EPL: Manchester City at Aston Villa

This was a rare event where I had everything booked in advance – my train, my hotel and my game ticket. The Monday night football match in Birmingham was the main event on the schedule, so I always knew I would attend this game and no other event would be prioritized above it.

Train
I booked the train from London about one month ahead of time so it only cost £7 each way. It cost me £4 just to get from Lambeth North tube station to the Euston train station within London. Of course, that meant I had to take the actual train that I booked and did not have the freedom to just show up at the train station and take any train.

I arrived at the Euston train station around 11 am. I needed to eat anyway so I had enough time to eat breakfast before my train departed at 12:03 pm. The Britannia served breakfast in the train station.

Hotel and Lunch
As I wrote last week, I also booked the Britannia Hotel early – a single was only £28 pounds for the night as long as I paid in advance (£32 for the right to cancel). I was unable to check into the hotel when I arrived around 2:00 pm. My room would not be available for another hour. At this point I needed lunch, so I walked across the street to the Yard of Ale for some fish and chips and a pint. I arrived back at the hotel at 3 pm and took an unexpectedly long nap.

Obtaining Tickets
While I was at Manchester City last Monday I decided to buy an away ticket for last night’s match. An away ticket means I would sit with all the Manchester City fans in their confined space rather than sit with the Aston Villa fans and be able to wander around Villa Park. This turned out to be the correct decision as I ended up napping for 4.5 hours! I woke up shortly after 7:30 pm and raced to make the 8:00 pm start. Since I had no time to wait for the bus I ended up taking a taxi to Villa Park – cab cost was a reasonable £7.

The Game
The game was a low scoring affair compared to most of the Premiership matches I saw on this trip. This was the lowest scoring match and the only draw I saw as Manchester City and Aston Villa tied 1-1 – every other winning team had scored at least three goals.

Being an away fan did not have any real disadvantages except for the fact the lines at the one concession stand were incredibly long and they did not sell any beer in the section.

Transportation from the Game
Since I took a cab to the stadium, I decided to take the bus back to the city center. Taking buses to the city center is always easy because almost every bus runs there. The #7 bus took me back to where I needed to go.

Post Game Dining
By the time I was back from Villa Park most of the pubs were going to close in 30 minutes or so. Thus, once again, I chose to go back to the hotel.

Champions League: Wolfsburg at Manchester United

Rather than hang around downtown Manchester for a couple of hours before checking into my hostel, I decided to take the bus to Old Trafford to buy my ticket for the evening’s match. Even after seeing extra tickets in Glasgow on Tuesday night I still wanted to be sure I had my ticket for Manchester United.

Obtaining Tickets
Tickets were available for the match and I bought a ticket in the upper deck for £38. As I walked around the stadium looking for a restaurant to eat, there were a couple of guys who asked me if I needed an extra ticket. I should have figured there would be a secondary ticket market for Manchester United but I had already bought my ticket.

Lunch outside Old Trafford
I wanted to eat lunch before heading back to my hostel so I walked around Old Trafford to see what restaurants were in the area. I chose to eat at The Trafford which is a short walk from the stadium and has reasonable meal prices – for example, Fish & Chips was £4.

Back to the Hotel
At this point it was only 1:00 pm, so I took the bus back to my hostel to relax. I bought a day pass for the bus since the day pass was cheaper than even one round trip from downtown Manchester to Old Trafford. I was planning to make two round trips.

Pre Game
After hanging out in my hotel for a few hours, I took the bus back to Old Trafford. However, this time the area was completely different. The corner across the street from where I ate lunch was completely packed with fans hanging out before the game – where was this at Manchester City and Ibrox!

I believe the main reason so many people were hanging out on this corner was because of the beer store. The store had four commercial refrigerators (the kind you find at any convenience store) full of beer. For £2 you could buy a 16-ounce can and hang out on the corner – of course, the most expensive beer was Budweiser. Also, along this strip of stores was a bunch of English fast food restaurants but the main attraction was the beer convenience store.

Note: You can walk and drink your beer up until the police blockade but be sure to throw it out when you get there. No standing and drinking allowed.

