WINGIN´IT
AVEIRO, PORTUGAL

Upon wrapping up the last post, I set off on a rather aimless stroll and ended up at the train station in Coimbra. Seeing that Aveiro was but an hour away and the Czech-Latvia game was on for 5PM, I jumped on the next train out. Hoping to sort out some tickets, I set off. Before I could even leave the station, I had offers galore and picked up a ticket for €35, face value. Spent the afternoon in the fan zone as the czech and latvian fans cranked it up in anticipation. Arrived at the stadium, which is brand new, as they all are, to find my seat six rows from the field, between the corner flag and the goal. A few English lads ended up next to me, chatted with them during the match, and, will get back to them later. The match was excellent, one of the best in the first go round outside EvF. Being my first real football game outside of central america made it even better. Latvia, the 500-1 underdog, held strong against the Czechs, who are at 14-1. In extra time of the first half, their winger was sent down the line straight towards our seats, cut off his defender, and sent in a cross. The striker touched it in to set the Latvian fans off their rockers. The second half saw the desperate Czechs subsititute defenders for forwards, and increase the attack. Again coming towards us, they scored two in the 15 minutes to pull off the victory. The Czech fans, probably about 5,000 strong, absolutely lost it, and continued to lose it throughout the night. Parted ways with the English lads and headed back to town to watch Holland - Germany before catching the last train back to Coimbra.

Departing the bus from the stadium, ran into the same lads again, so set off with them to find a pub to watch the match. After the match, the town was starting to get a bit wild, so after walking 100m towards the station, i turned back and stuck around, figuring on the 6am return in the morning. Ended up hanging round til 430 before catch a few zzzzs at the train station. by the end of the night it was nearly six degrees of seperation, as in "how do you know the person sitting next to you". well, their friend was talking to a dude who knew a guy i was talking to who because he was with some girl i chatted with who knew a mate of the english lads at the match. yeah, anyway, talked to loads of portugese locals who were having a great time, and got the inside scoop on messing around in portugal, so hopefully that will help out later in the journey.

Only had time for 2 hours sleep back in coimbra before setting of to Lisbon to pick up my tickets for France-Croatia which i had bought thru ebay. was a messy trip, 6 hours in all, and left me a bit wrecked, so after watching portugal beat russia in the city square i went off to sleep to a chorus of cars horns blaring away in the night.

Thursday, i think, as its hard enough to keep track of the days, i set off for Leiria with my pack, a match ticket, and no accomdations, yet again. With no city map or inside scoop, i set off to find a place. 100 meters from the bus station, I found a room for €25. Thinking i might do better, i cruised aruond a bit more. 25 minutes and a bucket of sweat later, found another place wehre the manager told me everything in town was booked. Hearing this, I set straight back to the original pad and hooked it up.

Killing some time before Eng-Swiss at 5pm, headed up to a castle on a hill sticking straight up from the town. It was in nice condition, yet not renovated, so it maintained some character. From the top I could hear the Croatian fans singing and dancing, and for what its worth, they probably have the best following of any of the countries outside england and portugeuse.

Times out at the internet cafe, will add more later. I´ve no accomodations for tonight, so it looks like the pack with stay in the information office overnight, and I´ll find a nice patch of grass in a park here. Was able to sort out a place for tomorrow, so one night away from a bed and shower is no bother.