Have had problems putting up pics, so hope this works!
The van
Life on the road
Czechs find a break in their drinking schedule for a spot of music
Sacre bleu!
Our hosts
Everyone getting on
Go Iran!
What team do you support mate?
Well organised
Sheila
“… it’s going, football’s going home….”
That’s it for us. All over. Two weeks of football mayhem, no sleep, inter-global partying and a little bit of work have come to an end. The World Service World Cup Camper Van is back with its owner Ricky. And we even got our deposit back! After a few near misses and an inexplicable ink explosion in the van, we have saved the 大象传媒 some cash and hopefully our own jobs too…. It’s amazing what a bit of bleach and elbow grease can do.
Spent our last evening in Germany at the Togo v France match in Cologne. Great game, fantastic, noisy atmosphere, good way to end the trip. The tram to the ground was full of German fans shouting Togo songs but carrying French baguettes and huge wooden cockerels, painted in Togo colours. Typical bizarre behaviour of this World Cup.
Long drive back home but amazingly, despite being absolutely knackered, got ourselves and the van home in one piece.
After 2200 miles, and nights spent in Gelsenkirchen, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen again, Frankfurt again, Nuremberg, Munich, Leipzig and Cologne, a few final thoughts on the trip:
Wish we’d taken….. a better map
Worst campsite: Frankfurt – toilets and showers merging to create horrors too extreme to put in this blog
Best wildlife: Nuremberg – woodpeckers and red squirrels in the campsite
Luxury: service station showers
Low point: a night spent parked in a car park in Munich
High point: meeting the seven Aussie fans in same car park, squashed into Sheila, the smelly, full of dirty underwear 1970s four-man camper van. They’d been there 10 days and made us think we could have had it a lot worse… I hope they are not still wearing the World Service t-shirts we gave them, or have at least washed them in their bucket.
Best food: bemused Chinese restaurant in the middle of the night, Munich. After we weren’t allowed into the campsite we thought we’d booked.
Never found anyone….who could out-drink the Czechs.
Dream…. England v Germany in Berlin. England win on penalties….
Big big thanks to Katie Dahlstrom, who thought up the camper van idea but then was unable to go herself. And to Dan McMillan for getting us Togo tickets. Good man.
Would we do it again? Bring on South Africa 2010…
Had problems putting up pics of the trip. Hopefully here are the Australians in our World Service footy t-shirts. Will put up some others if we can get it to work.
Despite the fact that I can barely remember my own name, can’t remember life before the camper van, and have been wearing same 大象传媒 t-shirt for more days than I care to admit – I’m gutted that tonight is our penultimate night at the World Cup, and that our rock ‘n’ roll adventure is nearly over….
Last night we camped in a tiny German village half way between Leipzig and Cologne – it was very pretty and full of elderly Dutch holiday-makers who couldn’t believe we were working and not on vacation! They demanded free t-shirts as evidence of our professionalism! But tonight we are back in our spiritual home…inches from other fans, blocked toilets, tatty flags and sun burnt faces still full of beer fuelled optimism. There is no chance of much sleep tonight – but we can still take the pace, flying the World Service flag as we go!
Spent the evening chatting to a bunch of French fans. Wizzer embroiled in the intricacies of the French defence, whilst I debated the values of political radicalism and the potential for future revolution in France! Love a bit of that!
So chuffed that Ghana got through. Have tickets for the Togo France game tomorrow. What a great way to finish our trip? We’re dreading taking the van back to Rickey the camper-van-man…after so many scrapes on the road and internal mishaps we’re praying that the 大象传媒 gets it’s deposit back???
Definitley reduced to Plan B today, if not Plan C or D..... in fact make that E! The good news is we're still alive, and England don't have to play Germany in the next round. Low-lights of the day include me stalling the van on a six-land junction in Leipzig over the tram lines - in the path of a speeding tram, and Wizzer being half an inch away from tipping the van into a ditch. This was just seconds after another driving disaster, when we managed to navigate ourselves onto a country lane so narrow the entire village had to come out to move their cars so the 大象传媒 World Service Camper Van could pass - flattening several shrubs and flowers in the process (sorry to all the keen gardeners of Lieberwolkwitz.....)
Our plans of reaching a fan camp with electricity and maybe even a bar (to watch the England game) in time to mix our report for the day for London failed to materialise. Instead we found ourselves on a run-down housing estate on the edge of Leipzig, editing our piece in a thunder storm. If we don't get access to some electricity soon we're going to get sacked. This laptop battery has nearly run out, our mobile is practically dead and our satellite kit is on its last legs after our friends at 大象传媒 Five Live left it out in the rain in Dortmund. But hey we've managed to stock up on fruit and veg so, despite my heavy cold, scurvy is being kept at bay - but Wizzer is devestated that I've lost my voice and therefore can't tell him to clean up all this mess.
