well said superhoops great trip. I gave a taxi driver 7 euro for a taxi he wanted 15 for. every night it had been either 6 or 7 back to the hotel and he wanted 5 euro each from us.
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well said superhoops great trip. I gave a taxi driver 7 euro for a taxi he wanted 15 for. every night it had been either 6 or 7 back to the hotel and he wanted 5 euro each from us.
Aye ye ******, ignored me!Quote:
Originally Posted by Ash
Anyways the normal mix of "big game" away support
- The faces you always see there
- The "one trip a campaign" brigade
I thought the later kick off meant a lot of people got really twisted. I though the support was great, but there are still issues between the older generation and the younger generation. As some who travels with me da and me mates I can see both sides of the argument.
I'm lucky enough to have decent Italian and we have great craic for the three days. We were in the team hotel and had mad craic. The bar men were amazing craic and told us that ourselves and the FAI delegation had put through the same on the bar as 500 Italians had over a weekend the week before.....
any chance you could explain whats going on? Just interested as i had no idea there was any sort of issuesQuote:
Originally Posted by Maribor
What issues were they out of interest. Just curious, is it in relation to standing up at the game etc.
Snap, I had that typed before I saw your post.
Aye,
A lot of the "older generation" want to sit at the game, whereas whippersnapper such as myself are happy to stand. Both sides are valid as people have paid their money, and there has to be a happy medium. That is normally grand when free seating is in operation but when people start standing at the fences at the top of stairs etc.
It wouldn't be an issue but a lot of support of our age don't have the cop on to realise when to stop drinking. Hence you get a sizeable number of people who are completely buckled at the game and are a complete disaster to deal with. If you ask them to sit down or to move etc you get a volley of abuse. Other lads decide that they want to crowd surf over the fence and down into the lower section of section. Cue people getting hit with shoes and limbs.
Same as on the buses on the way back in(I got a taxi out so can't comment). Kids and teenagers were coming up alongside the buses and asking to swap/get scarves. Hurling abuse at them for no reason. When people on our bus had the morals to call people on it, they got verbals for it as well.
Lads ****ing off the top of the stadium as they couldn't be bothered going down to the toilet.
Again, a minor thing but it is definately still there in the away support. Great trip though.
There was no problem on Wednesday with seating, you could virtually sit where you liked. The one annoying thing though is those who choose to stand and lean on the barriers at the top of the steps by the stairwells. That's nothing to do with older/younger generation, it is just fuc*in ignorance.
I noticed a few times on TV, it looked like there were lots of empty seats. Am I crazy?
No you were not seeing things. The Lower Tier of the Curva Sud was not even open. The Upper Tier was at best only two thirds full. When it started raining, we moved back up higher and there were any amount of seats.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
Never heard what the official Irish attendance was but I would have said 4000 tops.
Would echo the above sentiments about the trip to Bari. Mighty craic for the best part of a week. Tuesday night especially the main square was mental, the bus out to the game complete with crowdsurfers going up and down the isle, and then the celebrations for Keane's goal were the highlights. Had a bloke in front of me celebrating the final whistle bollock naked lepping around like a lunatic. Unreal craic. Locals were very friendly, even the Bari Ultras, only downside was aforementioned rip-off taxi drivers, bar owners and the ****e expensive food in the restaurants.
Had great craic over the course of the few days with the owners of the 'sono il capo' flag and the 'Diamond Bar Ennis' flag among many others.
Will live long in the memory.
have to agree with what is being said here. i'm more than fond of a few pints, but to see lads who didn't even realise italy were down to ten men, too ****ed to watch the game and then acting like dicks outside the ground annoys me.
we've an excellent reputation to maintain. its always been said that we police ourselves and never cause any trouble. i'd like to think that would never change. - especially seeing as the fans in bari were incredible, really congratulating us after the match etc.
Bari was really great but I wouldn't go near the place if there wasn't a match there........sh!thole of the highest order!
Thats a bit harsh rambler. Did you have a run in with people or what. Of course its all opinion but just find that a bit suprising.
Just found it all primitive. There's nothing there as such. Any landmark of note is seperated by the dual carraigeway which meant you couldn't walk there. Shops are limited and no house's they all live in high-rise flats that are next to each other.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeilMcD
The bus ride from the airport I thought I was in Ballymun!
