- 1 Jul 08, 11:22 AM
London - 3,174 miles travelled
Upon landing in London on Monday evening virtually the first thing I noticed was an advert featuring a huge quote by Samuel Johnson.
It said: "By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show."
But football did not feature in his dictionary and he definitely didn't reckon on Euro 2008.
I had a dream about the tournament last night, I was in the press box and Arsene Wenger was sat a couple of desks away commentating for French television.
But I awoke this morning not only to the reassuring presence of my wife next to me but to the reality that Euro 2008 is all over.
The finest football tournament in recent times has come to an end and all the drama, action and entertainment that it provided across 22 June days is now consigned to memory.
I don't know what you think but I thought that it delivered in a big way. I did not have particularly huge expectations in advance and I think in many ways that was part of the attraction of the tournament.
It was not besieged by hype before it had even begun (at least not in England) and was allowed to flourish on the merits of the football it produced. Dramatic finishes became an almost daily occurrence, negative teams got their comeuppance and Spain, the best team there, lifted off the trophy.
I've already spoken about the merits of Switzerland but Austria wasn't too shabby either.
Here are a few of my highlights from the land that produced Arnie:
Feeling the stand I was sat in at the Tivoli Neu stadium in Innsbruck wobbling in a very considerable way after Sweden equalised against Spain; earthquake simulation of distressingly realistic proportions.
The sheer size and prevalence of a supermarket chain that might be "so near" in England but that operates on a whole different level in Austria. Mini cities.
Trying to interview Spain's Sergio Garcia in Spanish. I didn't really have the language skills for the job and he had to finish each of my questions.
The smell of a train's burning brakes on a hot day heading to Feldkirk. I was slightly worried, all the locals on the train just laughed at my concern.
Croatia coach Slaven Bilic touching fists with Vedran Corluka after substituting him during the match against Poland in Klagenfurt. Bilic was too cool for school before he got carried away a few minutes too early against Turkey.
Watching young people stagger around Innsbruck late on a Saturday night, blind drunk and throwing up all over the place. I didn't see any of that from the Swiss and, after a couple of weeks away, it looked refreshingly familiar.
The feeling of sheer joy after collecting my clean laundry early one morning in Klagenfurt; I never realised a clean pair of socks could seem like such a luxury.
The relative affordability of just about everything after entering the country from Switzerland.
So there you are. I was away for 26 days, visited all the host cities except Zurich, caught countless buses, trams and trains, hitched the odd lift off other BBC people and travelled more than 3,000 miles.
At every turn the tournament was brought to life by the sheer number and good humour of travelling supporters. Top marks go to the Dutch but countless others played their part in creating such an atmosphere.
And despite all the concern before the tournament started that the antipathy of the host nations would cause the tournament to fall flat, I have to doff my cap to both the Swiss and the Austrians. Neither nation made it out of the group stage but, generally speaking, it did not stop the locals having a good time. Perhaps a lesson in the benefit of modest expectations. The Swiss edge it on efficiency and infrastructure but the Austrians have a touch more of the party vibe about them (though not in Klagenfurt).
It has been a privilege to be a small part of it all and a huge thanks to all of you who read the blog. Whether you loved it or loathed it, felt it brought the tournament to life or was just a complete waste of money, without your comments and opinions it just wouldn't have been the same.
I'm off to cut the grass at the allotment, crack on with some grouting and vacuum the front room.
Summer is here and normal life has resumed. But don't panic - the football season kicks off in 40 days.
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Fletch's view of Euro 2008
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Fletch, you've been brilliant. Thanks for all this, see you in SA two years from now!
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Excellent blog Fletch.
I've seen numerous complaints about wasting "license payer?s money" for many of the blogs on the BBC website and rightly so ? most of them contain pointless waffle, but this has not been one of them.
Many have misinterpreted your posts, for instance the excellent piece on if England were "missed" at the Euros, but it had the most comments of any blog and started discussion ? surely one of the main reasons for the Euro blogs.
