Day 25

Hi everyone, I realised its going take a long time to blog about my London trip, and considering the many things I have to do so far, plus the fact that I just recovered from my cold with a 15 hour sleep, I'd probably only be done writting about what happened in London next week. Okay back to day 25 yes, matchday Man United vs Blackburn Rovers! Woke up pretty early since I wanted to go to Picadilly Circus to take a look at how the place was like!



Of course, going to Old Trafford to catch a ManU game will mean wearing the jersey at least, duh!

Arrived at Picadilly Circus where we had the english breakfast in a cafe! Authentic English Breakfast in England, complete with tea!



Despite the fact that transport and accomodation are obscenely expensive, some stuff, sportswear in particular are cheap! All EPL team short sleeve jerseys go for 25 pounds, and England jerseys go for 4.49 pounds! Yes 10SGD for an official England jersey, even cheaper than in Pasar Malam!



However I did not buy any, this was why.



Either English people are too horizontally developed, or Umbro got it wrong when it manufactured these shirts.

Since the match was to kick off at half past 5, we ate lunch shortly after breakfast, at this English pub. Pubs here double up as restaurants before 9pm, and its very common to sell their food as a bundle of 2 lunches at 5 pounds.



Beef Lasasgna for lunch. Sad to say, the presentation was better than the taste.

Anyway, I was probably too excited to want to hang out in the pub for much longer, and we reached the stadium 3 hours in advance! Kiasu Singaporean me is! And of course a lot of photos taken in front of OT.









Shortly after, I went to collect my ticket at the ticketing office while the other 3 waited for Wanteng's friend, Grismond who's a student at Manchester University and helped them buy their tickets.



My ticket!



We walked around abit more before going into the stadium at around 430, but not before we saw Anderson!



The first sight of Old Trafford's interior!



I was sitting in the opposite side from the rest, and I had one of the stewarts take a photo for me at where I sat!



Before long, the Blackburn Rovers team was warming up on the field, of course they weren't given the kind of reception when the United team made their way onto the field!






The team of the day!



Giggs, Evra, Tevez!



Rooney, Scholes and Ronaldo!



Welback, Berbatov, Carrick, Nani, Ferdinand and Vidic!





Kickoff was timely at 530, but I realised people who watch on tv miss out on a lot of fan-fare things, such as the very cool introduction of all the players of the match, it was similar to the announcement of how wrestlers go into the ring, and 75000 (ok maybe 74000 corrected for Blackburn supporters) cheers as each name made the round!



The stadium wasn't packed to its full capacity of 76212, but 75000 for this match was still an awesome sight to behold. That's 1.6% of Singapore's population squeezed into OT! Coincidentally, OT's record attendance was also this fixture against Blackburn 2 seasons earlier!



Without a shadow of a doubt the maestro of english football. Sir Alex Ferguson! liverpool fans will have no more say about the record number of league titles they have won come May! Muahaha.



The match wasn't the best by Man Utd standards, miscommunication caused the goal which prevented 14 successive cleansheets, but to catch a Ronaldo free-kick goal made up for the below par performance! Coupled with liverpool dropping another 2 points, I really can't see how Man Utd will lose this title man. Hahaha.

Anyway after the match, I met Grismond at the West entrance of OT, where he told me that players will come out from there after the match, and if we hang around long enough, we could possibly get some autographs! So we just stood there for a while, a crowd gathered and security guards appeared very soon after! Initially I thought I was behind the queue, with the security guard right behind me, but then all of a sudden they stopped the crowd, and everyone turned around! I realised the position where the guards were was actually the place where they will place the barriers! Suddenly I'm in the front of the queue! Of course had to act as if I waited very long already, and thanks to late comers who tried to squeeze into the queue, and English people being brutally blunt people that they are, were busy telling off the rest they didn't realise I kind-of cut queue as well! But who cares! Hahaha.

And yes presenting the stars who signed on my scarf, which has now become a prized possession..











Seriously awesome lah!!! Catching the match was a dream-come-true. Getting autographs was a bonus!



All of us with our autographs. Seb got Giggs since Giggs only signed for a group of fans who were standing at somewhere else 20 metres away, Meiyee managed to get Rooney's, since Rooney walked to the other side too. I think I know how they judge the fan-favourites, players like Tevez really make the effort to sign for every fan!

Right before we left, we were taking some last photos before some really friendly English people just spontaneously joined us in our photos! If you tried to do that in Singapore, those people intended in the photo will probably think you are crazy and run off before you could do anything else!





A last photo at Old Trafford. For now! Frankly speaking, AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME. Man Utd fans must all come to Old Trafford to watch a live game. From the streets packed with red shirts around Old Trafford and even in Picadilly Circus; the sight of 70000+ people right before your eyes; the 'i-thought-he-looked-quiet-but-couldn't-stop-shouting-fuck/asshole/cunt/shit' english supporters; the players you see on tv week-in week-out but now are all taller than you; to the roars and cheers so loud when Rooney or Ronaldo scored which threatened to bring the house down... everything was just amazing. Yes I sound like I blew the loudest trumpet, especially in the face of fans from rival teams, but yea you will no doubt be feeling something similiar when you visit the club you support too.

