Hi Leute,
habe letzte Woche einen Update in meinen Blog gemacht, den ich auch hier posten möchte... Kommentare, Lob und Mecker sind hier wie auch im Blog unter www.eurohopper.de/blog willkommen... Die entsprechenden Fotos gibt's nur im Blog.
what shall I tell you? The weekend is almost over, I’m sitting on our balcony enjoying a beer and today’s last sunbeams with a light breeze and recall the just ended “Through the Balkans…” Tour July 2007. Thinking of the last four days makes me think of many things, such as 3217km of driving through Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia, spending Austria’s hottest day ever on the way from Ried/Austria to Zlate Moravce/Slovakia, receiving some fresh water from Budapest’s waterworks as they tried to avoid their citizens to collapse due to 43,5°C in the shade, many of the most beautiful girls and women I’ve ever seen (beside the Scandinavians of course [Blockierte Grafik: http://groundhopping.kostenloses-forum.be/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif]), getting Slovenia’s Euro coins for my collection, spending two nights in the car as well as two nights in a hotel and getting irritated because of annoying people eating more sunflower- and pumpkin seeds as any bird could eat in his life!
We started near Düsseldorf on July 18th at about 8 PM, after a normal business day. As the Autobahn was quite clear we arrived at the Austrian border at about 1 AM, stopping over at about 1:45 AM near Ried/Austria. We found a “pitoresquely” situated picnic area and decided to stay there for some sleep… as all the others did… some of them sleeping between two cars right on the asphalt or on the grass close to the gas station!
July 19, 2007 - 17:00 FC Zlate Moravce - FK Almaty Alma Ata
At about 7 AM on July 19th two kids from the car next to ours cried for their dad… and subsequently aborted our great sleep. Nevertheless we rested until 9 AM before we got started. After a catlick we started our trip to Slovakia. As we had some heavy traffic on the way to Vienna and from there to Bratislava we only took a short break at Hofer’s (Austrian equivalent to the German discounter Aldi) for improvised lunch… some bread, ham, yogurt and “mountain farmers’ milk” had to be enough. Btw, what is “mountain farmers’ milk” (Bergbauernmilch)? I knew about milk from cows, sheep and goats but never heard about milking farmers!? Must be an Austrian specialty! [Blockierte Grafik: http://groundhopping.kostenloses-forum.be/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif] At about 4 PM we arrived at our first partial destination, Zlate Moravce, and changed some money. Discovering the small town by foot we also asked for the way to FC ViOn Stadium which is the new stadium at Zlate Moravce. Right on the way to the new stadium we passed by Zlate’s former stadium which is situated on the right side of the main street from Zlate Moravce, heading northwards. For 200 SKK each we entered FC ViOn Stadium, having our seats on the north-eastern stands behind a goal. Approximately 2500 spectators found their way to FC ViOn Stadium, whereas about 5 relatives of the away team were there. We faced the sun all the time and, as many other around us, we took off our shirts. The match vs. FK Almaty (Kazachstan) ended 3:1 for Zlate and so they are on a good way to the next round.
July 19, 2007 - 20:00 Artmedia Bratislava - Zimbru Chisinau
We started over back to Senec (in the surroundings of Bratislava) quite early and arrived at the ground at about 7:30 PM. Admission was at 100 SSK each for the second UEFA Cup qualifier today, having our seats on the northern stand behind the goal. Artmedia Petrzalka Bratislava played their home match at Senec’s National Training Center for some reason and about 2000 fans came to the match. On the main stand I saw about 5-10 supporters of Chisinau (Moldavia) celebrating their team’s 1:1 draw. Enjoying the sunset from the right and the mosquitoes all over we relaxed a little and watched the purling match.
Main stand of National Training Center
July 20, 2007 - 19:00 Budapesti Vasas - FC Tatabánya
After the final whistle we headed out towards Hungary where we had a hotel half way to Budapest at Györ. We had a good night at Hotel Arany Szarvas and enjoyed our breakfast on July 20th. At about 10 AM we drove on to Budapest. Being stuck in a traffic jam in the city center of Budapest we had the chance to received our first impression of that beautiful city. As Budapest consists of two parts, Buda and Pest, on either side of river Duna, we mainly focussed on Pest. I had a printed city map of Budapest with me (not real good, just printed at home to have an idea of the city) and thereby we managed to find Illovszky Rudolf Stadium after a short drive through the city. The stadium is situated close to Porsche Hungary south of Ujpest. Parking space (without surveillance) was available opposite of the stadium so we parked our car and walked short distance to a bus station to get to the city center. As we discovered at the last stop we would have better walked some hundred meters more and used the metro, heading directly to the center. So, at the final stop we could change to the metro (it is the blue line, don’t remember the number) and received a bottle of water each when descending to the platform. Believe me, Budapest is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen, perhaps directly after Stockholm which is my favorite. After approx. 6 hours walking through the city center of Budapest and having a good goulash we took the metro back to Forgách Utca from where it is a 10 minutes walk to the stadium. We bought our tickets at 800 Ft. and took our random seats in the middle of the main stand. Both teams played a much better football than the teams yesterday and after a good match Budapesti Vasas won 3:1 against FC Tatabánya. As also in Slovakia, many people enjoyed their sunflower- and pumpkin seeds… which is quite annoying when anyone around you is cracking these seeds!! Tatabanya was followed by about 30 fans supporting their team most of the time. Vasas had about 50-70 active supporters who sang and supported their team, mostly in the first half and after their team’s third goal in the second half. The rest rooms are not that comfortable and I would suggest not to use them… I saw much dirtier toilets than those, but they were not that appetizing.
[...snip...]
