A v Estonia 12.10.2014

So away qualifier number two for France 2016. This time is was Estonia but we decided to head out via Riga (Latvia) to get a new country in for me!!

Friday 10th October

After drinking a few of these in Estonia it was always going to end messily!

So we headed up to Stansted mid morning on the Friday, the airport was packed so we headed to the rather impressive bar in the Radisson Hotel.  After 7.30pm a "young angel" will apparently retrieve you bottle of wine from the bottle tower!

Erm can I have the third bottle on the right from the top row please, no not that, nope, next one, perfect, thank you!

The Cafe Bar

So it was a night our in Riga.Our flight did not land until 11pm, but we had soon checked into our hotel and then headed out to meet some mates already out and about.  We found the huge cafe bar and tucked into the local beer.  The place had various rooms and we ended up watching a live band.  At about stupid o'clock everyone had got separated, I got back to the hotel about 5am, Nelson turned up about an hour later and Mike never made it back!  

Saturday 11th October

I was woken up when Nelsons phone kept ringing and luckily that was about 9am and we had to be on the 10am bus from Riga to Tallinn!  We set off to the bus station and met up with Mike who had walked around all night as he couldn't get back into our hotel!  He had also not explanation when he took his coat off and found out he had lost his favourite Mr Messy T-shirt!  We boarded the coach and by about 10.01 everyone was asleep!

Riga coach station- well that was nearly all we saw in daylight!  We arrived into Tallinn about 2pm but headed to the nearest bar to wait for some mates on the later bus!  The quick drink and food stop ended lasting over 3 hours and it was now dark so jumped into a cab to our hotel next to the old town.

One quick beer, erm three hours later we finally get moving again

Cocaine in a test tube

A bottle or two in the Labor bar

Scott is delighted to still be alive after our first night in Tallinn.  It rapidly went downhill for Scott after this and we did not see him again until after the match on Sunday night!

Sunday 12th October

Old Town Tallinn

Kev is finally happy he has a beer big enough to last for an hour or so!

Our very very very very nice beer wench, 8 big beers in one hand, yes just one hand. Man City Dave was convinced he had found his new wife!

The outside of the Labor bar that has caused the carnage the night before, with this display how can you not go inside and not remember coming back out!

We headed up to the ground at about 5pm as a few of our lot didn't have match tickets.  There was not a lot going about so most headed back into the main square to watch the game on TV, apart from Scott who managed to stay asleep and miss the thriller!

Garlic Bread - mmmm that was the highlight of the catering in the ground!

So after the game we walked back into Tallinn.  It was about a 30 minute walk back which woke everyone up after the dire game of football.  We were soon back in the Beer Haus and then it was on to the Venus nightclub.

Once again the night did not end well for Mike.  First his knee went, then he was asked to leave the club we were in, then he was escorted out the club, the club was then closed down, he then fell down the stairs outside the club and when he woke up in the morning still had the ticket for his jacket which was still in the club and now closed! 

Monday 13th October

Luckily our coach back to Riga was not until 12.40, so after a long lie in we struggled back to the bus station and this time we had the posh coach back......but we were once again all soon asleep on the trip back.

We soon crossed the boarder back into Latvia - and after about 5 hours were back in Riga....

We had a few hours before we needed to head to the airport so went into a Steak restaurant!  One or two managed a few ciders, I managed a couple of Sprites!  Anyway it was soon time to get back to the airport and the flight back to Stansted.  I was dropped off at my car near Three Bridges station and was back home just after 1am.  A couple of mates had another night in Riga and took in the Latvia v Turkey match.

So another great trip abroad with England, next up the "friendly" at Celtic Park

Mark R

..

My mates Scott excellent blog from Estonia can be found at
http://mccarthysfootballtravels.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/estonia-v-england-121014.html