Day 26 to follow soon!

Back in Amsterdam! Happenings from day 23 - 30

Hi everyone, its been exactly one week since I set off for Manchester, and what a terrific week it has been! It will go down as the week I really backpacked and spent some really special days, including my 23rd birthday, watching Man Utd at Old Trafford and visiting the biggest places of interest in London. The journey back, however was not a good one as I caught a cold, now that I am feeling better, I will try to give a recount of what has happened over the past week!

Day 23 - 24

Last thursday saw us packing our things and getting ready for the Manchester/London trip. We had to catch the cheap Ryanair flight from Brussels, but that was before we actually took the train from Amsterdam to Brussels.







The Amsterdam Central train station at night.



In one of the Brussels train stations, moments before we reached the Brussels Central station.

Upon reaching the Brussels Central station, which was around 1am already, horror struck as the station was outdoors. yes OUTDOORS. The temperature was at least 0 or lower, and the wind that was blowing did not help the cause. What was worse, there was no room or shelter we could seek except the benches (which are in open air). I swear it was the longest 2 hours ever. The initial plan of spending the night at the Central station till 5am quickly disappeared as we started walking around to see if we could hitch a ride out of that chilly place. Despite the fact that our plane was at 630am, it was no joke trying to stay at that horrific place till 530am to catch the first shuttle bus to the airport.





Trying to beat the cold by walking about and trying to take some pictures by the railroad. It proved futile.

Eventually, we found a cab at the cost of 20 euros to drive us to the airport. It was indeed better at the airport since it was indoors and there were seats. Brussels Charleroi airport is really more like a budget terminal than airport, since it was only one level, with both departures and arrival gates which are side-by-side!

Fast forward 2 hours, and we were soon on our way to checking in!



The plane ride was about 1 hour and 15 minutes, and I was still pondering why on the flight details it was stated that the time of departure was 630am, but time of arrival was 655am. Haha then I realised London is one hour behind Central Europe, so all times are shifted one hour earlier.

Upon arrival at the Manchester airport, we did the first incredible thing of the trip - embarking on a 2 hour walk from the airport to the hotel. Even though as we found out when we returned from the hotel to the airport the next day that it took less than 10 minutes by cab, walking unfamiliar routes was tough indeed. Armed with 12kg of luggage, and taking turns to carry a heavy laptop bag was no fun. 2 hours later we finally found the hotel.

Some sights along the way..



Singapore avenue right in front of the Manchester Airport!





The surrounding environment where we stayed.

Immediately after checking in, I spotted the Man Utd Museum and Tour brochure at the counter. Needless to say, I decided to embark on my own adventure to find out how to go to Old Trafford first, while the other 3 of them went to Picadilly Circus, which is the Orchard equivalent of Manchester.

In Manchester, like many other European countries and cities, there are trains and trams/metros. Trains are those that go further and come at longer intervals. We realised this a little late, and ended up waiting for almost 1 hour for the next train to arrive! Horrific I tell you, too much time wasted on waiting for transport. Metros are faster, and there is a very easy way of not paying and riding around! Of course, being the good citizen I was (before the influence of Seb and friends told me that I should not pay), I paid 3.20 pounds for a return ticket from Altrincham to Old Trafford.



It was less than 20 minutes later I arrived at the home of the greatest club in the world!













Having seen so much of Old Trafford on television, comparing it to seeing it for the first time right before my very eyes, there was this great emotion of 'Wow, this is it. Old Trafford right in front of me.' The feeling was just too magical, too surreal!

I wasted no time and started walking around the compound. It was majestic for sure!
Visited the museum as well!









The official ManU crest from last time till now.



The Champions of Champions League 2008. Too bad the trophy was somewhere else. Or probably returned already.



This was funny, grow your own OT grass! They must have had too many people plucking their grass that they have since decided that people should buy their own OT grass instead of plucking! haha



I felt 1000 goosepimples when I saw this. The very reason why Manchester United are so successful. I shall adopt this as a personal motto henceforth. Only the very best will do.

Spent around 2-3 hours touring the place, too bad the matchday tour was fully booked, couldn't get the chance to visit the players' changing room or stepping on the OT field. Bought some stuff, including the jersey, a scarf and a beanie at the megastore. The megastore was really mega!



Left OT feeling terribly excited about the match the next day. The evening was spent in the hotel room resting from the tiring journey from Amsterdam to Manchester. Yea come to think about it, it took a total of about 15 hours from the Amsterdam train station to reach the hotel in Manchester. Just some of the crazy things people do to catch something like a football club/match.

Okay will update again about the match day itself, as well as the second part of the trip in London!