All these were taken today and you will note there is almost no football involved.
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile
Tags
Euro 2012 football
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Kiev. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Kiev. Tampilkan semua postingan
Rabu, 20 Juni 2012
A Day Off At Euro 2012
As there is no football today I thought I'd send you a few postcards from Kiev. For anyone that didn't receive theirs in the post, here they are!
All these were taken today and you will note there is almost no football involved.
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile
Tags
Euro 2012 football
All these were taken today and you will note there is almost no football involved.
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile
Tags
Euro 2012 football
Selasa, 19 Juni 2012
A Tale of Four Cities
Now coming towards the end of my tour of Ukraine, I thought it was time to discuss what the Ukraine has to offer.
Before the tournament started there was plenty of bad publicity. Now I believe that the reason there are not as many supporters here as normal is the ridiculous prices being charged from the outset by the local hoteliers.
When people see prices of over £100 a night for a basic hotel and over £50 a night in a hostel dormitory bed shared with 8 other people, a year before the competition starts, then prospective visitors are not encouraged to look at this as a sensible proposition. If you did look further into accommodation you would have been shocked to see some rooms at over £1,000 a night.
Noises were made by the Ukrainian government in April asking hoteliers to drop prices, but this fell on deaf ears. Some Ukrainians looked to put this right in May by setting up a movement to offer free accommodation to foreigners to counter the bad publicity their country had been receiving, alas this is too late to make any difference as the people who are set on coming have already made their arrangements.
The attitude of making as much as possible from the visitors is highlighted by my experiences with the taxi driver in Donetsk who would rather charge 250 hryvnia and stand outside waiting for a client than keep busy at a reasonable rate. Also the bar in Kharkiv where the price was exorbitant for locals. This shortsightedness does not endear you to the local businesses but makes me feel sorry for the local people who have to put up with this behaviour, whilst earning a meagre wage for example, the young doctors on the train to Lviv on €100 a month.
As for sightseeing, Kharkiv had several Soviet sights which you are warned that the locals don't like talking about.
Donetsk has the Donbass Stadium and the restaurant Старгород (Stargorod). The next thing to do there was visit a salt mine some 75k away where there is a football pitch 300m underground. I didn't have time to visit but I am guessing that someone from the U.A.E. did.
Lviv has a pleasant feel to it and has plenty of old buildings in the city centre which with some investment could make a popular tourist destination, especially as they have just improved the airport facilities.
There is also the Masoch Cafe, but don't beat yourself up if you don't get to see it!
I had read that there are plenty of things to see in Lviv, and I was lucky enough to be given a tour of the school of science, by a local. The place was used to film the Russian version of the Three Musketeers.
Kiev has (as I mentioned previously) numerous sights which make it stand out as a must see destination.
Would I come back to any of them?
Of course I will, if there is a football match on!
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile.com
Tags
Euro 2012 Lviv
Before the tournament started there was plenty of bad publicity. Now I believe that the reason there are not as many supporters here as normal is the ridiculous prices being charged from the outset by the local hoteliers.
When people see prices of over £100 a night for a basic hotel and over £50 a night in a hostel dormitory bed shared with 8 other people, a year before the competition starts, then prospective visitors are not encouraged to look at this as a sensible proposition. If you did look further into accommodation you would have been shocked to see some rooms at over £1,000 a night.
Noises were made by the Ukrainian government in April asking hoteliers to drop prices, but this fell on deaf ears. Some Ukrainians looked to put this right in May by setting up a movement to offer free accommodation to foreigners to counter the bad publicity their country had been receiving, alas this is too late to make any difference as the people who are set on coming have already made their arrangements.
The attitude of making as much as possible from the visitors is highlighted by my experiences with the taxi driver in Donetsk who would rather charge 250 hryvnia and stand outside waiting for a client than keep busy at a reasonable rate. Also the bar in Kharkiv where the price was exorbitant for locals. This shortsightedness does not endear you to the local businesses but makes me feel sorry for the local people who have to put up with this behaviour, whilst earning a meagre wage for example, the young doctors on the train to Lviv on €100 a month.
