My flight was at 8.40am so we got there for around 3, long journey..
I managed to blag a hotel on the road of the stadium, about a 5-10 minute walk away, but there was never any doubt we'd end up in Wenceslas Square for the majority of the trip- I mean, we are English! Cheap beer and gentlemens clubs were too much to turn down, besides, we'd already walked around the Czech version of Harlesden for 2 hours..bleak mate...
First night we decided to stay safe so we popped into one of many "sports bars", ordered a couple of budvars which came to 80 Czech Koruna's (CZK), which is about £2, this was gonna be a messy one! Course, by the end of the night the rounds were 110CZK, but its a minor...their lagers are weird, they dont come in pints, they come in 0.3l or 0.5l glasses, with a head ice cream man would be proud of!! But very nice..
Some funny things happen on holiday...My mate who i play 5-a-side with has been away the last few weeks, travelling all over Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and all those places, back next week he said...
I was looking at the signed footie jerseys on the walls when I heard "OI!", and there he fucking was, sitting at a table with the 2 boys he was travelling with!! One of the weirdest things in my life honest!
They were staying on the same road as the sports bar and told us about Darlings, the strip club over the road...rude not to really...
paid a fiver to get in, from THE biggest bouncers I've ever seen. All I'd heard outside from the door monkeys was "Ayyye, English yeh? Sucky Sucky, half price midget!!, I almost pissed myself laughing and didnt know what to expect, this place was the bollox! Gents, you've never seen so may FIT FIT birds in one place, I cant actually explain it....anyways we stayed in there till around 4
..woke up the next day and started again in the sports bar, met the boys, and went on our way to the game..I was well up for it, but hadn't seen hardly any Arsenal about during the day either, so wasn't sure if it was gonna be a dicey one, but it all seemed pretty chilled..trust us to walk to the Ultra's end by accident! Couple of nasty looks later we were in the Arsenal end..Even the rounds were only £2 each in the stadium. there were goons scattered in the lower tier where we were, but it didnt look like we'd be selling out, so we had to make the most of our numbers and voices, which I think we did..
Some good songs came out...plenty of "Red and White Army", "Arsenal, Arsenal" "Tottenham, Watching Eastenders" "Ooh to, Ooh to be..."
I hope it came out on TV coz we were singing almost the whole game, their fans had nothing..same song over and over, the most noise they made was to boo Cesc (my MoM w/Lehman), not impressed with their lot at all..funny moment was when the old bill who had sat down in the empty seats to watch the match were leaving at the end to set up the escort, "We can see you sneaking out!"
Completely lost my voice during the game and used the half hour we got kept in as a chance to give my throat a rest (yeah, right..10 fags later!!) The players all came over, led by RvP, Kolo and Flamini, and gave us a deserved couple of minutes, complete contrast from last year which from what I saw against PSV, Gilberto and Theo were the only ones to give the travelling Arsenal the gesture of a clap of appreciation...you can just tell the team are closer now...didnt seem the best performance but we grinded it out and Jens was back to something like what his best, the away goals pretty much put us through, barring a major Feck-Up.
So back into the same road, same strip club (did I tell you how great this place was??..), and same inevitable results by 4am...Flight back next day was tough going, but we'd done it. 2 away goals, a great time, and no aggro, all in all a top trip. Sorry about the novel but as I write the memories are flooding back, surprisingly!
I'd recommend anyone to go to Prague..Cheap Drinks, Gorgeous women- just in general, everywhere (sorry ladies for the one-sided recommendations)..Decent service..Made it better that the boys won. Here's to getting through to the group stages and doing it all again!
God that was long..
Thanks for your time.
