Michaelreads European Tour Travel Report

[michaelread]

Well since i have been away for a while I thought I might do an update on the trip, the happenings, and finally seeing Fulham at the Cottage.

We started out in London, landing roughly 3 hours before the match vs West Brom. With 20kg backpacker backpacks in tow, we caught the tube to Hammersmith and walked (we did not know better at the time!) to the ground, taking more wrong turns than rights, but once we found a stream of Fulham supporters and some drunken yoofs pissing in a bush singing Fulham songs, i knew I was home and corralled the boys into a few more miles of walking amidst the level headed cries of "why dont we just get a taxi"

The game could not have been better, we sat five rows back, directly behind the goal, and watched Simon Davies swerve one in, before seeing Clint and Brede nod the two corners home to finish it. Perfect start to the trip. We then went back to our hostel in near Swiss Cottage Station where we got sufficiently drunk with some Portuguese and Americans before bustling on to Camden town to end our night (a feat we repeated every single night in London).

For the next few days, it was seeing the sites, meeting more people and gearing up for the weekends FA cup clash. Not much to report on other than sitting in the H6 while the sun went down on the river and watching Fulham stroll to a 6 - 2 lead was FCUKING MAGICAL...haha. A few photos with the surroundings and trying to convince Damien Duff that my mate was his son (they are complete doubles, left footed and all), followed with a quick tube ride home before a train-ferry-taxi ride into Dublin.

Not much to report from Dublin other than we drank a lot, and were pretty fortunate that our hostel was a 2 minute walk from the Temple Bar area.

From Dublin we went to Manchester, where we ate our first meal in a dingy dixies fried chicken before all falling violently ill and passing our time by watching the Inbetweeners. i was lucky enough to get better in time to travel to Wigan with one of my mates to see AJ pop in the equalizer and we all went mental.

Not being able to get out of Manchester quick enough, (I enjoyed the Ian Curtis connection I guess) we arrived in Barcelona where we drank lots of sangria and met lots of senoritas. Parc Guell is the most beautiful place in Europe, besides the Las Ramblas at 3am after the nightclubs are closing down....haha. Barca was brilliant, we watched them thrash Malaga 4 - 1 and from the top of the Nou Camp you really see how Messi controls a match.

Next was Paris, where the people were pretty rude. They can say all the "pardon" they want, but cant cop it when it's given back. Despite this sour taste, we checked out the Aussie war memorials, payed our dues, saw the tower and haggled with the street sellers. A few nights of drinking with a crazy Dutch guy called Jan who sells crystals for a living, in Prague, gave us our first addition to the travelling group, he would stay with us for two weeks and I do not think he spent a second of it sober.

Amsterdam came after Paris and....well what is there to report? We had a lot of.....coffee.....and we had a lot to drink, we walked a lot of streets and we bought many funny items from the local stores that would comically show up in our friends carry on when we planted it there for customs to find en route to Prague.

Prague was brilliant, the clubs, the atmosphere, could not get enough, we played football in the snow with locals and I won roughly 500 euro on a czech poker machine that I couldnt understand, had a blast and dont remember any of it, ace.

From Prague we went to Munich, which was the best stay of the trip. The people were brilliant and we never had to leave our hostel to socialise as it was the best bar in the area by far. We saw Dachau, which was a humbling experience that I will never ever forget, but on the other end of the spectrum we met a lot of people who I will never ever forget either.

Then we went to Milan, where we stayed with a friends grandparents who fed us all the Gnocchi and Pasta we could stomach (and then some) before catching Inter vs Roma at the San Siro thanks to a selfless season ticket holder. 7 rows back behind the goal, flares behind us, Roma fans directly across, it was the most amazing atmosphere ever.

Finally we ended up in Rome, fought off muggers, saw EVERYTHING in two massive walking tours, and ended up half dead and poor on a flight home that consisted of 4 hours of delays, 2 unwarrented stopovers and a bad case of food poisoning.

