Occasionally in life, something crops up and you just can't drop it. No matter how crazy it seems, awkward to organise or marginally expensive it feels. This is just an introduction to the start of many a blog entries in what I hope will be a great story over the next month. A friend, Stuart Hutchings, and I covering one of the biggest football tournaments in the World, mixed with a mad trip across the eastern red and iron clad part of the continent Europe. This is a blog about Mosski and Hutch going to Euro 2012.
In February, a colleague told Hutch he might have a couple of tickets for a European Championships game; England vs Ukraine, in Donets'k. This is about as far east as you can get on mainland Europe to Russia, the last stop before you will need a visa to enter the Motherland.
This immediately got my travel juices going. I never look at a direct journey, I look for the awkward, crazy and different approach. I knew that prices to fly directly into Donets'k when England were playing would be ridiculous. An alternative was required to get to this far flung corner of mainland Europe.
One of my good friends has a 7-seater Space Wagon, and he also likes an adventure. I proposed the idea of driving through Europe, dangling the carrot of reward; the finish of his thesis for his doctorate soon appearing over the horizon, just before the start of the Euro's. He was in. So were quite a few others. We could fill the car comfortably.
Then he was out. We were entering April. He wasn't going to get his thesis finished in time. May was a busy month for him, it just wasn't going to happen. We couldn't take the car without him. But the prospect of travelling across Europe was still in the back of my mind, as was it in Hutch's. This had to happen.
Over the next few weeks, the two of us collaborated and figured out different crazy routes. This wasn't just going to be about football, but an adventure, checking in a number of countries, sights, sounds, history, cultures. And football. We had ideas, we spent endless nights looking at routes, trying to get in as many games as possible, even if we didn't have tickets, the atmosphere, the adventure...
Moral was down, we just couldn't make the planned route overland to and from Donets'k to cover enough games in enough time. We'd spent hours one night looking at different options. Just wasn't feasible, too much was giving, not able to get to certain cities in time for games. UEFA, the games are horrible to traverse!
I sat back in my chair once Hutch had gone, it was past midnight. Why don't we reverse the route? Go though Poland first, then end up in Ukraine? Do we need to go to Donets'k, the potential ticket was gone. Donets'k was the problem, it was too far east. Will it work? Drag. Drop. Copy. Paste. Logical. Sense? That makes sense... bit tight in places, but possible. The route was bloody possible.
The next few weeks entailed a review of all the possibilities and combination of the routes; can we do this, and that, or the other... do we have enough time in x, will the overnight train leave late enough to allow time for the game? Most of it fitted. I even started to understand, because of the booking systems , lightly, the Cyrillic alphabet (thank god for Chrome and it's auto translate!)... apart from when I pressed cancel after a long booking process to find train times from L'viv to Kiev to find the times!
This was on. Euro 2012!
Below is the proposed high level itinerary* of the jaunt. If you have any advice on any of the places we are going, how to travel best between them, or any other general advice, then please comment.
*this is still subject to change
In February, a colleague told Hutch he might have a couple of tickets for a European Championships game; England vs Ukraine, in Donets'k. This is about as far east as you can get on mainland Europe to Russia, the last stop before you will need a visa to enter the Motherland.
This immediately got my travel juices going. I never look at a direct journey, I look for the awkward, crazy and different approach. I knew that prices to fly directly into Donets'k when England were playing would be ridiculous. An alternative was required to get to this far flung corner of mainland Europe.
One of my good friends has a 7-seater Space Wagon, and he also likes an adventure. I proposed the idea of driving through Europe, dangling the carrot of reward; the finish of his thesis for his doctorate soon appearing over the horizon, just before the start of the Euro's. He was in. So were quite a few others. We could fill the car comfortably.
Then he was out. We were entering April. He wasn't going to get his thesis finished in time. May was a busy month for him, it just wasn't going to happen. We couldn't take the car without him. But the prospect of travelling across Europe was still in the back of my mind, as was it in Hutch's. This had to happen.