In contrast, look at the other so called experts blogs..what a joke, full of cliques, poor understanding of the game and hype , while yours has encapsulated what "blogging" is all about - entertaining, insightful, engaging and fun!
As an Englishmen living in Switzerland your commentary on Swiss live has been spot on.
BBC do everyone a favour, get a few more like blogs like this one, looking forward to SA in 2010.
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Fletch, what are you on about, man? The Austrian football season kicks off next week and the Norwegian league is already underway!
Who cares about premiership football? Full of mercenaries and overpaid prima donnas
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Excuse me for this post off topic . I learn English and am quite surprised by the grammar used in this article:
'I never realised a clean pair of socks could seem like such a luxury.'
'Top marks go to the Dutch but countless others played their part in creating such the atmosphere.'
'SUCH A LUXURY'
is correct grammar;
'SUCH THE ATMOSPHERE'
seems to me grammatically incorrect based on what I know from grammar textbooks.
Is there a a grammar mistake in the latter phrase or is it some peculiar stylistic usage?
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hear hear! fantastic reading from you and all the other bloggers. Although I am in Vienna, it has been very interesting hearing your opinions and reading the other commentators input. Indeed, back to normal in Vienna too. What to do? I and my mates are actually quite distressed!
Thanks for the all the hard work and hard partying you must have put in!
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jakartacopenhagen
Rest assured - the second point was human error that I have now corrected. No need to worry that there is some obscure use of grammar that you have missed out on.
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Thoroughly enjoyed your blogs Fletch and am at a bit of a loss until the new season starts. You've given a lot of people a good laugh with what's been going on and a good insight as to what fans from other nations think. Carry on the great work my man.
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I was a bit sceptical about this particular blog when I first started reading, but I have to admit I did enjoy it, well, most of it. It was good to read about someone giving their thoughts and experiences who isn't one of the usual fuddy duddy bbc reporters. Although I would just like to echo Stokerambo's slightly. Unfortunately, I did find parts Anglo-centric, specifically the English being missed blog, and the "the football season kicks off in only 40 days" comment again re-inforces it. I am not too disappointed, unfortunately, no-one at the BBC can see that we're all tired with the attitude that if the other home nations are involved, then we have to put up wth English bias whether England are involved or not. For once, I'd like to hear, when Scotland aren't involved, maybe Welsh or Northern Irish commentators. Simple solution...When our own nations aren't involved, then the whole UK has to listen to either English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish as part of a rota system. Any other people have thoughts on that?
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Fletch, good blogs, very entertaining. But complaints of Anglo-centrism are right. Of the Home Nations, what might they have done had they qualified?
England - lost out to Croatia and Russia in the qualifiers, had they qualified then we could have been denied Bilic's crazy celebrations or Russia's progress to the semis.
Wales - only managed fifth in their qualification group anyway, from which Germany (finalists) and the Czech Republic (pretty inane) qualified.
Scotland - had they qualified instead of Italy or France, none of the games they were involved in would have been so dull - although the Holland-France game was thrilling, the rest were pretty dire.
Northern Ireland - if they beat Spain 3-2 in the qualifiers does that mean they're better than the European champions? :)
Obviously, I know it wouldn't have worked out like that, but I definitely agree that the lack of any Home Nations didn't weaken the tournament. But it's not just England who could have added to the tournament!
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Oh dear me.
The "It's a shame England aren't here" blog will come to haunt me.
I didn't miss England and wasn't saying the tournament was missing England. I was merely blogging about the number of people who said how they thought it was a shame England were not at Euro 2008. As countless people then pointed out, I may have been naive or gullable (though I don't think that is completely true). But looking at a lot of the comments I got the impression people just thought I was saying it was a shame England weren't there, which I wasn't.
Also, the only people that I went out of my way to meet were Scots. And I had a brilliant time with them.
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Excellent blog
Job well done always knew we could get an honest opinion about the games.
Thought the wife would have cut the grass so you could have had a rest. Back to normal now another day at the office.
