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The
night before the morning after......The WCFan.com Diary begins here
(Wednesday
May 29, 2002)
Its 11:30 pm and I have just finished packing. The decisions have not been easy, in the end I decided to wear the new white away jersey for tomorrow's plane trip and go with the green for the Cameroon game. Of course if I find out that the Irish are wearing the white strip on Saturday, I may need to get out the Bold in the hotel in Niigata. It’s always important to come prepared, you never know, maybe Mick will need me. In addition, for tomorrow's trip, I have decided to accompany the away strip with the Dunnes Stores special World Cup cap and the scarf I picked up at Lansdowne Road at the Estonia game last October... a lifetime ago in Irish football terms. Hopefully that will get the attention of the other Paddy's who might be flying out from here also, and maybe we could get a few Ole's going in SFO, wouldn't that be a sight. If that fails, maybe I'll round up a few of the Mexicans working at the airport. At least they can do it with a Spanish accent! I think I have everything packed now, but for some reason I can't seem to find Roy Keane. I was hoping to bring him with me but he appears to have changed his mind at the last minute. He was expected to call, but I never heard from him. Anyway, onward we go. The flight is at 1:45 pm tomorrow and is 10 hours and 45 mins long. That means that we arrive in Tokyo on Friday evening at 5:00pm. Somehow I feel like I am losing a day in that calculation. From there we go straight to Tokyo Central Station, a 53-minute trip on the Narita Express according to the Japan Rail Website. We then leave Tokyo Central Station for Niigata on the Joetsu Shinkhasen (Bullet Train), and this leg should take us about 2 hours. Hopefully getting us to Niigata about 10pm local time on Friday night (or 24 hours after leaving San Francisco). There should be just enough time in Niigata for a few beers and some singing with the rest of the Green Army. I would imagine that there will be a few more inquests into the Roy Keane situation, but hopefully, a good result on Saturday, will bring an end to that. I have had enough of that feeling in my stomach over the past 7 days now. I will write more some time over the next few days. In the mean time "Come on you Boys in Green", safe travelling to all and see you in Niigata. So here I am in Niigata (Saturday June 1, 2002 - 7:10am) I arrived in Niigata at 9:30pm last night, after a very long day. The flight was fine; it went by pretty fast for 10 hours. Tommy and myself compared match tickets and were very excited to see that by some great coincidence, we are sitting together for the Cameroon and Brazil games. Amazing, considering that our tickets were on different applications! Tokyo was incredible, well at least the train stations were. We went to the Japan Rail ticket office in Narita to validate our rail passes and to make reservations for the trains to Tokyo and then onto Niigata. We got a bit of a shock when we were told that all the trains to Niigata were fully booked for the rest of the evening. Of course, as we found out a few hours later and after a few worrisome frowns, there are still 8 double decker carriages that don't need reservations and are on a first come first served basis. Tokyo Central Station is a nut house. There are people running around like lunatics all over the place. If you stop to breath they just run you over. If you go to take money out of your wallet to pay for a drink, ten people will get in ahead of you. Anyway, we did eventually figure out the whole Niigata train situation. We even got our seats and were on the train 20 mins before departure. And then we looked at each other..... Where is the beer? We had been so concerned about getting to Niigata that we almost forgot what we were really here for.....football and drink. Luckily there was a small kiosk on the train platform that was able to help us out. A quick six-man exodus off the train and we all picked up our few large cans of Asahi beer, which at about $2 a pop (for 500ml) seemed about as reasonable as Irish Rail. Not at all the $6 that everyone had been promising. I am sure that will change in the pubs, but so far I have to say the prices have not seemed that out of control. Upon arriving in Niigata I saw the most beautiful sight. The "Big Swan” reared its magnificent head. It looks like very impressive stadium. Hopefully it will also prove to be a lucky Irish stadium today. Once we arrived in Niigata, there was much deliberation about how to get to the hotel. Again urban myth had made us sceptical about taking a taxi, "were they going to charge us $100 to go 2 miles?” As it turns out of course, the taxi was about $5 and was very pleasant. The Hotel Okura is right in the heart of