Secondary Ticket Market
On the walk from the beer corner to Old Trafford were a few people holding an extra ticket in the air – meaning they had extra tickets. So for the second night in a row I could have bought a ticket for under face value but pulled the trigger too early.

Old Trafford
Old Trafford was a classic old stadium. However, I was in the upper deck meaning A) I had to walk up 170 steps and B) my view of the stadium was terrible.

First, as you enter the stair case to get to the upper deck there is a sign posted that reads “Access to the third tier stands involves climbing over 170 steps via 10 levels. Spectators who have vertigo or who have difficulty climbing are advised accordingly.” I’m not sure what stadium officials would do for you if you could not make the climb and I did not ask to find out. Second, my view of the game was fine, but the main reason I bought the upper deck ticket was so I could see Old Trafford as well and there was no view of the stadium from my seat.

The Game
The highlight of the night was Ryan Giggs becoming the ninth player in Manchester United history to score 150 goals for the team. His first goal with the team came in 1991. His 150th goal equalized the match at 1-1 after Wolfsburg took a 1-0 in the 55th minute. Michael Carrick scored the winning goal for United in the 78th minute as United defeated Wolfsburg 2-1.

Attendance at the match was 74,037 – by the far the largest crowd of any of the matches I have attended in England or probably will. A fan ran onto the field in the 2nd minute of the 2nd half for no apparent reason. Either most of the clubs have similar songs or it appeared that United had similar songs as Chelsea – only the words were different. Maybe the teams need to not only change the words but the tunes as well.

Post Game
For the third night in a row, I did not hang out in pubs after the game. Instead I did the same thing I had done on Monday night – buy a subway sandwich and chill in my hostel room.

EPL: West Ham at Manchester City

After booking my hotels, I decided I needed some exercise plus I wanted to check ticket status for the Manchester City game I was planning to attend Monday night. I was in Manchester in February 2007 and remembered that the walk from the Manchester train station to the City of Manchester Stadium is 1.5 miles. I decided to run to the box office.

Obtaining Tickets to Manchester City
I arrived at the City of Manchester Stadium’s ticketing center and tickets were available for the night’s game. Also, since I was planning to travel to Birmingham for when Aston Villa hosted Manchester City I asked if they had an away ticket available for that match. I bought a ticket for both matches.

Manchester City requires you to have a ticket card regardless of whether you are a season ticket holder. I received a ticket card which would allow me entrance to the stadium and my “ticket stub” gave me an assigned seat. I am not sure how the secondary ticket market works for Manchester City. Either one does not exist or you need to buy an extra ticket from somebody who already has a card.

Lunch
On my run I noticed there were not many restaurants in the area around Manchester City’s stadium. Thus, I decided to eat at The Overstuffed Pizzeria – the pizza place in the Britannia Hotel. All pizzas were half price.

The Game
After taking a nap, I walked back to the City of Manchester Stadium in time for the game. It was my first Monday Night Football game – English style. Carlos Tevez scored two goals as he led Manchester City to a 3-1 win over West Ham. It was Tevez’s first goal against his former team. The win was Manchester City’s fifth win in six games and is their best start since 1961.

Post Game Dining
With pubs closing because of early closing hours in England, I grabbed a sandwich at Subway and went back my hotel to relax. I had just attended nine games in seven days in England and Scotland and was planning to attend one game per day for the next week in Scotland, England and Finland.

EPL: Wolverhampton at Sunderland

My entire day was planned for Sunday. I was taking a morning train from Edinburgh to Newcastle, taking the metro over to Sunderland, attending the Wolverhampton at Sunderland game at 4 pm, heading back to the Newcastle train station where I was taking the train to Manchester Sunday evening. The best part of the journey was that the train would only cost me one day on my BritRail pass. The worst part was that I was not sure if the conductor on the train would accept my rail pass from Edinburgh to Newcastle (I had only booked the English BritRail pass which does not include Scotland).

Train from Edinburgh to Newcastle
I took the 9:30 am train from Edinburgh to Newcastle Sunday morning. Again the train from Edinburgh to Newcastle has some of the most beautiful views in the world as it runs along the North Sea. My fear of the conductor charging me the one way fare from Edinburgh to Berwick-upon-Tweed were relieved when the woman checked my rail pass and moved along.