As for sightseeing, Kharkiv had several Soviet sights which you are warned that the locals don't like talking about.
Donetsk has the Donbass Stadium and the restaurant Старгород (Stargorod). The next thing to do there was visit a salt mine some 75k away where there is a football pitch 300m underground. I didn't have time to visit but I am guessing that someone from the U.A.E. did.
Lviv has a pleasant feel to it and has plenty of old buildings in the city centre which with some investment could make a popular tourist destination, especially as they have just improved the airport facilities.
There is also the Masoch Cafe, but don't beat yourself up if you don't get to see it!
I had read that there are plenty of things to see in Lviv, and I was lucky enough to be given a tour of the school of science, by a local. The place was used to film the Russian version of the Three Musketeers.
Kiev has (as I mentioned previously) numerous sights which make it stand out as a must see destination.
Would I come back to any of them?
Of course I will, if there is a football match on!
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile.com
Tags
Euro 2012 Lviv
Selasa, 12 Juni 2012
Shevchenko
The day after the night before. As the whole of Ukraine is chanting his name I decided to dedicate the day to finding out more about him.
Walking the streets of Kiev I saw they had already erected statues and plaques in honour of his two goals last night.
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile.com
Tags
Euro 2012 football Ross Clegg
Walking the streets of Kiev I saw they had already erected statues and plaques in honour of his two goals last night.
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile.com
Tags
Euro 2012 football Ross Clegg
Ukraine v Sweden Euro 2012
Managed a quick getaway from Kiev Airport, once again making use of the free transport available from the airport with match tickets on the day of the game, catching a bus and then managed to catch the majority of the England v France game in the Lucy pub (translates to Lucky in English, the horseshoe gives you a clue).
These Ukrainians are in a weight category above that of the Poles, and England had better watch out as if Ukraine do punch above their weight when they meet in Kiev or they could be in serious trouble.
Counterfeit souvenirs were openly on display, as were political protests indicating that Ukraine is at the moment a law unto itself. The countdown to kickoff (coming to a stadium near you soon) was done in Ukrainian. Not unusual you think. In Poland it was done in English.
Once again the stadium in Kiev was magnificent and with all supporters (with an exception!) in yellow and the blue running track, you knew you were in the Ukraine, except the sky and the fields were upside down.
Once the game settled down and I had worked out that Ukraine were the ones playing in yellow and chants of Sver-gay were replaced with Ooh-cry-eena. Ukraine threatened and like Balotelli, Ibrahomivic showed moments of class that make him look one of the best in the world whilst in the same period showed a lack of application that would not be tolerated in every team.
Shevchenko seems to score every time I see him play and do it was no surprise that their current national hero delivered the equalising goal, and then the winner.
Sweden pushed on towards the end but maybe it was Ooh-cry-eena's "Lucy" night after all.
Whilst both teams battled it out, nothing quite matched the passion shown and heard in the Lucy pub earlier.
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile.com
Tags
Euro 2012 football Ross Clegg
These Ukrainians are in a weight category above that of the Poles, and England had better watch out as if Ukraine do punch above their weight when they meet in Kiev or they could be in serious trouble.
Counterfeit souvenirs were openly on display, as were political protests indicating that Ukraine is at the moment a law unto itself. The countdown to kickoff (coming to a stadium near you soon) was done in Ukrainian. Not unusual you think. In Poland it was done in English.
Once again the stadium in Kiev was magnificent and with all supporters (with an exception!) in yellow and the blue running track, you knew you were in the Ukraine, except the sky and the fields were upside down.
Once the game settled down and I had worked out that Ukraine were the ones playing in yellow and chants of Sver-gay were replaced with Ooh-cry-eena. Ukraine threatened and like Balotelli, Ibrahomivic showed moments of class that make him look one of the best in the world whilst in the same period showed a lack of application that would not be tolerated in every team.