Niigata along the river. The view is very nice and much different from the industrial town I was expecting. We arrived just in time for the last 20 mins of the France v Senegal game. There was a group of about 20 Irish lads in the lobby, watching the game on a big screen. So we naturally dropped our bags and made our way over there. At that stage I have to admit everything was like a dream, but of course sleep could wait for now. We are here to see football, sleeping can be done on July 1. After checking in, we made our way to the rooms. When all was said and done, I think I made it to bed about 11:30pm. Woke up at 5:30am this morning and have been awake since. Decided at about 6:00 it would be nice to go for a jog/walk (the running part lasted about 15 mins) to take in Niigata. It was quite funny. Every time I passed someone by, they would bow at me. The police saluted me, and girls in cars waved at me. Maybe they thought I was one of the Irish team out for a jog (I was of course wearing the new away strip). But I think, maybe it’s just that they are very nice people. So here I am; it’s 7:40am and the morning of the day that I have been waiting for a long time. Its too hard to really take it all in, but I just hope that this will be another great day to remember. Can you believe its 8 years since Ray Houghton scored against Italy? If nothing else, I look forward to a great trip in a wonderful and very hospitable country. On to Ibaraki (Sunday June 2, 2002 - 11:30 am) Over the past week I think many of us had questioned why we were still going to Japan. Did we really just spend all that money to see Ireland get humiliated? And I have to say, that is exactly how I felt at half time yesterday. It wasn't that Ireland had played that bad in the first half. But you could feel the jitters among the Irish fans and Irish players, as Cameroon seemed to outpace and outpass the Irish over and over again. There was almost a feeling of inevitability at half time, as the Irish just couldn't seem to play with any type of confidence. And then there was the second half. What a game. The Irish came out a different team in the second half. The fans picked up on it immediately and got behind them fast. In the first half there was plenty of support, but as the game went on, the fans got weary, and even I found it difficult to cheer on what seemed to be a lost cause. But in the second half the belief was back. The atmosphere was electric and singing never stopped. Even before Matt scored we knew that we were not going to go down without a fight. But what a goal! To be at a World Cup game and see your team score an important goal has to be the greatest experience on earth. It starts out with a kick of a ball that takes forever to hit the net. Then a brief millisecond of did that really happen? Followed by pure euphoria. There was an Irish guy in a hat doing laps in front of us. The feeling of pure joy all around us is too hard to quantify inside. The strangest part of the game though was the player’s girlfriends. For some reason, we ended up in the same seating area as all their friends and families. Now, the mothers and kids were great. But what is it with the 10 Victoria Beckhams' sitting in the stand? They all looked the same, had the same sun glasses as she wears and had absolutely no hint of any affinity to the Irish team (designer cloths usually don't), but for the fact that the players kept coming over to wave at them. Even towards the end, when Gary Kelly urged us on, they just sat their motionless. Is it that they think they would embarrass themselves by showing support for their boyfriend’s national team, or was it that they felt they were beyond that? Strange. Another thing I have read about since the game is the discussion of the fans cheering, "Are you watching Roy Keane". While this was certainly true, and I have to say I certainly did sing it at the top of my voice. One thing that the papers (and I assume radio and TV) did not mention was that during the game, the singing of this was followed by a "ssshhh" by at least half of the fans. A nation divided? I don't think so, but more a nation united. I don't believe there was one person there that didn't want Roy Keane on the pitch; it was just a way to help some of us heal a little. Speaking of Roy Keane. One of the topics that came up last night in Niigata was "Could Ireland have played any better in the second half, even if Roy Keane was on the pitch?” I have certainly seen every great Irish game, and I think yesterday's second half performance was about as good as we get. The whole day itself was amazing. We set out from the hotel at about 10 am, even though the game was not until 3:30pm. We went straight to the train station from where the buses to the stadium ran. By the time we got there, there were about 200 Irish fans singing and