Newcastle Train Station
As was the case on Thursday, I had my luggage with me so I needed to check it at the train station. This time I needed to check my backpack as well since I would not have six hours of cricket to watch with my bags by my side. I was planning to wander around Sunderland.

After checking my bags I determined that the easiest route to Sunderland was via subway to the Stadium of Light station in Sunderland.

Obtaining Tickets
After about 30 minutes on the subway, I arrived at the Stadium of Light and walked to the ticketing center to find out the ticket cost. The cheapest seat was £22. They also had a £27 ticket. Rather than deal with scalpers, I decided to buy the £22 ticket ahead of time and go hang out in downtown Sunderland before the game.

Pre Game Dining
I decided it was quicker to walk to downtown Sunderland than go back and take the train. Once I got to the main corner of downtown Sunderland, I had a few choices of where to eat lunch and hang out. My choices were Yates’s Wine Lounge, The William Jameson or Sinatro’s. Yates’s Wine Lounge had the best food and drink specials so I chose that restaurant.

After lunch I walked back to the stadium where I went to the pub that was across the street – The Colliery Tavern. This place was overcrowded as the crowd spilled out into the grass that surrounded the pub.

The Game
Sunderland took a 2-0 lead on penalty kicks. Wolverhampton came back with two goals of their own at the 50th and 55th minute to tie the game 2-2. At this point it looked as though the game might by close but Sunderland scored three more goals before the end of the game to win 5-2.

In the 55th minute, Kevin Doyle scored a goal on an indirect free kick from within the penalty box about six yards away from the goal line. I was unaware this could happen in soccer but I do now.

After one of the goals, Sunderland players jumped over the railing into the stands to celebrate with the fans. As this was going on some fans came onto the pitch to celebrate as well and were immediately ejected from the stadium. For the rest of the game, fans were arguing with security over why the fans were ejected since the players came into the stands first.

Metro after the Game
Something I learned the hard way is that the metro does not stop at the St. James stop after the game. Probably because most fans would go to St. James to get on and beat the crowd getting on at Stadium of Light. It only stops at the Stadium of Light stop or the city center. Rather than walk to the Stadium of Light stop, I walked to the City Center in order to beat the crowd. However, the City Center stop was not a time saver. Subway personnel ran one train directly to the Stadium of Light stop and did not allow anyone from the City Center stop to get on. Since the city center is further than the Stadium of Light from the stadium, I would recommend waiting in the line at the Stadium of Light stop rather than heading to the city center.

Train to Manchester
I made it back to the Newcastle train station in time to take the 7:09 pm train to Manchester. I picked up my luggage, bought some Burger King and took a nap on my three hour voyage way to Manchester.

Guinness Premiership: Harlequins at Newcastle

After spending the day at my hostel, it was time to head out for the reason I was in Newcastle – Newcastle Falcons rugby. Even though the game was not scheduled to start until 8 pm, I departed the hostel around 4 pm. I was hoping to hang out at a restaurant or pub around the stadium before the game. In order to get to Kingston Park, I took the subway from the Monument stop to the Bank Foot stop – although I could have gotten off at Kingston Park the woman at my hostel called the subway and they said to get off at Bank Foot.

Area around Kingston Park
My hopes of restaurants and pubs quickly dwindled as I walked from the subway stop to the stadium and saw no place to eat or drink at. As I got closer to the stadium, I saw a sign for an Italian restaurant that was located in the stadium. I figured this was my best bet for any pre-game meal so I walked that way.

Obtaining Tickets
However, rather than eat at the restaurant first, I walked directly to the ticket office to buy a ticket for the match. This was the first game of my seven days in Northern England and I was unsure how much ticket demand there would be. Since the cheapest ticket at the box office was £18 I bought the ticket.

Pre Game Dining
Before buying my ticket I noticed a pub over the ticket office that I thought might be better than the Italian restaurant. My arrival at the pub was delayed since as I walked out of the ticket office, the Harlequins bus pulled up outside the ticket office and the team walked off the bus. I followed the team into the lobby entrance – they headed to the locker room while I headed to pub called The Hiding Place.

