After much anticipation, we made it to the Olympiski Stadium
Friday night for a Euro 2012 match – England vs. Sweden!
It was an exciting game & we sat in an English fans' section - especially fun since England won 3-2...
Ukraine has a bit of a reputation for lawlessness,
abundant drinking & general disorganization. Many (including me) assumed the Euro 2012
games would include at least some sort of mayhem. What we found instead….
Pretty typical sports scene
Hot Damn - High
Security There was no shortage of security of all kinds.....
Some in riot gear.....
Some behind barricades....
'Bouncer like' people on the pitch to deter people storming the field....
~100 more filed out on each side when there were 10 minutes left in the game...
Cautious
Concessions
Unlike what I'm used to (2 beer max at Wrigley Field), they offered a 5 beer carrier! BUT.....
....the beer was 0.5%! I guess that was another way to tame the enthusiastic fans.
Frankly I walked away a tad disappointed at how orderly and
sane everything was.
At the fan zone on Sunday, we were similarly struck by how ‘regular’
everything looked…..
The Ukrainian outfit flair we are used to has been displaced with typical looking garb…..
We were starting to feel unsettled by the lack of outfit
extremes
Like the entertainment of walking out the door was being
diluted….
But alas, things turned around!
Babushka + hot girl strutting her stuff…..
Hot pants + high heels....
A priest arguing with traffic cops....
And back at school, things got even more ‘back to
abnormal’…..
A kid’s outfit for the Water Party....
A mom’s outfit at a school play...
So while it’s great for the city that the Euro is running
smoothly & there are loads of Western Europeans in town spending money, I
look forward to getting back to more entertaining ‘abnormal normal’.
Happy Monday - here's hoping you have an entertaining day!
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