travel

Basque Football – Independent

Sestao river fans
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With the remaining garlic-covered octopus tentacle between my teeth, I knocked back the final millilitres of Paxaran before indicating to the waiter that I needed the bill. There is always something so impressive about Spanish hospitality staff and their ability to do three things at once, but even so, the typical Basque industriousness was visible in every movement he made. 10.40€ lighter, I bid the patrons farewell and continued my walk Las Llanas, taking care to find some good photo opportunities as I went. Green and black flags hanging outside two bars on the main road indicated the opportunity to get another drink before kick-off, and in no time I found an open door to what I thought was the club shop.

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Fragility

Villarreal fans
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The platform was entirely empty as I stepped out. A single stairway led to an uncovered footbridge across the trainlines and towards the exit of the train station. As I climbed, the regional train shuddered into motion and continued its routine journey along the coast. A few moments later and silence resumed. It’s true, I was arriving in the town several hours before kick-off. But as I passed through the small train station and onto the main road, the silence was unnerving. With my backpack hoisted high on my shoulders, I began the ascent uphill to the stadium.

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We’ll Stink All Day

Hull city vs malaga
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We’re late to turn this adventure into a post, but our story of travelling away to watch our beloved Hull City AFC play a pre-season friendly away on the Sunshine Coast was too unorthodox to ignore it. The Brighton and Hove Albion reserves and La Segunda big club Málaga CF were the opponents on the same day in the Marbella Football Center, but last minute plans to travel down from Barcelona without taking time off work made it anything but a conventional away day…..

14:40 – close my laptop with a vague message to my manager about “got somewhere to be” and leave the office quickly.

15:37 – walk through the door of my flat and jump into the shower as quickly as possible knowing I won’t have another chance to do so for 2 full days….

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Guess Who’s Back

Hull city stickers
Aside ~ ~ From Boothferry To Germany ~ Leave a comment

It has been an odd couple years for us all, and we can surely agree that things are not fully back to normal yet even though they are getting there. Your FBTG editorial team is enjoying the degree to which markets and governmental mandates and initiatives are becoming more predictable, and international travel is becoming increasingly easy. And we celebrated this with our first home game in 3 years.

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The Enemy Of My Enemy

Chornomorets Odessa pyro
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The tram jerked round the corner and the colossal Olympic Stadium burst into view – a facility purposefully developed for the 2012 UEFA European Championship that The Economist estimated had cost the Ukrainian taxpayer an astonishing $13 billion. We hopped off the Soviet era tram just as a faint blast tapped our ear drums. Shrugging it off, we walked towards the front gates as another faint explosion rippled the air around us. More unusual was the comprehensive security force flanking the entrances – half the national guard seemed to have descended onto the Ukrainian National Stadium for a routine league Football match on a Sunday evening.

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Basque Football – The Cousins

Osasuna fans
~ From Boothferry To Germany ~ 2 Comments

Satisfied with the few photos I had taken, I awkwardly scrambled back down the muddy ground and continued my walk. More media vehicles had parked up at the front side of El Sadar since I had began my tour of one of Spain’s classic grounds, and the queue of expectant fans outside a closed ticket window had grown. Realising I was short of funds, I turned to go find a cash point and walked into the path of an older gentleman.

“Who we playing today?” Alavés I said. “Oh, should be a good one then”.

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