drinking on the streets, which grew to over 500 very fast, it was amazing. The station quickly became the unofficial gathering site for the fans, who were, as ever, going to make the most of every moment. There was a small newsagent at the station, that was the dedicated bar for all the Irish fans. After about an hour of being there, the shop was restocking the fridge from behind on a constant basis, to meet the requirements of the Irish. Screams of "Could you pass the Big Asahi's first" were being sent through the open fridge to the men on the other side. The great thing about Japan is that there is no problem drinking on the streets, even for World Cup games. The police were very friendly and seemed to love the Irish fans. And as for the Japanese people. I am not sure what sort of deal the FAI has going with the people of Niigata, but where did they all get the jerseys? There were hundreds of them wearing jerseys. And theirs even had their favourite players names and numbers on the back. I don't even have that!!! Lucky really, as I am sure it would have been No. 6 for a certain Roy Keane. It was even the Japanese who had the Roy who? banners and the MIA - Roy Keane t-shirts!!! And then there was the one lovely Japanese girl. She decided that it would be fun to walk into the middle of a few hundred Irish fans with nothing on top but a skimpy bikini with a shamrock on each breast. I have never in my life heard a chorus of "Ole, Ole, Ole" be sang with such passion. So as I write this I am now on a train back to Tokyo. Ahead of us is still the unknown. After the German win last night, I think we have some regrets about not beating Cameroon. But still, the Germans will find a very different opposition on Wednesday, that we know. Behind us is the wonderful town of Niigata. I just hope the people in the rest of Japan are half as nice. I'll let you know! Tokyo (Tuesday June 4, 2002 - 7:30 pm) So we made it to Tokyo fine on Sunday. What a great day we had. Well at least after we found our hotel. Its really not a lot of fun carrying a heavy haversack on your back, while trying to locate a hotel in streets signposted in Japanese signs and a temperature of 27 degrees with 100% humidity. But anyway we did get there, eventually, and the party began. The first night in Japan was spent in Roppongi, the Tokyo equivalent to Temple Bar in Dublin. Very nice, but at about $8.50 (9 Euro) a beer; a little bit on the cheap side. Of course, did had to be the night that beer has never tasted better in all my life. Don't think I ever did have a $300 night before! Got home at 2 am for the first time. Reached the hotel door with Tommy and Mary and decided that I needed to check out a little more of Roppongi. Got home the second time at 7 am. Why waste the opportunity to party until the sun is high in the sky? And, if you are going to spend nearly $10 on a beer, the $30 taxi ride there and back, really doesn't seem like much. Yesterday (Monday) was pretty quite. Did manage to crawl out of bed at about noon, and spent the rest of the day figuring out the maze of Tokyo Subway and rail network. We then of course went back to Roppongi. But this time did make it home at a decent time, and even went to bed the first time. Today was very special. I found out last night the general area where the Irish team were supposed to be training, so myself and Mary decided to jump on a train and make our way over there. It's about 40 mins from where we are staying by train. Luckily when I got to the station where I knew to get off, I found some Irish guys standing around and asked if they knew where to go. They had been there the prior day, but were not the greatest at giving directions. They mentioned something about taking a left every time we hit an intersection. After ending up back where I started, I decided to head in the direction of the beach. When asking
for directions in Japan, as Tommy would say, "Ask often and go with
the most frequent answer". So we began. Luckily there were a bunch
of school kids going by "You know Ireland? Ireland practice?” "Welcome Republic of Ireland to World Cup". We had found the destination. Unfortunately, just behind the nice big welcome sign was "Ireland practice today at 3:00pm not open to public today" (There are no mistypes in that sentence). It was still only 11:30 and I couldn't even get to see them training if I wanted to hang around for over three hours. There was some solace in the fact that after about 15 mins, Steve Staunton, David Connolly, Kevin Kilbane and Andy O'Brien turned up for a press conference. Although, all we really saw was their heads as they drove by, it was nice to know the trip wasn't wasted. In the mean time, I got talking to an FAI official, who told me the hotel where the team were playing and said that it was easy to get into, and if I came across a few players, they would probably be open to having a few pics taken. The hotel is only about 10 mins drive from the training pitch, so we decided to make our way there. Within 2 minutes of arriving Ian Harte walked by. Followed soon by Damien Duff and then Gary Kelly. It was like when Homer Simpson was in the world where everything was made of chocolate. We then made our way into the lobby of the hotel. Jason got out of the elevator. "Jason,
