Leevi & Sarahs Travel Blog

Update: Sarah and I spent the night watching the game at an aussie pub called the Woolshead in Dublin. We didnt win the match but the draw was good enough. The atmosphere at the pub was great although there was one or two “wankas” who obviously didn’t know the meaning of good sports. Foul language and cursing at the oposition is not what Australians abroad should endorse. Just goes to prove that no matter where you are or what country you come from a football hooligan or two can potentially spoil a good night.

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We are about to head out to watch the aussies defeat croatia in Dublin. Wish our boys luck.

Oh what a night…

One of four very vocal aussies out numbered 1000 to 1 in a Japanese pub (The Barge Inn) as Australia’s first world cup game in 30+ years kicked off. The Japanese had drums, face paint, megaphone and a friendly welcoming attitude to their vastly out numbered rival supporters. A couple of Saporo beers later and we where already down one nil…. The drumming became louder and it seemed that every drum beat was a dagger in our hearts. Australia scored and the drumming became even louder, with chants f NIPON, NIPON, NIPOOOOONNNNN closely following. Australia scored again and the drumming stopped.

On the flip side the group of four (eventuallysix) that I was honored to be apart of was dancing up and down in front of the big screen and 1000000 Japanese fans. The whistle blew and there was hugs all round on both sides with handshakes and congratulations offered by the Japanese supporters.

Exiting the pub we where greeted with a slice of Australia, a mobile kebab van. It was defiantly a night to remember.

So now a recap on the trip so far. A 3am wake up with an 1.5 hr drive to Sydney saw us board JAL flight JL772. The service on the flight was excellent and the food was pretty good for air plane food. Sarah was in heaven with all the japanese rice crackers she could eat. Of course with rice crackers you should drink some form of liquid.The courteous staff where only too happy to provide us with water, beer, coke etc.

We eventualy landed in Narita jumped on the shuttle bus and arrived at our hotel, The Nikko Narita International Hotel. A quick shower and we where off to the football (see above).

On our way we stopped at a great little noddle bar where we met two more Aussie supporters. The food in the noodle bar was excellent. I ordered the Chilli Red Pepper Noodle while sarah ordered a vegetarian soup with noodles. After about 15 minutes of trial and error Sarah finally had the chopsticks sussed (or so she thought) and was able to finish her meal. After dinner and the football we headed back to the Hotel for a couple of hours rest before waking up at 7:30am to collect our boarding passes.

The plan was to get some good seats near the emergency exists so we had the extra leg room. After a 30 minute wait inline we aquired the aforementioned tickets and let me tell you it was worth getting up for. We proceeded to buy some hello kitty trinkets and other japanese paraphernalia and jumped back on the bus to the airport. We obviously then boarded our thirteen hour flight to Heathrow Airport which I am currently on.

What your on a flight, how are you writing posts in your blog? Well it turns out for about $35AU you can have a broadband internet connection for 24 hours. Pretty sweet huh! Anyway we only have 5hrs of battery left and 8hrs of flight to go before arrival in London, so I will finish up this entry and get back to building my custom travel blog.

Cheers Leevi and Sarah
- currently flying over Russia (the internet is a wonderful thing).

Deep in enemy territory

The aussie contingent at The Barge Inn

The opposition (in about 10 minutes they wont be so happy)

Team Australia