Had no run in as such. I had an argument with a taxi driver who tried to charge me €100 to go from the bus station to my hotel after the match!:mad:
Just home this afternoon. I found Rome and Bari great craic. the italians were really good hosts. We even got to see the world cup in bari city hall. The atmosphere on wednesday was excellent especially at the final whistle.
Regarding issues between the older and younger generations i travel with my father and his mate to all the away games one in his mid seventies the other in his late sixties and they are great travelling partners. While they like to sit at matches the abuse they get from some younger lads when they are asked to sit down is not on. The other issue they have is the younger lads dont know when to stop drinking and the sight of some lads asleep during the game is a joke.
Great trip and it was good to meet up with so many regulars. Role on bulgaria :)
Thought the old town was lovely myself. Bit of character. Did you try going for any random strolls up by the St Nicholas Cathedral or that? You'd get lost in the narrow windy lanes amongst little shops and bars. Then you have the sea two seconds from the main square, nice scene on a sunny day. The rest of it was a standard enough foreign city. I've been in far worse.
Regarding fellas not knowing about the sending off - it took our group a while to figure it out. I think a lot of people were confused about what was going on.
as has already been said, it was a great trip. glad that the game was in bari and not rome. locals were great hosts. great to see families out mixing with us in the piazzas. bus trip to the ground was one i will never forget. on leaving the ground, italian fans in their cars were clapping along. saw one kid climbing out the car window to take photos of us. thought bari was a nice enough place. liked the walk along the seafront.
We got charged €66:10 to use the toll road to get into BariQuote:
Originally Posted by rambler14
As I said to the fella travelling with me............"Old Bari is fantastic but you'd expect they'd improve the new part rather than down grade!"
Cant you just count them?:pQuote:
Originally Posted by Bottle of Tonic
Thought the trip was fantastic from start to finish althouth I"l plan it a bit better and cheaper next time.The best part was the laid back approach the locals had to us.We actually met up with some Bari "Ultras" before and after the game all they wanted was my Cobh Ramblers jersey and they gladly gave us scarves,free drink and spins back to appartment.Only down side to them is they fought with the police before the game and they insisted they were only there th support Bari and actually despised Lippi for obvious reasons.
Jesus they have to live in it. I think its more to do with the fact that the south of Italy is not that rich, did you not study leaving cert Geography.Quote:
Originally Posted by rambler14
Superb trip, really top. For me the locals and the effort they made for us made it for me. Top notch could not do enough for you. Never seen any messing of any sort at all. As for Bari would go back again even if they're was no match as i just thought the locals were so nice. They clearly love their city and are rightly very proud of it and were excellent ambassadors for it.
Well that was some ride for the 17 hours that we were in Bari .
Easy train journey down from Rome and got in at 12 noon then headed down to the old town . Now from what I could make of it they had two squares , one in the middle of the old town and the other near the sea front . We were in the one in the middle beers at 1.50 ( the bill said 2 each when we came to pay ) but great fun . I must say in all of my life I have never seen a Shot of Vodka as big as the wife was severd I would say it was between 125mm and 175 mm no ice just 3 quarters full . Poor kid had to buy 3 cokes to one glass of vodka and after 3 of them she was twisted .
Again a bit like Italia 90 where the Italians wanted to swap everything that you were wore . Never managed to to meet anyone form here which was a suprise thou . I would say the hardest part was waiting for the 5.30am train back to Rome after the game . Now if any of you were in the waiting room we clocked 4 very shady dudes who were waiting to make threr move , the police must have known them as they were they were took outside and we never saw them again .
But all in all a very good trip and ended up eating some fantastic grub in Rome and cheap also which was a great surprise .:):ball::)
The only downside of the couple of days was that lunatic with the bari ultras on the tues night that came up to one of the Irish lads outside one of the pubs in the square and pressed a knife against him. Totally unprovoked and no reason for it as far as i could see, but a scary moment nonetheless. Once the lunatic realised that none of the irish fans were there for a fight he backed off.Quote:
Originally Posted by marty
And as for Alitalia, dont get me started, never ever flying with that shower of amateurs again. Changed our flights without telling us, dublin contact phone number doesnt exist and then were over two hours late with our flight home so missed our connecting flight from london and thats only the very start of it.