The Hiding Place is a traditional English pub. Traditional enough where they did not plan to serve any food until 7 pm. I was starving at 6 pm, so I walked over to the Italian restaurant to get some food. However, I found out the hard way that the Italian restaurant only seats hospitality guests on game days. My plan of eating a nice meal and enjoying some drinks before the game was dead at this point. The only place in the area was The Hiding Place and they would not serve any food for another hour.

At 7 pm, I rejoiced in the fact I would finally be able to eat. However, all the pub did was roll out a cart of poorly made hamburgers and hot dogs. At this point I started to understand why a Gastropub (a pub that serves quality food) was such an invention in England whereas it is standard in the United States.

Finding My Seat
After eating a bad hamburger and having a couple more pints it was time for the match between Newcastle Falcons and Harlequin to begin. The one perk of being in the bar before the game was that I could exit the bar directly into the stadium. Ah, but there was a catch. You needed to have a ticket for those sections and I was in the standing only section behind the end zone. I actually walked into the stadium, without having my ticket checked at first, but then realized I could buy a beer at the bar and bring it into the stadium.

After buying a beer at the bar, I walked to the other “ticket taker” since the line was shorter. He checked my ticket, and, since I had a standing only ticket he told me I could not enter the section I was heading towards. Instead I needed to take my sorry ass and walk outside of the pub and into the end zone sections. I did that but decided I could not stand since I had already been in the sitting section. I walked by security on the other side of the stadium and ended up sitting at mid-field.

The Game
With a crowd of 5,714 in attendance (so much for being worried about a sellout), the Harlequins and Falcons ended up in a 17-17 draw. It was the first non-soccer or hockey tie I have ever seen as Harlequins came back from a 14-3 deficit.

As with cricket, fans could buy beer during a rugby match.

Post Game
After the game an Irish band played on the side of the stadium I had snuck into. I watched the band for a few songs, but was concerned that I might miss the last subway train back to downtown Newcastle. The last train left at 11:13 pm so I left in order not to be left in Kenton.

Downtown Newcastle
When I arrived back in downtown Newcastle it was time to grab some food. Of course, nothing was open at midnight so I ate at a Kebab restaurant and ordered a gyros platter. As I was ordering another guy had already ordered was incredibly drunk to the point where he could barely speak. When his pizza was ready, he sat down to eat it and proceeded to take his shirt off. The owner yelled at him to put it on which he somehow managed to do so.

After eating, I was back wandering the streets of Newcastle. Once again, the town had come to life with people lining up for a block or two to get into certain clubs.

County Cricket Division 1: Hampshire at Yorkshire

As I wrote earlier my plan for Thursday afternoon was to attend the first division county cricket match between Yorkshire and Hampshire at Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground in Leeds. The match started at 10:30 am and it took anywhere between 2 and 2.5 hours to take the train from London to Leeds. One train left London’s King’s Cross station at 8:10 am and arrived Leeds at 10:21 am. By the time I would arrive at Headingley it would be around 11 am which seemed like good timing even though it was early. However, the deciding factor was when Big Chris (on Wednesday night) stated he needed to leave the house at 7:15 am Thursday morning and would drive right by King’s Cross station on his way to work so he offered me a ride.

I woke up at 6:30 am to get ready and we were out of the house by 7:15 am. Big Chris dropped me off at the train station around 7:40 am and I grabbed some breakfast at the train station. The train left at 8:10 am and I was on my voyage to Northern England.

Traveling by Train
Before leaving for Europe I purchased a BritRail England pass. Since I had an idea about how many days I would be traveling in England, I purchased the flexible pass for eight days meaning I could travel any eight days within a two month time period. I activated the pass when Nicole and I traveled to Sheffield, England for the U2 concert in August and used the second day to return to London.

Now I was using my third day. The best part of the BritRail pass is that you do not need to plan what trains you are taking ahead of time. Thus, you can change your plans if needed. Second, you can travel as I was planning to today – meaning traveling from London to Newcastle but with a lengthy stopover in Leeds. My first journey from London to Leeds in the morning and my second journey from Leeds to Newcastle in the evening were considered the same “trip.”

Leeds Train Station
After arriving in Leeds I needed to 1) Check my luggage at the train station and 2) Determine how to get to Headingley.

