Everything was going swimmingly, I found a local gasthaus, got a table and a pint of Guinness and looked
through the menu. But just as I was making up my mind what to eat, the low murmur of polite conversation was burst by the unmistakable Maltese tones of the King of the Pixies. " 'Ere, helmets, this looks alright!" My best laid plans, for a peaceful Bender Squad free day, scuppered. "Fuck me, it's Bri!" shouted out Sandro, and I decided if you couldn't beat them, join them. After lunch, we decided to watch the early kick off, if memory serves it was Portugal versus Mexico, and we found a bar that was showing the game. During happy hour. Which featured Long Island Ice Teas at a remarkably low price, served by a fit Moroccan bird. We got absolutely wankered, and even left at one point, only to return and start all over again. A bunch of German students came in for the next match, of whom was playing I to this day have no idea. One
of the locals approached me, his face full of concern. "I an a medical student" he said " and I am concerned for your friend." "it's only the Boy Dazzler" I told him, as if this made everything alright "He'll be right." But the boy was done, and was soon poured into a taxi, with the driver given no indication of where to take him. luckily word must have been out around town about a posse of numb Englishmen, as amazingly he made it back to the camper van, where the Don nearly whacked him one with frying pan, thinking he was trying to break in. There was now just four of us left, and we were now in full stupid mode. After having a sing off with the locals, which ended 
when one asked why San's England shirt had only one star, and his German shirt had three. "Two world wars" was his response, as we took off looking for more booze. Funky nearly got his lights punched out by a bird whose arse he slapped, and Queso save Sandro form a bunch of students who were carrying him off to a local hostel, after finding him sprawled in the gutter. The next thing I can remember was waking up at about six the next morning, with a serious hangover, as Funky and Queso finally arrived home. This left us an hour to get sorted and catch our train to Hamburg. As you can see in the video below, spirits were not high.So to our journey. I only had four tickets for the game, so San and PJ, decided to come along just for the ride. John the Don tried my patience early on, as with only ten to go before our
train was due to depart, went missing. After looking around the station he was found outside in a cafe, preparing to order a breakfast. The muppett. The train ride was not fun. At over four hours it took for ever, but allowed us to catch up on some much needed kip. We were happy to be off the damn thing when we pulled up into Hamburg, adn bade farewell to the two who weren't coming, who headed off to the Reeperbahn. Now I know in previous Away Day postings, I have bemoaned the modern penchant of locating new sporting arenas out 
of city centres, but this was the daddy of them all. It took over thirty minutes to get there by train, and you were then faced with a half a mile hike through a forest to get to it! I began to question as to whether we were still in Germany at all, and feared we had wondered into Denmark. Of course the ground was superb inside, although it looked like a half finished warehouse from outside. And I would recommend to anybody, if given the chance to stand with the Italians as they sing their brilliant national anthem. It makes the hairs on your neck sta
nd up. The game wasn't half bad either. We had a sending off, and had perfect seats to witness Inzaghi round Peter Cech to score the second goal in a 2-0 victory, but after having to trudge all the way back into Hamburg, having got lost, and taking over an hour, the lads were spent. Only myself, Dazzler and the Don managed any beer, as the planned night of debauchery never materialised, and at around midnight, we caught our homeward train stone cold sober. Even that didn't go well, as we were hit by an hour delay, as we rolled back into Munster at dawn. Since then every plan to return to Hamburg has been thwarted. Can we break the curse? Only time will tell..Statistics
- Capacity-57,274
- Concessions-This is Germany, so beer and wurst are the order of the day, and damn fine at that.
- Built-2000
- Did You Know?-It has been chosen to host the 2010 Europa League Final
- Visited By-Euro Bri, The Boy Dazzler, John the Don and El Grande Queso
- Rating-Field of Dreams-Is a monumentally long way from anything, but it is a top class facility. If the home team raise the roof like the Italians and Czechs did, it would have quite an atmosphere.
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