Seoul and the Plastic Trumpet.

It was actually Uruguay who took on the Red Devils at Olympic stadium on Saturday night at 8pm local time!

What a weekend, it was made exceptional because of 6 pieces of Red and Blue plastic moulded into the shape of a trumpet, we got a bargain on them. We all met up at Homeplus McDonalds, had breakfast, bumped into another Kiwi, (I can't believe I had never met him before) caught a cab to Gupo where we boarded the K.T.X and settled in for the first leg of the trip. First beer out of the way by lunch time on the train and reached Seoul by 3pm where we quickly established some ground rules for the trip. Basically there was only one (At this point) If we need to make a decision, whittle the possible answers down to two possibilities and flip a coin. After a dodgy first flip it worked a treat for the rest of the trip. We caught the subway to the stadium, settled in outside it next to The GS25 (A Dairy) where we were mixed Soju with Aloe Vera and Beer bought the customary red supporters hat, scarf and t-shirt and the Trumpets and sat outside getting pissed for the next few hours waiting for the match to start. These trumpets turned us from simply lads out on a piss trip in Seoul to obnoxious drunk foreigners intent on making as much noise as possible.

This was the first time I had ever watched a soccer match live and it was a pretty good one to watch, the stadium was built for the 88 Olympics and was massive, I have never even seen one so big, Like most sports grounds they didn't let you take alcohol in but they obviously hadn't come across foreigners who specialise in this time honoured past time. I had any obviously method that has worked in the past, I filled my pockets with Soju and had a half empty bottle in my hand as my sacrificial "Me no speak Korean" bottle. it worked a charm. In side we had to walk up 4 flights to reach our seats and we weren't even at the top! The Fan's were amazing, they really got into the chanting We started up a few English ones but they were quickly drowned out so we tried to remember the Korean one's much to the amusement of our neighbours. Korea lost but not to worry cause it was a cool experience. But not as good as 6 pissed blokes trumpeting their way through Seoul's subway system, we had school kids apologising to us for Korea's loss (I think) and as we were 6 school teachers we had them doing our punishments!

The night out was a bit of a blur, I remember the trumpets the most and for some unknown reason I started talking in a Mexican accent and refused to speak to any one who would not reply back in the same accent. It was amazing who many conversations I had! Around 4am we were all wasted and as you do, we all lost each other, I spent the night wandering Seoul while the others ended up in 4 different hotels, we all meet up again for the train ride home and that was that.

At one point I did get into a taxi and ask to be taken home to Gimhae before the driver very politely reminded me that I was in Seoul and that that would cost a fortune!

Next weekend is a new adventure, an Ice Hockey match in Daegu.

C'mon Black Caps.