Australia vs Italy

What do you say...

Heaps of stuff comes to mind but none of it really describes the feeling, and probably most of it is not really suitable for print. I'm not ashamed to admit that I shed a tear for the boys at the end and probably didn't say a word for about 20 minutes. I guess we just didn't make enough chances but we didn't deserve to lose to some diving bullcrap penalty. I'm trying to be diplomatic but...

The whole day was absolutely fantastic until that moment. You boring, boring Italians.

We are about to move onto Prague where hopefully we can leave the World Cup behind for a while. I don't really like our chances. I'm just hating the world right now, more than usual. Food doesn't taste as good, I'm tired, and the socceroos are out.

...

Nath

Stuttgart and Frankfurt

Hohoho Yeah,

How is everyone and how bout those Aussies,

The 22nd of June 2006. Remember that day, I know I will. The whole experience was absolutely incredible. Lunch with some relatives, afternoon in the main street, train ride with about 1 million croatians to the stadium, and the most exciting match of football I've ever seen. AND I WAS IN THE STADIUM!!

I learnt during the day that Stuttgart has 20,000 Croatians living in the city and they made themselves heard all day. Then again in the stadium we didn't do a bad job of making ourselves heard. Tell you what the boys took us through the ringer though. What a result!!! Harry Kewell, get him up here...

After about 2-3 hours sleep we made our way to Frankfurt on the 23rd to continue our World Cup journey. Pete and I were hoping to meet up with Payten in Frankfurt but hadn't heard from him in about 4-5 days. Then guess who walks into our hostel room. What are the freakin' odds. We had a good sleep that night and Payten went off in the morning and managed to get himself a ticket to see Australia v Italy. All 3 of us will now be at the biggest football match in Australia's history. Bring it on!!

I managed to tape the Australian national anthem at both the Brazil and Croatia matches on my mp3 player, and you can hear my piercing tenor bellowing the words with gusto, absolutely priceless.

Hope everyone's alright, and exams for uni are going or have been alright and work isn't to taxing, I'm looking at you Mum.

Nath, Naggles, superstar.

Munich

Hello All, how´s it going.

Pete and I have been staying in Munich ever since our days in Bad durkheim and during that time we have also had a few day trips outside the city.

We arrived in Munich on the afternoon of the 14th and didn´t really have much time to do anything but we still managed to find an internet cafe and watch the German´s beat Poland.

The 15th was a bit of a nothing day as well as we spent most of the morning waiting to wash our clothes, then headed into town and watching the evenings matches at a beer garden in Munich.

On the morning of the 16th we left for our day trip to Austria including the world´s largest ice caves and Salzburg, supposedly. The whole thing was pretty disorganised as we spent almost the whole day at the ice caves, which were fantastic, however this meant we only got one hour in Salzburg, which was a bugger. The Austrian Alps are freakin´ fantastic and it was a good day out.

The next day we visited Dachau concentration camp, which was pretty powerful as you can imagine. It has a wierd feeling to it even though just outside is the actual town of Dachau which was a really nice place. In the afternoon we watched the Portugal game and then headed back to camp for an early night.

Huge. that´s what the 18th was. The Brazilian´s sure no how to party and the whole day was full of drums and noise, which was fantastic. It´s a real pity the Aussies coldn´t take their chances as I thought we should have gotten something from the game.

On the 19th we went to an Aussie training session in Orhinghen, pardon the spelling, which was fantastic as the town put on a real show for everyone. Also we had our first Schnitzel on tour which was great. Nothin´like a good schnity.

The 20th we pretty much just walked around Munich and watched the German game at a beer garden, which was massive as we were the only Aussies there. That was a massive shock, seriously most of the time its like being in Australia, a very drunken and yobbo Australia.

So that should keep everyone up to date and hopefully a bit later I´ll be able to post some of the better stories, but for now the internet police are on my back.

Go you Aussies

Nath

Bad Durkhiem(1st 3 days of tour)

Hello all from Bad durkhiem, about an hour or so from Kaiserslautern.
What a debacle it was geting from Frankfurt airport to the camping grounds. Despite assurances before we left we were unable to get public transport as we arrived at night so we had to get a taxi which cost 50€ each. Not happy.
The next day was the Aussie Japan clash which was great as we got to Kaiserslautern at about 11 and soaked up the atmosphere with 1000´s of other Aussies.
We got to the stadium at about 1:30 for the 3pm kickoff and got some nice photos of the pitch, and watched as the stadium filled. The atmosphere after the final whistle was absolutely nuts and we stayed around Kaiserslautern to watch the Czechs smash the US.

The day after we took it easy in the town of Bad durkhiem and watched the football most of the afternoon. Croatia I thought looked pretty impressive. Should be a great match.

The following morning we moved on to Munich and we are staying here till the 23rd and then back to Frankfurt for the 2nd round.

Hot tip: Australia 1 Brazil 1

Missing everyone, hope your all watching the Aussies,

Nath

Wouter...the whole truth

This is the full story of possibly one of the craziest men in history, and just remember, he works at an airport refuelling aeroplanes so be afraid.

He first started talking to Payten at the bar at which we watched the Australia v Holland match. Payten walked up to the bar to buy a round when a man engaged him in conversation. We all thought nothing of it, except that Payten took quite a long time getting the beers, no excuses. After the match this man then proceeded, unannounced mind you, to buy all 4 of us a round and ask us where we were from ect. We were first freaked out when he started describing the PPP, which really shouldn't be talked about on this website. He then made comments such as "What would it be like to fly a plane into concrete" and "If you want to sink half of Holland I can tell you how". By this stage we were all somewhat afraid but also amused at times by this man's crazy stories. What really scared us was after saying goodbye and leaving him in the bar, he somehow managed to catch us up at the bus stop at the airport. Just before our bus came we managed to shake him with our phone numbers still intact, despite his constant questioning on the subject. We did leave with his though and the looks between the four of us at that time were classic. Every eye simply said "this man may well never leave us unless we take his phone number".
From then on his legend grew from simple airport crazy to a man who may well be a major player in international crime. For this we will remember Wouter and also for the immortal phrase "Now you like my country" and the now common call "You've been Vootered".

