Robbie King, Robbie King, Robbie King

Our train ride home from Berlin was anything but ordinary.  I remember saying to Michal & Mom, "I sure hope those fans aren't on our train ride back to Poland."  Well, I forgot to knock on wood.  When we arrived at the platform for the train from Berlin-Warsaw there were so many fans that we couldn't even get off the escalators.  The whole platform was packed.  Normally a train stops for about 5-10 minutes to let everyone jump on... but there were SO many people that this train was at the station for about 35 minutes.  The train was packed - and I'm pretty sure most of these fans didn't have tickets.  But for every person that doesn't have a ticket, they need to stop the train and have the police come and escort the person off. With how many people were on my train, it was just easier to let these fans get to where they needed to go.  Every train car seats about 300 people - but there were about double that in each car. It was packed with cheering, drinking, crazy Euro-Cup fans. 

When we found our seats - we were smack dab in the middle of the Croatian fans and the Irish fans.  While the Croatians were lots more lively and full of spirit... the Irish were more gentlemanly and considerate and well-mannered.  The Croatians didn't stop singing.  At one point they all started to get tired and lay down and Michal stood up and said, "C'mon guys - that's not the spirit." And they jumped right back up and started singing again.  I don't know how you can enjoy jumping up and down screaming cheers for 3 hours - but these Croatians managed.  The ironic thing was, they were singing in honor of the Irish guests that they were sharing the car with.  Their chant went as follows: Robbie King, Robbie King, Robbie King... Robbie King, Robbie King, Robbie King... Robbie King, Robbie King, Robbie King. (If you want to know the tune - just ask my mom - She's an expert after listening to it for 3 hours).  Their chant got boring after about an hour so they decided to switch it up a little and the remainder of the train ride this was their chant: "Robbie King, Robbie King, Robbie King, "F" (the real word) the Queen, "F" the Queen, "F" the Queen, Robbie King, Robbie King, Robbie King, etc. etc. etc.  For obvious reasons, I wasn't able to get an ACTUAL video of them chanting Robbie King (which I later found out was Robbie Keen - but it sure sounded a lot like King and seemed to go well with "Queen").  The only clean video I got of them singing was the following one shown below.

The Irish Fans, on the other hand - were so much more bearable.  They didn't smoke in the cars, or drink (excessively) or jump up and down the whole way - and they tried to carry on small talk with the other passengers there.  They were really a gem to talk to and get to know better.  There songs had a lot more class and a point.  It wasn't the same song over - and over - and over - again!

Here were our favorite two video's of the Irish singing their various songs.

Before they got off (at Poznan), Michal made sure to get his pictures taken with both of the fans that we were sitting right in between. 

The Croatians (with their lovely flag they waved the whole 3 hours to Poznan - in fact, one of the Croatians was sticking his lovely body out of the window for the majority of the trip and almost got clipped by an oncoming train).

 And the Irish... who didn't win a single game in the Euro Cup, but they still had a lot of class and spirit.

 When we pulled up to Poznan.  It took another 30 minutes for the train to unload.  It was full of fans singing and cheering and jumping and swearing and drinking.

 After they left we went around to go assess the damage that had been done to the train.  Well, there were Beer Bottles EVERYWHERE.  As we walked around they already had people cleaning up the bottles.  They decided to stash all the bags into the compartments and they filled up about 4 compartments (that we saw) just with trash that had been left over.  As we walked through the 14 cars there were only about 2-3 people per car.  That's how many people got off at Poznan.

But my favorite was that about after an hour, the train made another stop and several Croatians got off.  They were so drunk (or passed out) that they had missed their stop in Poznan.  When I yelled out the window what they were going to do, they just shrugged their shoulders and said, "We'll walk back. We have all night."

I don't think that I've ever experienced anything like that train ride in my life.  It was crazy and crowded and out of control - but that's the Euro-Cup for you.  After going through that train ride it sure made Michal & I excited for the upcoming matches and supporting Poland in their Euro-Cup Quest.