Euro 2008

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Em and Frankie went to Austria to have some fun and of course watch the EURO 2008! As Austria crashed out so early, Em was free to support any team and Frankie was still hoping for Italia. It was the first time for us to use the new Terminal 5 and the decision was made not to check anything in and travel light. Departing from T5 involves a lot of travelling up and down and many flash shops but everything went well.

We had tickets to see the quarterfinal Croatia against Turkey and we decided to visit Schoenbrunn before the match. The sight was full of football tourists and it was nice to see everybody enjoying the beauty of this magnificent building. The tube and stadium was full of Croatians supporting their team and it seemed that there were no Turkish supporters at all. The match itself was rather boring until the 115th minute or so but both fans were impressive and there was a really good atmosphere. On the next day, we went swimming in the old Danube and visited the fan zone. It is not very comfortable to sit and in our old age that is our preferred way to watch football and the beer was very expensive! It was agreed to go to the beer garden for the next match.

On Sunday, Italy was playing Spain and we tried to get some tickets. After a short search in the internet and a few phone calls later we found a couple of tickets for EUR 150.00 each - a lot cheaper than what we heard in the press. We went to the opera to buy the tickets and found another couple of tickets for EUR 100.00 each. This was all very exciting and we were a bit worried if we would make it into the stadium or if the tickets were fake. The match was good and we had a lot of fun in the Italian sector and it was tough to watch Italy going out on penalty.

We stayed in Salzburg and Vienna until after the final and the atmosphere was fantastic and we had a great time! Already planning to go to South Africa in 2010.....

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