I hope this does the man justice.

Nath

Nath

Australia v Japan

Firstly, let me start by saying...WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!

That match was one of the greatest experiences of my life...at least for the last 10 minutes. The feeling at the stadium is something that really can't be described in words. I took a few photos that hopefully will show a bit of the emotion that the fans were feeling during the match but it's really hard to put down. All I can say is that the second round is looking good and Pete and I will be there with bell's on.

Super, super Tim
Super, super Tim
Super, super Tim
Super Timmy Cahill

YEAAAAAAAAHHH!!!

Nath

London

How sweet it was to spend some time in the English capital just before the world cup. English flags in every window and crazy poms with there shirts off in 20 degree heat. Gotta love it.

The day after we got back from Amsterdam Pete, Payten, Skinner and I all went on a big bus trip around London [which was free thanks to Tim Skinners work, sweet] , with intermittent talk of what a crazy that Wouter guy was. Seriously the guy has left a massive mark on all our travels thus far. It was good to finally get off our feet and get some sightseeing done without having to walk everywhere. We went passed all the big sights, such as Big Ben, The Tower of London and Westminster Abbey. It was a great day out with an early night...ish.

The next day the foursome was cut to 3 as Skinner had to work but Payten, Pete and I took a chance to see The Tower of London and the Crown Jewels[hehehe]. We then tried to get into stamford bridge, Chelsea's home stadium, but the blues scrooged us and we weren't allowed in, bloody Chelsea! We then went to Westminster Abbey which had also closed due to the time we had spent getting to Stamford bridge, Bloody Chelsea! we got some good photo's though. Then we wnt back to skinner's for another night of trying not to fall asleep during every partial lull in conversation, man we were tired.

The world cup is here!!! Skinner worked again today which gave Pete, Payten and I a chance to sleep in, which we took with both hands. After that we headed to Skinner's work and had some lunch and a beer while waiting for Tim to knock off. After that we watched the Germany v Costa Rica game at a pub and duly got Wanchope fever! The rest of the day was taken up by travel, football and more talk of Wouter...What a nutter!

The 10th was all about England v Paraguay which Pete, Payten and I watched at Canary Wharf on a big screen with thousands of poms, pity there team sucks. The other matchs we watched at Skinner's place, where I had 4 beers...give or take.

The 11th was both me and Pete's last day in London and we took the chance to head to Camden markets and Abbey Road...that's right Beatles fans I have photo's of me being an ass clown on Abbey road. I got rid of some of my unwanted pounds by getting a Danger Mouse T-shirt, SCORE!, and then said goodbye to Payten, Skinner, Lucy and there other housemates. before heading off to Frankfurt where the business begins. WOOOOO!!

Amsterdamn

So I figured that a few people might actually want some experiences from the crazy Dutch capital and here they are...

After leaving Wouter in the airport(that guy was crazy) we headed outside to the bus stop to get to our hostel. Unfortunately the bus came quite late so Wouter, who knows how, was able to catch up to us and regale us with more stories about his country.
When we did finally get to our hostel we checked in and decided to have a walk around the place. It's a pretty amazing city if not quite different. "coffee" houses seem to be pretty much everywhere.
During our trek we stopped to have some fries with mayonaise which is a Dutch thing and now I know why it hasn't caught on.
The next day was fairly similar as we walked around and just soaked up the atmosphere, or lack thereof. We were out on the streets at about 10 and there was noone else in sight. In the afternoon we went to The Van Gogh museum and had a kick around in the park outside.
Then it was time to sample some dutch brews(which is a great way to get over jetlag, WOOO!)
Our last day in Amsterdam( June 6th) saw us try to get to Amsterdam Arena which turned into a complete debacle. Somehow Pete and I lost Payten and Tim and due to my phone not working in Holland, we weren't able to get back together until that afternoon at the airport.
Thankfully our plane left ontime with all engines intact and we are now London. Phew!

Nath

Now do you like my country

G'day all from halfway around the world.
The last few days have been spent in Amsterdam and also London and what an eventful few days it's been.
Pete and I arrived into London at 6:25am on Sunday the 4th(Happy birthday Dave). Almost directly after we met up with Tim Skinner and Payten Giles, and we were on our way to Amsterdam on a flight which should have left Heathrow at 9:50. It was then that we found out that the plane we were on was missing a piece of its left engine. Lucky us! We were forced to catch a later flight which ruined our chances of getting to Rotterdam and seeing the Australia v Holland friendly. When we got to Amsterdam it really got interesting though.

Sitting in the airport watching the Football we met a very strange individual, by the name of Wouter. All I'll say is that he made our stay in Amsterdam surprisingly scary and hilarious at the same time. And if your wondering, his favourite catch phrae is the title to this post.

We spent about two days in Amsterdam which was fun for all the family.

Now we're back in London and staying at Tim's place until the 11th when we head to Frankfurt to begin our World Cup adventure.

Hope everyone is well, make sure you post some comments.

Nath

It Begins...

Well, it's finally here.

There's nothing left to be said but "ha, ha, guess who's going to the world cup".

I'll hopefully be able to post pictures up in the not to distant future, so you can see all my globetrotting shenanigans (that's right, I'm funky enough to be a globetrotter).

Auf Wiedersehn

Nath