any chance of a pic?” Of course I forgot to mention that I didn't get a chance to read it this Sunday just gone and that I was stealing it for my website. I'm sure he would understand. The next hour or was spent waiting around for the team. They eventually started coming down at about 2:40pm.The irony now of course was that police surrounded the place. There were also by now a large group of fans. Lucky we got there when we did. I will have the pics from the hotel on the site next Sunday. Unfortunately, I am missing some software that would allow me to do it now. But once Mary gets back she will upload them for me. Its now 9:30
am, Wednesday morning. The day of the game. Only 11 hours to go. We are
leaving here about noon, as it seems like Ibaraki might be a bit of a
trek. Hopefully there will be then a few hours spent outside another
station drinking beers and swapping lederhosen with Germans. Wednesday June 5, 2002 As I mentioned
before, we woke up early for the game last Wednesday. The plan was to
make our way to Kashima (what Ibaraki is really called) in good time,
and then maybe have a few beers up there. Given that Kashima was only 90
miles away, we figured that it would be pretty straightforward getting
there...how wrong could we have been. We got to Tokyo Central about 11:00 am, and, being Irish, decided that the best method of getting there, was to follow all the other people in green. This, to the disgust of the Americans among us, defied any logic, as its not that hard to ask for directions. But anyway, a train came along, and we hopped on. I went over to the first group of Irish people, just to make sure, and asked, "Is this the train to Ibaraki?” "Well, we think so, some lads over there (the next carriage down) said that they knew where we should go". So on I went. "Lads, is this the right train?” "Eh, yeah we think so, see the lads down there, they said that when the train stops, we should follow them, because they know where we need to transfer". Great I thought. Well in my mind it made sense, so I made my way back to the two Mary's, Tommy, Dad and Carrie. "Good news, see the lads over there, they said, that the lads over there, told them that the lads behind them, said that we should get off, when the lads behind them, get off. Dad was very excited with that. Anyway, we all made it to the transfer station, and we all managed to follow some poor bloke, who for all we knew was only getting off to take a quick leak. It was actually quite scary when we realised that he only found out that we were all following him after about 50 people started shouted "baaaa, baaaa". As it happened, it was all good in the end. We even made it to the next train, by which stage, there was about another 500 Irish standing on the platform. What a relief to know that our Shepard knew what he was up to! The game was amazing...well at least the second half. I honestly thought that when Robbie scored the first time, that we would put two or three past them. But sure anyway, I suppose a draw will do for now. In reality, of course, that was the greatest moment of my life so far. There is nothing like the feeling that you have just wasted thousands on a lost cause, to have it replaced by a feeling that could never be bought. Amazing! Without going into great detail I think that every Irish fan, and true football fan knows what I am talking about at this stage. But yes, it was as good as, and a million times better that it looked on television. The only reason that the Irish left that stadium that night was that the Japanese turned off the lights (after us singing for 45 minutes) and that we had to take trains back to Tokyo. I have to say, what a great pride there is in being Irish out here. There were only about 600 German fans at the game, and about 8,000 Irish. Not bad for a country of less than four million. The only nations that beat us in attendance are Japan, Korea and England. Even England just beat us, even though they are almost 20 times bigger. It is just amazing to walk around Tokyo central, which has over 10 million people walk though it every day, and be guaranteed to always meet a boy in green. The rest of Wednesday was spent initially on a train getting back to Tokyo. What a nightmare. Its actually amazing to see Ibaraki on television, as you would never believe that it is the equivalent of Mullingar in Ireland or Fresno in California. When we eventually