, I went to the Stadion Narodowy on Sunday, with 50,000 Poles as they beat Latvia via goals from Robert Lewandowski and Kamil Glik. It took a while, but they did get there. The ground, built for Euro 2012, is stunning, viewable across the river from the beautiful Old Town. Getting in was a touch chaotic, with everyone going through a small amount of gates before a search which is still a good few minutes walk from the stadium entrances. But it's a fine venue, with beer and zapiekanka (sort of like a pizza slice thing) available amongst other things.

So that's what I've been up to. That's 23 countries done now.