Pliers posted an interesting question on the Forum this week. Her beloved Man City are off to some interesting corners of Europe in their quest to get beyond the qualifying stages (for once) and she’s decided to follow them. She asks if any one else is planning to follow their team to Europe.
It got me thinking about some of the amazing travel adventures I’ve had thanks to a sporting event. Like when I tried to bribe my way into the first baseball match between the Cuban national side and a US professional team in Havana.
The tickets were only given to the best factory workers in Cuba, something, unfortunately, I couldn’t claim to be. The little old guy manning the gate gave me such a withering look of disdain when I offered him a couple of Yankee dollars to let me in that I wanted the ground to swallow me up.
Thankfully, a couple of teenage layabouts, sons of hardworking comrades, had no such qualms and offered up their tickets in a flash. I entered through another gate and my seats were just above the dugout and a little above and to the right of Fidel Castro. I’m guessing their dad worked a mean lathe.
Equally memorable was watching the Aussies play the West Indies in cricket at Sabina Park in Jamaica. I got tickets for The Mound, where for $25 you could drink Red Stripe beer, eat KFC and swim in the pool in front of the scoreboard to your heart’s content, ably assisted by the attentive Red Strip Girls. Oh, and watch cricket. If my memory serves me right – and there are no guarantees of that these days – Australia may have even won. Good times.
But I digress. If you have any sporting-related travel adventures, tell us about it on Pliers’ post.
While you’re over at the Forum, you might want to put in your two-bob’s worth on the other big issues lighting up the boards. Liz Cleere wants to know if optimists or pessimists make the better travellers. And hmoat01 wants to hear which foods you bring back from your travels. It’s an issue close to my heart after I returned from northern France with a packet of marshmallow Smurfs for everyone at the Towers and they were singularly unimpressed. You can join the debate here.
Thecyclediaries is just back from cycling from London to Sydney and the message after 16 months of travel seems to be ‘Always carry loo roll.’ Skyly has returned from a flit around the Shetlands and Scandinavia. Diving between two tectonic plates in Iceland and the price of burgers in Norway seem to have made the biggest impressions. GrantFraser77, meanwhile, is back from Nicaragua where he watched turtles lay their eggs on Playa La Flor near San Juan del Sur. A real privilege, he says.
Lots of good stuff on Experiences this week. Dimuthug gives us a Sri Lankan perspective on visiting the grave of Jane Austin. BoukenBoy writes a love song to the Ang Thung National Marine Park in the Gulf of Thailand. And wheatypete chastens than Bratislava is for life, not just for Christmas markets. Janieoates warns of the perils of travelling on a bicycle, especially when you’re not riding it. And Angela R introduces us to the sea otters of Elkhorn Slough. Grab yourself a hot drink and settle in for some great reads.
Finally, Photography, where the said sea otters are on display in a set of images posted by Angela R. Treaclminer introduces us to the murky world of Bog Snorkelling. And lovetoexplore delights with two amazing sets of images from India and Marrakech. Make sure you check out hmoat01’s pics from Thailand and chandaala’s set from Carnevale in Venice.
Well, that’s it from me. Just off to see if there are any smurf marshmallows left. I don’t think I’ve had my daily allowance of blue food colouring yet.