Never did find the fan camp - so tonight's resting place is a moonlit park.... strangely enough , despite the late hour
we are not the only ones here.... Leipzig seems to be full of gardening types, and there seem to be quite a few people taking a stroll and checking out the bushes and shrubs around us......
We are living in total luxury today! We have unlimited water, we have a power socket and there is a cafe down the road with BREAKFAST! This is in stark contrast to our previous night - spent in the seventh level of hell - also known as a car park beside a dual carriageway outside Munich's Olympic stadium. We weren't the only ones there - hundreds (and hundreds) of other sweaty fans with no access to shower facilities, food or drinking water were also there, sleeping in cars, pitching tents on the grass verges - but good to see that despite the hardships, no one seemed to have run dry on alcohol rations.
One particularly vile experience included a trip into our neighbours camper van "Sheila". I thought living in a van with one bloke (who stores his suntan lotion with the microphones and leaves his toothbrush with the tea bags) was bad enough, but living in a van designed for four with SEVEN sweaty Auzzie men would be pure hell. They said they'd been stuck in that car park for ten days already, and from the looks of their van they could be there for a lot longer....although they assured us that they were going to make it to Berlin even if they had to
Push Sheila the whole way there!
We took pity on them and gave them some 大象传媒 t-shirts (they were so desperate it was pathetic) felt a bit like an aid worker in a refugee camp as we waved goodbye from our fully functioning van. They all put their new t-shirts on immediately.....that should keep them going for another week or so.
We spent the morning using our new found water supply to clean the van from top to bottom. All the squashed flies on the 大象传媒 logo didn't look good. We may look a state, but at least the van is looking all 大象传媒-ish and nice and not just some kind of mobile 大象传媒 scum fest.
.......... hurtling towards Frankfurt, fridge door swinging open every 10 seconds as Kezzer swings us through another chicane…. Hope Health and Safety at work don’t read this…
We’re clocking up the miles and the countries. Have hung out with fans from USA, South Korea, Czech Republic, Serbia and Montenegro, Poland, Germany, Iran, England, Argentina and Togo.
The story so far:
Drunkest fans: Easily won by the Czechs. Our hats off to you boys, you know how to drink. The campsite in Gelsenkirchen was mayhem. The owners of the bar said ‘we were drunk dry’. 400 Czech fans between them BOUGHT 800 litres of beer in 14 hours. Yet they were mainly drinking shots of slivervitz AND had their own beer barrels in their vans!!
Most polite: USA. A credit to their mothers.
Tallest: Germans
Most in need of tickets: England
Most fans who have got into games without tickets: England (but mainly from Liverpool)
Most fans who think that because we are 大象传媒 we will have handfuls of spare tickets (we haven’t): England
Most high pitched chanting: South Korea
Most organised singing: South Korea
Most closely related to the president of Montenegro: Serbia and Montenegro. Spent an hour with the brother in law of the president, redrawing the map of the Balkans in Kezzer’s notebook.
Best mutual appreciation: Poles n Czechs.
Best expression of drunkenness: German fan: “Excuse me for being full up”
Special award to the Germans for making it all happen.
Planned to drive to Frankfurt, but couldn’t face it. So we popped back to Gelsenkirchen to check out the Argentina fans who are arriving for the game tomorrow. No Serbia and Montenegro fans here because none of them were given visas apparently. But the team will be pleased to know that Steve from Sheffield has tickets to all their games, and has the shirt, the wig, the scarf, you name it.
We were the only England fans watching the game against Trinidad, surrounded by Trinidad fans in Germany and Argentina shirts. Thought it was all going to go horribly wrong at one point, then Crouch scored and we’re through to the next round.
Nobody told us today was a public holiday in Germany!!! Every shop is shut and we’ve run out of food! Kezzer knocked up a good late night sweet potato, er, dish of some kind, though, from the leftovers and we are sorted. Spent the evening chatting to a group of drunk German fans who are parked next to us. They don’t speak a word of English and we don’t speak German but we seemed to get on okay. It’s that sort of place.
Oh my god, we’ve run out of water too. Bumped into some other 大象传媒 colleagues last night in Dortmund who were keen to offer us the use of their hotel showers. Too keen we thought…..
What a brilliant day! Town was buzzing in the build up to the Germany Poland game, felt like the final not a group match. Fans of both sides really went to town on their outfits, German flag Mohicans, red and white afro wigs…..great fun. The best thing about it though was that all the fans were celebrating together! Getting drunk in the sun and singing each other’s songs, as the afternoon wore on they even started painting the others teams flags on their faces! Never seen anything like it! It was almost like a protest against all the hoolies who were promising to start a scrap at the match.
