A postcard from Kiev
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:22 amJust back from Kiev and i dont really have too many nice things to say about the place. I went out on the Wiz air flight on wednesday from Luton with about 100 other blues on board and we sat at the back of the plane with a crowd of the regular young blues who were a bit noisy and had brought bottles of vodka on to the plane and were getting bollocked by the mardy cabin crew on numerous occasions for noise and bad behaviour and smuggling their own vodka on board and were threatened with police to be waiting at the other end, we landed on time and i met my pre ordered taxi who took us to the City Center hostel that we were booked into. I dont normally do hostels but i thought i would give it a try as all my mates were staying here and it turned out that it was all blues staying in the place and i had a pleasant surprise when i saw that McDonalds was about 20 yards away from the hostel but i wont dwell on that. We had a quick wash and brush up and went out looking for O'Briens bar when after about 10 minutes we got our first shake down from the police checking our passports but as there was six of us he just checked the passports and allowed us on our way. We found a small bar with a load of other blues inside and cleared them out of beer by 10-00 so we moved onto O'Briens bar where all the blues had planned to meet up and stayed there till about 2-00 and moved on because they finally run out of beer, anyway we headed for the vodka bar and got refused entry for "face control" wtf is that all about? so we headed off to another late bar and chilled on a few beers till about 5-00 in the morning and then headed back to our digs when two coppers appeared from nowhere and checked our passports again and one of them said that it was the other coppers birthday and would we like to give him a present? I told him it was my brothers birthday as well and grabbed him by the hand and shook his hand and wished him happy birthday and walked off leaving the two of them looking at each other thinking wtf we were supposed to get money there.
On match day we woke up at about 1-00 and headed into the square for a bit of scran and took a few photos of some of the beautiful monuments before heading off to O'Briens which was rocking with blues. We stayed there till it was time to walk to the ground which was only about 15 minutes walking distance away and got in without even having to show our tickets. Inside the ground it felt like -10 degrees and we were kept in till about 12-30 and were then escorted up a hill to where the coaches were parked and we had to wait around in the freezing cold till the coaches left with the official trip who were going straight back to the airport and then we were marched back down the hill to the town centre where we all spread out to various bars. I ended up in a bar that was about 200 yards away from our digs and i spotted the same two coppers that were hassling all the blues hanging about around McDonalds and i knew they were waiting for us because they didn't get a present the night before. I kept an eye on them and worked out that they were walking down to the other end of the square every 15 minutes to pick people off and at about 5-30 when they went for their walk we legged it out of the bar and got chased back to the hostel but we got away from them. Back in Thesaloniki we got chased by wild dogs at 5-00 in the morning and we could have done with some coppers but this time we could have done with some wild dogs.
Home day on friday and it was hunting around all the kiosks for fags but most of them had run out at £9 a sleave so we killed time drinking in a small bar 50 pence for a large bottle and then got a cab to the airport for the flight home.
Stories will come out from blues getting a shake down from corrupt police for jay walking or not having their passport on them or any other silly thing but in general the Ukranian people were the most unfriendly, unhelpfull, unsociable, unsmiling people i have ever met and i hope i never go back there again. And did i mention that the police are corrupt?
On match day we woke up at about 1-00 and headed into the square for a bit of scran and took a few photos of some of the beautiful monuments before heading off to O'Briens which was rocking with blues. We stayed there till it was time to walk to the ground which was only about 15 minutes walking distance away and got in without even having to show our tickets. Inside the ground it felt like -10 degrees and we were kept in till about 12-30 and were then escorted up a hill to where the coaches were parked and we had to wait around in the freezing cold till the coaches left with the official trip who were going straight back to the airport and then we were marched back down the hill to the town centre where we all spread out to various bars. I ended up in a bar that was about 200 yards away from our digs and i spotted the same two coppers that were hassling all the blues hanging about around McDonalds and i knew they were waiting for us because they didn't get a present the night before. I kept an eye on them and worked out that they were walking down to the other end of the square every 15 minutes to pick people off and at about 5-30 when they went for their walk we legged it out of the bar and got chased back to the hostel but we got away from them. Back in Thesaloniki we got chased by wild dogs at 5-00 in the morning and we could have done with some coppers but this time we could have done with some wild dogs.
Home day on friday and it was hunting around all the kiosks for fags but most of them had run out at £9 a sleave so we killed time drinking in a small bar 50 pence for a large bottle and then got a cab to the airport for the flight home.
Stories will come out from blues getting a shake down from corrupt police for jay walking or not having their passport on them or any other silly thing but in general the Ukranian people were the most unfriendly, unhelpfull, unsociable, unsmiling people i have ever met and i hope i never go back there again. And did i mention that the police are corrupt?