From Russia With Love

IT WAS AWESOME!  It was definitely the most fun I've had in Russia.    

Ok so I'll just start at the beginning.  It was Manchester United vs. Moscow Cska and apparently it was a pretty big deal because it was difficult to get tickets.  So anyway we get all layered up to go because the stadium isn't heated and the top is open so let me just tell you what I was wearing.  I had on tights under my jeans (like the kind that go over your feet) and I had on another pair of socks over that and my snow boots.  On top, I put on elbow length gloves and mittens over them, a long sleeve T-shirt, a hoodie, my North Face jacket, a scarf, and my Russia coat.  And I got a little chilly.  But it is Russia so I guess it should be cold.  Ok so then we get on the metro and we had to switch lines a couple of times and at the stops, there were people with the Cska scarves on and flags and chanting and cheering and yelling and you could just feel the excitement.  Like, I can't even explain.  You had to be there.  But it was hot.  I mean, I had on all those layers and the metro is already hot so you can just imagine.  But that's not the point.  

When we got off, we met up with Kelly, who is a student from Chicago and she's studying here, and we just followed the crowd to the stadium.  There were riot police everywhere.  And we had to go through all these checkpoints but-OH!  This is real interesting.  Ok so the boys all had to go in the same lines, but the girls had to go through a separate line to get like, felt-what is that called?  When police check you for weapons or whatever and they pat you down?  Oh maybe that's it-pat you down.  Well they did that but the girls had a girl police that did it.  If there wasn't a girl police at a certain check point, the men police wouldn't touch us and just let us through.  It was pretty nice because there were very few women going so the lines were really short.  Someone told me that girls aren't really encouraged to do sports in Russia except for gymnastics (Nastia Luikin, anyone?) and that sort of thing.

We found our seats and it was unlike any sporting event I've ever been to in the US.  People weren't going to buy beers and nachos and talking to their friends about after the game or anything like that.  Every eye was on the game the whole time.  And they were constantly cheering.  The cheering never stopped.  There was a whole section that had blue and red and made a Cska flag and people were waving big flags and of course they had their soccer scarves. Once, when they thought Russia had scored, they set off fireworks (not the stadium, just fans). The stadium was packed.  And people got there at least an hour and a half early.  

The game itself was really cool and let's just be honest:  soccer players are so cool. Like probably the coolest athletes.   No one scored in the first half.  At half time, the guys in front of us turn around and asked us to take a picture of them and they realized we were American and said, "Did you come all the way from America to watch Cska?"  And we told them no and they were from Siberia and they said, "We rode three days on a train to come see this game!"  But I cleaned up their language a little bit.  They had a bottle of cognac, which they offered to us and told us it was to keep us warm, so after some convincing we each had a little bit and they had a lot.  The funniest part was when Becca was about to drink a little, Renault, one of the guys, pulls it away and says, "ENOUGH!  ENOUGH!  YOU DRINK WHOLE BOTTLE!"  She hadn't even had any yet but I couldn't stop laughing.  Then he told us "You try to watch this game without this, it is IMPOSIBLE."  They talked to us for a long time and kept wanting to take pictures with us.  Later we saw them pass the bottle around to the whole section...good thing we had a drink before everyone else.

So in the second half, Manchester United scored in the last five minutes and everyone was booing.  The final score was 1-0.  When the game ended, they made an announcement for all the Man U fans to stay in their seats until the Cska fans had exited and they could be escorted out.  It was for safety and we had had other people tell us to be careful after the game.  Since we weren't wearing anything with Man U colors we decided we'd be ok to leave with the Cska fans and of course the police were everywhere so we left but on the way out we saw a table with Man U scarves for sale and Kelly had wanted one so we stopped and we all bought one but we had to hide them under our coats so that no one would see them and get upset.  Even though Cska had just lost, the fans were still cheering and chanting and yelling all the way walking to the metro.  You could still feel like excitement.  We got home at about midnight and it was oh so worth it!

To see pictures from the game, click here.