In the end there was some trouble…the cops said it was started by some known German hooligans who had been fighting with Poles in the woods on the border a few months ago. But the police piled in and squashed it all pretty quickly and most people there didn’t even notice it had happened.
The only down side to the day was the jubilant German fans who kept us up til five o’clock in the morning! The English fans on the campsite were retaliating by blasting out England’s 1966 team song very very loud. Come on England! Everyone still buzzing with the whole atmosphere, even the Poles who are the first team to go out, bless em. Staying in the fans campsites is a bit like being at a very long music festival. Everyone is permanently drunk, the food is terrible, and the toilets are on a par with those at Glastonbury. And it’s great fun!
Love is in the air!
It is one giant love fest here in Germany! In Dortmund tonight ahead of the big Poland Vs Germany match the fans are sinking beers and singing each others songs like they’re long lost cousins….The Czechs love the Poles, the English fans here love the Swedes – and everyone loves the Germans for hosting the best party ever! What’s going on?!
We made it to Togo Vs South Korea – what an atmosphere?! When Togo scored first all the fans went mental with their drums and dancing – and that was just the ‘new’ Togo fans (ie all the Germans and Brits who managed to get tickets). Must say, bit of a shiver down the old spine before we got into the ground when we heard “….it’s coming home it’s coming home….football’s coming home” blasting around the stadium as we came through the turnstiles….can it really be (coming home)?!
Hello Frankfurt!
Hit the road from Gelsenkirchen with the name of a campsite in Frankfurt scratched on a beer label from an American camper-van fan. No detailed map, no address, no German language skills – but two winning smiles, lots of helpful pointing locals and the likelihood that if you go down enough roads in any given area, one of them is bound to be right - we made it in time to watch the USA Vs Czech Republic on telly.
The German organisers are getting the thumbs up - everyone is saying how great the fan fests are in the host cities, so that fans without tickets really get the buzz…One English guy (with no chance of getting a ticket) said it was
Brilliant! Thousands of fans from all over the world getting drunk together in the sunshine. There’s been no sign of trouble – but then we haven’t lost yet.
Mingled with the flagged-up South Korean fans ahead of tomorrows match with Togo – they are pretty confident of a win but the Togolese are having none of it. We are so chuffed cos we’ve managed to get some tickets for the match courtesy of 大象传媒 Producer Dan McMillan who happened to be passing the Togo FA a few weeks ago….he gave us a pretty good deal on them!
Okay, the World Cup can now officially start. We're here!
There is surely only one place to be for the next month. Germany. They seem to know how to throw a World Cup, and if you are on your way over, even without tickets, expect a big, warm hug of a welcome from the Germans. The atmosphere here in Gelsenkirchen is great.
We're in a camper van site just behind the Shalke stadium, home of tomorrow's big game between the USA and the Czech Republic. The American fans are very friendly, high fiving, huge camper van drivers. They love their soccer and they are having a great time. The Czechs are great too, all completely drunk and making a right racket. They won't let you walk by without forcing some kind of lethal spirit that is surely too strong to be legal in England, down your neck. But we're supposed to be working!!!
Managed to miss all the games today. How did that happen?? Not even a sniff of a goal. The telly in the van has now got only one, footie-free, channel working. Nightmare.
People have been coming up to the van to say hello all day, with the same question - are you really from the 大象传媒, and can they not afford to get you a hotel?
Nearly there!
Picked up the van (which is enormous!) Rebecca’s used to a Nissan Micra, but Piers is a professional – he used to drive an ice-cream van….
Big Chief Super Whip. Best 99 in southern England……. Van has a telly! And as we put keys in ignition, the radio is playing God Save the Queen live from Frankfurt! A good omen perhaps!
Roads were completely empty and managed to catch the second half of England/Paraguay in the service station. A GLORIOUS WIN….well a win at least which will do us for now….
On the Sea France ferry for Sweden v Trinidad and Tobago. There’s one telly and we’re the only ones watching! Are the French not interested in this World Cup at all? Meet an American who fancies the USA to surprise the tournament with its offense/defence power-play on the forty-nine yard line.
Remembered to drive this monster on the right which was a good start to our European trek…..inching closer to the action.
They said every camper van in western Europe had been bought or hired out for the World Cup....they lied. The World Service has got its hands on the last one and we're off to Germany!
We've got our flags, our mozzie repellant, our big inflatable hands, and two-weeks' worth of baked beans. The World Service World Cup Camper Van is going to be getting the fans eye-view out there - updating this blog daily with the gossip, the hype, the vibe, and the passion from the fans we meet.
If you can't make it to Germany you can still be part of the action by posting your comments to our blog.
And if you are in Germany look out for the van. You can't miss it. It's got twenty feet of bunting wrapped around it! Come and say hello and speak to the world through World Cup Have Your Say.
Let the footie begin!
Piers and Rebecca, the van team.
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