Hell there is a million more things I could write but I've probably already done the bandwidth.

I'll be back in 12 months to go to Iceland with the missus, we will be staying in London for two weeks, hope to catch up with lots of you then.

[finnster01]

:clap_hands: :clap_hands: :Sparkyticus:

Absolutely love it Michael. Not surprised having a poo time in Paris (most pompus city in the world, whilst the rest of the country is actually lovely), been there done that far too many times.

Thanks for the write-up mate. Quality  :045:

[MisfitKid]

Wow, sounds like a great time!! :beer: :wine:

[sipwell]

WHERE IS BRUSSELS IN YOUR OVERVIEW ???????????????????

(I shouted at my computer)

[The Equalizer]

WHERE IS BRUSSELS IN YOUR OVERVIEW ???????????????????

(I shouted at my computer)

Sitting peacefully next to the Broccoli.

Nice piece Michael, I'm glad you enjoyed your trip. And you certainly brought a nice run of wins with you. Can you come back again before the end of the season?  :dft012:

[CorkedHat]

Great Stuff, Michael.
I am indebted to Facebook for keeping us up-to-date on your escapades but this account is gold. :down_under:

[FatFreddysCat]

Superb stuff loved reading it. From what i hear Iceland is mega expensive so take plenty of dosh.

[HatterDon]

Like Mr. Hat, I'd been following your exploits on Facebook as well, so I was pleased to read your "trip report." You write very well when you aren't pissed to the gills.  :54:

[michaelread]

Thanks for the good words fellas, well and truly back into the swing of things now.

Got home and headed straight to Mackay to do some flood relief work, then got an email saying my music has been sold to a movie studio for use in a feature film, THEN got an email for an all expenses paid trip to Melbourne to sign the contract and show off my other stuff to some reps.

Gah!

Thought I would let you guys know, haha

[AlFayedsChequebook]

Thanks for the good words fellas, well and truly back into the swing of things now.

Got home and headed straight to Mackay to do some flood relief work, then got an email saying my music has been sold to a movie studio for use in a feature film, THEN got an email for an all expenses paid trip to Melbourne to sign the contract and show off my other stuff to some reps.

Gah!

Thought I would let you guys know, haha

Congrats mate! Sounds like you have well and truly landed on your feet after the pre-trip employment issues!

Just remeber FOF when you are a huge rockstar!

[michaelread]

Thanks for the good words fellas, well and truly back into the swing of things now.

Got home and headed straight to Mackay to do some flood relief work, then got an email saying my music has been sold to a movie studio for use in a feature film, THEN got an email for an all expenses paid trip to Melbourne to sign the contract and show off my other stuff to some reps.

Gah!

Thought I would let you guys know, haha

Congrats mate! Sounds like you have well and truly landed on your feet after the pre-trip employment issues!

Just remeber FOF when you are a huge rockstar!

haha mate it is score music, so a huge rockstar who sits in his room and writes music in a home studio for average movies, perhaps ;) haha

but thanks nevertheless, and i guess its always true that everything does happen for a reason

[Tom]

Thanks for the good words fellas, well and truly back into the swing of things now.

Got home and headed straight to Mackay to do some flood relief work, then got an email saying my music has been sold to a movie studio for use in a feature film, THEN got an email for an all expenses paid trip to Melbourne to sign the contract and show off my other stuff to some reps.

Gah!

Thought I would let you guys know, haha

Congrats mate! Sounds like you have well and truly landed on your feet after the pre-trip employment issues!

Just remeber FOF when you are a huge rockstar!

haha mate it is score music, so a huge rockstar who sits in his room and writes music in a home studio for average movies, perhaps ;) haha

but thanks nevertheless, and i guess its always true that everything does happen for a reason

Congrats Michael! Sounds like you had a great time on your trip.

[WHITEwitch]

Hey great read - thank you.

Laughing about the Parisiennes - they are a nation completely apart.  The rest of the French are a delight though.