Over the next few weeks, the two of us collaborated and figured out different crazy routes. This wasn't just going to be about football, but an adventure, checking in a number of countries, sights, sounds, history, cultures. And football. We had ideas, we spent endless nights looking at routes, trying to get in as many games as possible, even if we didn't have tickets, the atmosphere, the adventure...
Moral was down, we just couldn't make the planned route overland to and from Donets'k to cover enough games in enough time. We'd spent hours one night looking at different options. Just wasn't feasible, too much was giving, not able to get to certain cities in time for games. UEFA, the games are horrible to traverse!
I sat back in my chair once Hutch had gone, it was past midnight. Why don't we reverse the route? Go though Poland first, then end up in Ukraine? Do we need to go to Donets'k, the potential ticket was gone. Donets'k was the problem, it was too far east. Will it work? Drag. Drop. Copy. Paste. Logical. Sense? That makes sense... bit tight in places, but possible. The route was bloody possible.
The next few weeks entailed a review of all the possibilities and combination of the routes; can we do this, and that, or the other... do we have enough time in x, will the overnight train leave late enough to allow time for the game? Most of it fitted. I even started to understand, because of the booking systems , lightly, the Cyrillic alphabet (thank god for Chrome and it's auto translate!)... apart from when I pressed cancel after a long booking process to find train times from L'viv to Kiev to find the times!
This was on. Euro 2012!
Below is the proposed high level itinerary* of the jaunt. If you have any advice on any of the places we are going, how to travel best between them, or any other general advice, then please comment.
*this is still subject to change
| Date | Match | Country | City | Transit | Sleep |
| Fri-01-Jun | Croatia | Pag | Fly to Zadar | Pag | |
| Sat-02-Jun | Croatia | Pag | Bus to Split | Split | |
| Sun-03-Jun | Croatia | Split | Bus to Sarajevo | Sarajevo | |
| Mon-04-Jun | Bosnia | Sarajevo | Bus to Belgrade | Belgrade | |
| Tue-05-Jun | Serbia | Belgrade | Train | ||
| Wed-06-Jun | Hungary | Budapest | Train to Budapest | Budapest | |
| Thu-07-Jun | Slovakia | Bratislava | Train to Bratislava | Bratislava | |
| Fri-08-Jun | Russia v Czech | Poland | Wroclaw | Train to Wroclaw | Wroclaw |
| Sat-09-Jun | Poland | Wroclaw | Train to Gdansk | Train | |
| Sun-10-Jun | Spain v Italy | Poland | Gdansk | Gdansk | |
| Mon-11-Jun | Poland | Warsaw | Train to Warsaw | Warsaw | |
| Tue-12-Jun | Poland v Russia | Poland | Warsaw | Train to Lviv | Train |
| Wed-13-Jun | Denmark v Portugal | Ukraine | Lviv | Lviv | |
| Thu-14-Jun | Ukraine | Lviv | Train to Kiev | Train | |
| Fri-15-Jun | Sweden v England | Ukraine | Kiev | Kiev | |
| Sat-16-Jun | Ukraine | Chernobyl | Train to L'viv | Train | |
| Sun-17-Jun | Denmark v Germany | Ukraine | L'viv | L'viv | |
| Mon-18-Jun | Ukraine | Kiev | Train to Kiev | Train | |
| Tue-19-Jun | Sweden v France | Ukraine | Kiev | Kiev | |
| Wed-20-Jun | Ukraine | Kiev | Train to Warsaw | Train | |
| Thu-21-Jun | Quarter Final | Poland | Warsaw | Warsaw | |
| Fri-22-Jun | Germany | Berlin | Train to Berlin | Berlin | |
| Sat-23-Jun | Holland | Amsterdam | Train to Amsterdam | Amsterdam | |
| Sun-24-Jun | UK | Eindhoven | Fly to Stansted | Home |
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