did make it onto a train it was almost midnight, and, even though it was 90 miles to Tokyo, it was a subway train. Trains tend to finish early over here, so that was a bit of a surprise. What was even more surprising was that they decided to stop at every train station in between. I still have not got a valid reason as to why they would do that, given that no Japanese person has ever even been on a train at that time before. God bless them! We got back to the hotel in Tokyo at about 2:30 and to be honest, even though the almost victory, I was ready for bed. Good old Tommy had other plans, and refused to go to bed without a few celebratory bevies. Off to Roppongi we went. What an amazing scene. We got to Paddy Foley's (the local Irish bar) at about 3:30 and the place was mobbed. And, this does not mean mobbed inside, this means the door was mobbed, with about 2.000 Irish people all standing and singing outside. Tommy and myself stayed with the crowd until 6 in the morning. I have never heard a chorus of "Come on you Boys in Green" go on for over an hour before. It really was like we had just won the world cup. At one stage a German (on of the 600 I mentioned - I guess it makes sense as they have a population of 80 million!!!!!), came up to us and asked "Why are you so happy? You only drew". To which we replied, in soccer verse "One all, we beat the Germans one all". He just smiled and turned away. Enjoy the game. Frank Thursday, June 6 2002 Tough day had by all! Woke up eventually and decided that I may as well make my way back to Roppongi. It started out fairly calm, as all we really were there to do was see the French game. For some reason, the pints were going down well again for us all, and before we knew it, we were in trouble again. Of course, the people with sense decided to make their way home, before things got crazy again (Mary, Dad and Carrie). But then some of us decided to stay. Remained in Wall Street, the now local pub for a while after the French game, and decided that I should ask the bar if they could stick on the Ireland v Germany game, as I couldn't really remember the goal. Luckily enough (for them) they had it on tape (well probably some digital recorder given this place) and on it went. I can't even explain what happened when Robbie scored again. The funny thing about being in Wall Street that night was that it seemed pretty mixed. All the Irish jerseys were out to dry, so it didn't appear like there were many Irish around. Until of course, Robbie took the pass from Niall and hammered into the German net. Holy shit, we were back in the stadium. The place went crazy!!! We were back kissing and hugging each other, amid the realisation that the whole bar was full of Irish people. It was unbelievable. The bar, who copped on quick to what was happening, decided that it was a good idea to just replay the last 10 minutes of the match over and over again. As stupid as it sounds, we kept hugging each other over and over again, like it was the first goal each time. World Cups are great. Friday, June 7 2002 Made it home at 7 on Friday morning and walked in the door and told Mary we are off to Hiroshima. Got on the wrong train and ended up in Nagono instead of Nagoyo (I can't believe that she listened to me), so it took 9 hours instead of 5 hours to get there. Slept all the way. Found a pub in Hiroshima to watch the England game and ended up hitting the town with some other Irish lads, who made the trip in just 5 hours! Had a great time in a local Japanese restaurant. There is nothing like four Irish lads struggling to kneel for a full dinner at a table just 1 foot from the ground. Saturday, June 8 2002 We woke up and went to the Peace Park in Hiroshima. Not the most exciting place in the world, because, unfortunately, Hiroshima already looks like the rest of Japan. But the most amazing site was the model of the town before and after the bomb. It’s not nice to see a town disappear in a millisecond. Made reading about India v Pakistan hit home a little harder. Made it back from Hiroshima. Went to Ginza for dinner with Mary, as it was her last day. She treated as we had Italian (not a fan). Made it to bed early as I was still wrecked from the German game! Hey, that was the moment of the World Cup and had to be celebrated as such! Sunday, June 9 2002 - Nippon 1 - Russia 0 Got bless Japan. What an amazing atmosphere after they beat Russia. I was convinced that after Ireland beat England in 1988, Romania in 1990, Italy in 1994 and drew with Germany last week, that World Cups could not get better. But I was wrong! If we ever do win it, and especially at home, it will get even better. This country (which is not a traditional football country) went crazy last night. To see dancing in the streets for miles on end is amazing. "Nippon Ichiban, Nippon Ichiban" was being sung