I went back down to the square at 4am on wednesday night, found my mate tommy talking to the ultra's capo, and his mate, while we were talking some young Irish supporter, fell over, totally drunk, and two dodgy looking Bari young lads were circling the lad on the ground (had a bit too many) and the Ultra's spotted this, ran over and told the other 2 Bari youngsters to **** off, which they did.Quote:
Originally Posted by elroy
All credit to the Ultra's they enjoyed our company, and we enjoyed theirs, got a bit out of hand on the Tuesday night, with the Bari chanting, and the flares, but all good fun in the end.
I'd heard of a guy getting lured down a lane-way with the promise of beer for a euro, but as soon as he saw 10 people at the end of the lane, he ****ed off.
Always, always stay together in foreign places.
Wait, maybe they were going to break out in dance. Like West Side Story. Cant believe they still perpetuate crime. Was Tony Soprano there? Or Jimmy from Goodfellas?Quote:
Originally Posted by RedBobby
Speaking of Goodfellas there was a fella going around the place saying "Go fcuk your mother!" over and over again.:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Crosby87
Hey did anybody happen to record the stuff that was on Sky Sports News or RTE that was shown from the square in Bari on the day of the match as that would be good to see? The bus journey to and from the stadium was brilliant. It was a quality trip with a great result even though we were a bit disappointed after the match that we didnt win the game in the end up. Typical Irish, eh? :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by elroy
That head Ultras bloke was a fcukin asrehole but the only I met during the week.
My mate is in this pic and its a priceless pic of him. I live it. Fair play soccerc.Quote:
Originally Posted by soccerc
Yep got caught for 221 STG when I missed the aer lingus flight in Heathrow because of the un announced re schedule.
Quote:
Originally Posted by elroy
Ah balls, apologies for that. I was in a daze from the travelling.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maribor
If its any consolation, I also ignored soccerc appartently :o
Definitely up there with the best trips ever.We were in Temple Bar on saturday paying €6.60 for a bucket of **** and on Sunday we were getting Perioni Superiore 6.6% for €3 with the ordionary Peroni for €1 and some people complain about getting ripped off.
Locals were the best ever and all mad into football with no hassle whatsover.Best story was 3 of us got waylaid at 4.30am on Monday Morning and a baker gave 3 of us a lift back to our hotels in his van which 2 of us were in the dark lying flat because of the trays in it.
We raised over €2,000 euro in the charity game but nothing could repay the kindness of Marco,his staff & customers.I will go back to Bari thats one thing for sure.
What were you drinking in Temple Bar for ha ha !!Quote:
Originally Posted by gufct
Myself and my buddy ended up missing the first half hour cos our other mate disappeared drunk with all the tickets. They wouldn't take money at the gate for love nor money but eventually opened the gate to a bunch of gypsy kids waiting outside. We ran in with them and took our place amongst the locals finding a spot at the front of the upper tier. We weren't waring green thankfully but some of the kids heard us talking and spread the word that we were Irish. We got a couple of flare banger things thrown in our direction. We were a fair distance from the Irish supporters and didn't hear much noise from them. The Italian fans I thought were superb and didn't stop for 90mins. The Irish support came into it's own maybe about 10mins before our goal but before that we thought that they were very quite, probably just drowned out by the Italian fans around us and the distance we were away from them as well as the running track around the pitch.
always hard for about 3,500 Irish to be heard over the much larger home support but i have watched the match since and can clearly hear us throughout the game. was one of the better away Irish supports I have been in for yearsQuote:
Originally Posted by BarelyLegal
Have you ever looked around Cobh?Quote:
Originally Posted by rambler14
Only thing that really annoyed me on the night was the Ole Ole with twenty minutes to go. We're losing, and the Oles start? WTF?
Great atmosphere though. Started off slow, but built up as the game went on. Shame we couldn't have won it, but I'd have taken a draw at the outset.
I'm sure you're right. Must watch it again myself, especially the first half hr!!! we didn't even know the Italians were down to 10 men so we thought it was a mighty result altogether.Quote:
Originally Posted by jbyrne
I think the old town was lovely and I would certainly go back to that part of Bari again but it's the run down outskirts of the town that i'm on about.
As for the support. I thought it was fantastic, it's hard to out-sing 50,000 Italians but by christ we tried! If only Croke Park was like that!