I first asked for directions on how to get to Headingley. I was told to take a local train to the Headingley train stop. The train left in about 10 minutes and the next one was 30 minutes after that. Hurriedly, I found the bag check for the day – it was £7 per bag. Since I would be sitting in a stadium all day I only chose to check my large suitcase and carry my backpack and camera bag with me. I had considered checking my backpack as well but decided against it.

After checking my bag I made the train to the Headingley Station with three minutes to spare. Even though I got off at the Headingley Station, you can also get off at the Burley Park Station. Both are about a 10 to 15 minute walk to the cricket ground.

Obtaining Tickets
I arrived at Headingley around 11 am just as I thought I would. I walked up to the ticket office and noticed they had a regular priced ticket for £15 or a concession ticket for £10. I had no idea what a concession ticket was but asked for one anyway. The guy at the window sold me one so I saved £5. I’m assuming a concession tickets is for a youth, senior or student. Not sure what I qualified for but I think the guy did not care too much.

Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground
Headingley was similar to the Oval – an old stadium with a lot of stands around the pitch that were empty. Only one concession stand was open as was the case with the Oval so I obviously sat in the section there.

I did not notice much of a difference between Division 1 and Division 2 cricket – probably because I am not an expert in watching cricket. The pace felt the same and neither team had an incentive to win the match since neither would be demoted to Division 2 by losing.

Getting back to Leeds Train Station
To get back to the Leeds train station, I took the local train back as I had in the morning. However, I failed to look at the time tables to see when the train was returning to the main train station. Just as I had barely made the train in the morning, I barely missed the train in the evening. At first I was fairly aggravated but then appreciated the relaxation of waiting at a train station on a fall afternoon in Europe. The wait reminded me of when I had to wait for awhile after the American Memorial 500 Champ Car race I attended in Germany on September 15, 2001.

Of course, my 30 minute wait at the Headingley train station did not matter since by the time I got back to the Leeds train station and collected my bag, I made the same train I would have if I caught the earlier train – I just waited in a different location.

Booking Hotels for Northern England

I woke up Tuesday morning with nothing to do until 5 pm when I was supposed to meet Timmie Hampton at Pinchito Tapas in Islington. Thus, I decided it was time to book some hotels or hostels for my trip to Northern England. First up was Newcastle. I mainly used three sites to research where I would stay.

1) hostelworld.com
2) hotels.com
3) venere.com

At first I could not decide where to stay in Newcastle. My Let’s Go Europe book said Albatross was the best hostel in Newcastle. However, they only had 6 bed dorms available and I was not keen on sharing a room with five other people. I looked at hotels but they were all priced around £60 or £70 – too much to spend on myself (at least on my first nights on my own). So I decided to book the 6 bed dorm for £18.95 through hostelworld.com.

Next up was Manchester since I was planning to stay there for three nights after Newcastle. The matches I want to attend over the weekend and into Monday are:

1) Saturday, September 26: Liverpool versus Hull City at Anfield
2) Sunday, September 27: Sunderland versus Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Stadium of Light
3) Monday, September 28: Manchester City versus West Ham United at City of Manchester Stadium

Since the match at Sunderland kicked off at 4 pm on Sunday I was planning to take the train from Manchester to Sunderland Sunday morning and return back to Manchester Sunday night. I have a BritRail England pass – meaning I can travel as far as I want in England on any given day.

Through hotels.com I found the Britannia Manchester with an economy single room for £39 per night. None of the hostels on hostelworld.com had a single room and the dorms were in the £25 range. Since I could cancel my room on the day of arrival, I booked the single room at the Britannia.

Next I booked a hostel for Wednesday, September 30. I was planning to attend the Champions League match between Manchester United and VfL Wolfsburg that night. The Britannia Manchester had singles available but for £79 now. I found Hatters Hostel on hostelworld.com that had a single for £30 for the night. Now that I had most of my rooms booked for the next week I was ready to head off around London.

The only room I still needed to book for the next week was Tuesday, September 29 in Glasgow, Scotland. However, I was still debating whether to attend the Champions League match between the Rangers and Sevilla in Glasgow or the Arsenal and Olympiacos match in London.