Shevchenko seems to score every time I see him play and do it was no surprise that their current national hero delivered the equalising goal, and then the winner.
Sweden pushed on towards the end but maybe it was Ooh-cry-eena's "Lucy" night after all.
Whilst both teams battled it out, nothing quite matched the passion shown and heard in the Lucy pub earlier.
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile.com
Tags
Euro 2012 football Ross Clegg
Senin, 11 Juni 2012
Gdansk - you, asking?
The train from Warsaw was packed with Spanish supporters, although the wearing of Spanish club shirts helped identify the locals.
Gdansk is unusual for Poland in that it doesn't have a square as it's centrepiece - it has Ulica Dluga (The Long Market). It feels like another step back in time with merchant houses from the 17th century lining both sides of the street.
At the end of the street you meet the River, with numerous restaurants and authentic pirate - would you believe serving dumplings?!
The fact that the match didn't have a full house can be put down to activities happening on Ulica Dluga where once again foreign countries collaborating make a mess of the economy and fail to understand basic economics.
The Italian Football Federation allocation of tickets was not sold as the Russian they passed them to was selling €30 tickets for £140.
The stadium was reached by train from the centre and once again was a fitting venue for a European Championship game.
After the match I found the fan zone to watch the Ireland game. Remember I had said what you see is what you get? Well on sale in the food section was "big slice of bread with lard", I don't think this lost anything in translation, but.... I am not along for that.
After the match I returned to town in time to catch the 23.17 train back to Warsaw. This is due in at 5.50a.m. giving enough time to get to the airport and catch a flight to Kiev.
Imagine the look on my face when I see the departure board at 23.00 with no train departing at 23.17 and nothing listed for Warsaw. Mild panic starts to set in as I expect things to run to plan in Europe, but am willing to tolerate these things on different continents. (except Japan).
I found that the train would be departing at 23.25 and it's final destination Krakow. Headed off with this knowledge to the platform and now found that this was delayed by 25 minutes. Still plenty of time to make it to the airport, where I will be pleased to depart a country where Z scores only 1 for scrabble to a language more familiar - Cyrillic.
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile.com
Tags
Euro 2012 football
Gdansk is unusual for Poland in that it doesn't have a square as it's centrepiece - it has Ulica Dluga (The Long Market). It feels like another step back in time with merchant houses from the 17th century lining both sides of the street.
At the end of the street you meet the River, with numerous restaurants and authentic pirate - would you believe serving dumplings?!
The fact that the match didn't have a full house can be put down to activities happening on Ulica Dluga where once again foreign countries collaborating make a mess of the economy and fail to understand basic economics.
The Italian Football Federation allocation of tickets was not sold as the Russian they passed them to was selling €30 tickets for £140.
The stadium was reached by train from the centre and once again was a fitting venue for a European Championship game.
After the match I found the fan zone to watch the Ireland game. Remember I had said what you see is what you get? Well on sale in the food section was "big slice of bread with lard", I don't think this lost anything in translation, but.... I am not along for that.
After the match I returned to town in time to catch the 23.17 train back to Warsaw. This is due in at 5.50a.m. giving enough time to get to the airport and catch a flight to Kiev.
Imagine the look on my face when I see the departure board at 23.00 with no train departing at 23.17 and nothing listed for Warsaw. Mild panic starts to set in as I expect things to run to plan in Europe, but am willing to tolerate these things on different continents. (except Japan).
I found that the train would be departing at 23.25 and it's final destination Krakow. Headed off with this knowledge to the platform and now found that this was delayed by 25 minutes. Still plenty of time to make it to the airport, where I will be pleased to depart a country where Z scores only 1 for scrabble to a language more familiar - Cyrillic.
© Ross Clegg & Soccerphile.com
Tags
Euro 2012 football
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