until the sun rose this morning. They were superb. By the way Ichiban is "number one". I walked for miles with them, and it didn't matter what direction you took or where you were going, because this country had come alive. Monday, June 10 2002 - USA 1 - Korea 1 Congrats to the US. I just hope that someone somewhere over there realises the job that that team has done. Watched the game today in an Irish pub in Tokyo that was full of Americans. Felt that the greatest pity was that there was no one on the streets of New York celebrating like the Japanese were last night. The Portugal and Korea results were even better. Maybe the day will come. Sorry that the last few days have been vague, but I promise I will try to keep things up to date from now on. I didn't have the computer for a few days last week either, which didn't help. Its now 4:20 am, Tuesday morning. I have been writing for the last 2 hours, with Tommy in bed beside me (imagine poor Amie has this every night). I will let you all know about the game tomorrow very soon. In the mean time...congrats to the US & Japan. And, God bless Ireland and especially Robbie Keane tomorrow! Fingers crossed for Ireland 2- Saudi Arabia 0! Tuesday June 11, 2002 – Ireland 3 – Saudi Arabia 0 We did it! And all thanks to our new hero, Gary Breen. I have to admit we were getting a little nervous in the stadium as the clock was winding down, and we were still searching for that elusive second goal. Us of little fate, of course Gary was going to be there when we really needed him! The day started out a little rough. Nothing of course, to do with the fact that I had decided to spend the night before updating this diary. The brainwaves you get with a few pints. And God bless the stuff I wrote below. I guess its better something than nothing. That was of course after a few pints in Shinjuka at the Dubliners Bar, where we partook in a nice little sing song. I did my usual rendition of the “Seven Drunken nights” and much to the amusement of the crowd, added in my additional night. You would think with me singing it for years now, they would have heard it all by now. I guess I will just have to keep singing. Anyway, we headed off to the game about 2:30 in the afternoon, a little late for us, but given the circumstances, very justified. Luckily getting to Yokohama stadium is much easier than Ibaraki. All we had to do was go the one stop to Tokyo Central and then transfer to the Shinkhasen for a 15 min ride to Yokohama. Not bad, but without our rail pass, it would cost about $30 each way. Our intention was to arrive in Yokohama and find a pub to watch the France v Denmark game in. Unfortunately to our dismay there were only about 2 pubs in sight and none of them had a satellite. Believe it or not, even a game as big as France v Denmark did not make it onto local television, very strange. Poor Tommy was a little distraught, and even talked about heading back to Tokyo to watch it. However, in the end we came to terms with this disaster, and decided to focus on the reason why we were here. Drink! We found a nice little German restaurant in the station and ordered 4 pitchers of beer. Tommy, myself, Dad, Carrie, Gavin, Chiarian and two Irish boys, (born in UK, but more Irish than Ned Devine) were with us. The first few pints, I found difficult to take. It had after all being almost two weeks at this stage and was getting a bit old. However, there is no greater cure for the drink, than the drink itself. The next few hours were spent chatting and having the great craic that we by now associated with the build-up to every Irish game. A few games of course had to be played and poor Gavin was very distraught when his passport went missing, after he passed it around to show the silly picture. All was ok of course, after we all figured out that Francis P was up to his usual tricks again. Revenge was taken when Francis went to the Jacks and Gavin decided to take his hat from his bag. The funny thing here was that the hat wasn’t found until much later, when Francis, who was missing it at this stage due to the rain, went to the toilet at half time and sure enough there it was on top of Chiarain’s head! The game was great. Even though it was a little harder to get as excited, in the wake of the German game. Our nerves were eased even further, when Robbie scored very early on in the first half. As I mentioned before and as I am sure most others noticed, it did get a little nervy later in that half and early in the second, when Saudi even looked like scoring a few times, prior to the great Gary’s goal. After the game, I had had enough. It was time for home. Korea was calling and I was just too tired for another night in Roppongi. So I made it back to the hotel at about 1 and after a few beers with Denise headed for bed. Tommy kept the flag flying and made it home about 6!