The best team won in the end congratulations to them.
Thanks to all teams taking part for some interesting. sometimes boring but on the whole entertaining football without them we wouldnt have had such a good Euro 2008 well done all of you.
See you at SA 2010
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"The feeling of sheer joy after collecting my clean laundry early one morning in Klagenfurt; I never realised a clean pair of socks could seem like such a luxury."
haha, missed out on student life, did we Fletch?
Great blog, I've enjoyed reading it during the odd break at work. Managed to write up my own post-tournament thoughts here:
http://thelump.net/2008/06/30/tu01/
i'll look forward to your adventures in SA in two years time!
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Yes, good article apart from the last bit about Klagenfurt. You arrived just as the party finished and experienced the 'morning after' feeling when it was p...ing down. I know as I was trying to pack my tent. You did not even make it to the nearby Portschach where the Croats had totally taken over.
Klagenfurt was excellent and the atmosphere on the dayof the Croatia-Germany and Austria-Poland games was unbelievable.
Have a word with the reporter who ran down the tournament on Sportsworld. He was like a spoiled kid because the English hadn't been invited to the party.
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You dipped out on not going to Zurich Fletch. As I live nearby I went into town to watch a few matches and the place was absolutely heaving until well into the small hours. According to Swiss TV there were 40,000 out on the town in Geneva and Basel on Final day and 100,000 in Zurich. I thought Zurich did a superb job - brilliant street bars, the Münster looked great, modern trains home all through the night. Probably just as well that only the Italians, French and Rumanians played in Zurich. Do the Italians and French travel outside of their land to support their team?
Of the games I was at, I really enjoy the party with the Dutch and Croatian fans. They know how to enjoy themselves.
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Brilliant blog Fletch. Gave a good perspective of the tournament. Maybe a promotion to the live online commentary from the prem every saturday is on the cards.
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Fletch people like you is so rear pls keep up the good job more grace to ur elbo ..........
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It had been a good tournament probably because England wasn't there. Well the football's taking a break.cya.
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You are top bloke , Fletch. Thoroughly enjoyed your reporting.
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The last few weeks have been bliss. I am an Irish fella living in New York. I read all the comments and blogs each night and take great pleasure in it. But this tournament, ending, feels like a friend is leaving for a long time, hope not. Just would like to give a big round of applauase to the BBC for being able to get all of us fans together and also ESPN/ ABC (an american thing) for finally producing some really great coverage of a major football event. The effect is quite visable and vocal in bars all across New York. Andy Gray is quite a cult figure among a whole host of yanks now.
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Good piece of job Fletch! Followed almost all your write ups in Euro 08. I love the flow and flair. It surely added some spice to the "arguably the best" Euro tournament in recent times. Hope you will be there in SA 2010.
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Football may not have featured in Samuel Johnson's dictionary but he had plenty to occupy his thoughts anyway. Another one of his most famous quotes,"Patriotism is the last bastion of the scoundrel" might also have some pertinence here, as well. In a recent interview in Der Spiegel, Nobel Prize-winning Turkish author and football fan, Orhan Pamuk observed about footy in his homeland, "Here football is no opium, but rather a machine to produce nationalism, xenophobia, and authoritarian thinking....My childhood proved to me that there could be no enjoyment of football without community. But it becomes difficult when this community is having problems with its identity. That's when we experience all possible forms of nationalist exaggeration. And there are many of those in Turkey today. Our relationship with thw EU has not been resolved. nor has our relationship with the Kurds." Beneath the surface gloss and feel-good factor of a high-powered tournament like Eurp 08, it's perhaps useful as well, to recall that there are some darker undercurrents to football. But you won't have to wander in the wilderness without football for 40 days and 40 nights. There is another international football tournament kicking off next week in Sweden, the 2008 VIVA World Cup for unrecognized nations, which this year will include a team from Kurdistan. So Kurds will have something more to cheer about than just Germany's smashing victory in the Euro semi-finals!
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