Wednesday, June 12, 2002 – Korea The morning didn’t start too early. Dad called about 10:30am to let us know he was off for the airport. His world Cup adventure had come to an end. Tommy was still in bed and had already ignored the hotel wake up call to tell us that we had to check out by 10:00am. We eventually made it out of there about noon, and then it was time to say goodbye to our wonderful tour guide Denise. We were hoping that she would follow us over to Korea for the Ireland game, so it was a wishful see you in a few days, sort of goodbye. We took great advantage of the one-hour train journey on the NEX to Narita airport and slept our heads off. Made it to the airport just in time for the England v Nigeria game. Not that it was really worth seeing. Unlike the other 0-0 draw (France v Uruguay), it was clear that England were quite content to accept the result and advance. There had been a tropical storm in the area all day, which delayed our flight, and after a bumpy ride to Seoul, it was already almost 11:00pm. We had nowhere to stay. The plan had been to go straight to the tourist office in the airport and book something from there. Unfortunately, they close at 10:00pm. All of a sudden we were stranded, in a brand new airport over an hour from Seoul city centre. True to form, it wasn’t long before we ran into a couple of other Irish boys, in the same situation. A pact was made to stick together, and off we went in search of a bed for the night. We soon found a bus that would take us all the way to Seoul for less than $5 each. We decided that the best course of action would be to head for the Central Station, in the hope that there would be some cheap hotels nearby. When we got there it was just deserted, and not a hotel in sight. Well, we think that one dingy building was a “love” hotel that was charging $40 an hour or a night or something. The fast lesson learned in Seoul was there was even less English letters than in Japan. As we got off the bus, we noticed two Irish lads, who seemed to have a slightly better idea of what they were up to, in comparison to us. They even had a hotel reservation, in a hotel that was about the same distance as from Dublin to Rathmines (3km). After about a 40 min taxi ride we got there. Luckily, in Korea taxi’s are very cheap, and our 3km????? Trip cost us just about $15 between two of us. Although, the original idea was for the four of us to stick together, the taxi driver kicked two of us out, because the huge back on top of Paul in the front seat, blocked his view of the rear mirror, and didn’t allow him to change gears. So we had to split. Off myself and Tommy went, hoping that the hotel name we gave the boys (Fintin & Paul), rang a bell in some other taxi drivers head. Luckily, as we were pulling off, a few cops came over to see what all the commotion was with the bags, and promised to help the boys get there too. Amazingly, we all made it. It was a bit scary to see that the hotel only had its name in Korean alphabet; at least the taxi driver could read it! The rest of the night was fairly subdued, as it was already after one, and everyone was still tired from the night before and the long trip today. We did head out for a bite, and found a nice little Korean restaurant across from the hotel. We ordered beers and some other stuff, which appeared to be a sort of potato cake with eggs and a bowl of rice. Not really sure, but we were assured there was no dog meat in it. The beers and food for four came to less than $10 each. A good reminder that we were no longer in Japan. After about 4 beers each and a good acquaintance chat, it was off to bed for us. Seoul beckoned in the morning, and Tommy and myself had a date with Brazil at 3:30pm tomorrow.
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