Last train out of Zurich

Vienna, 7:51 p.m.

After a long day on the trains, we've finally made it to soggy, muggy Vienna for the Spain-Russia semi. Not much fight left, considering what the train was like.

Apparently every journalist in Christendom (and all other religions, you smart alecks. It's an expression) was looking to get on the 06:50 out of Zurich. But only some of those journalists (wink. wink. nudge ... oh forget it. I mean me) had bothered to book a reservation. Our media credentials allow us to travel first class on the trains here, a huge bonus, but you can't guarantee a seat without a reservation.

So, pretty soon the hundred guys trying to get on a first-class carriage with maybe 75 seats realized that they were going to have to fight, and I mean fight, for a spot. Otherwise it was ten long hours in dreary second class. So it was dukes up, start swinging your Beta camera around time. I got into it with a Russian (turns out he was a fan). Very quickly, it was nose-to-nose time using language you would not want your grandmother overhearing. All that Swiss frustration needed an outlet.

As it turns out, our friend Morris Dalla Costa was sitting in the all-Russian cabin. This meant a sort of rapprochement between my Russian nemesis and I. Still some angry looks in the restaurant car.

This also necessitated Morris taking part in Russian rituals. He was drinking 'aperitifs' - brandy - at ten in the morning. Four Russians polished off a bottle in an hour, with Morris desperately trying to beg off. 'What's for dessert?' he asked. 'Vodka' he was told. Morris began pacing the train looking for a way to disappear without offending anyone.

Later, Morris appeared outside my cabin with a whole fish dangling from his fingers. Pickled herring. A whole pickled herring. Morris said he enjoyed it. A few hours later, he was out in the hallway because the Russians had, understandably, passed out. Only Morris does this happen to.

Then it was hit the platform running (train an hour late due to 'weather in Germany'. Er. Yeah.) and get down to the Ernst Happel Stadion. And now the Russians have just come out onto the field for the warm-up. And the rain has started hammering and tongsing down. This is an absolute replay of the first Russia-Spain game here. Bad news for Russia, who lost that one 4-1. I won't make any predictions, but I will state one certainty. The game won't be that one-sided again.

C.K.

Comments

[sheesh]

"Bad news for Russia, who lost that one 4-1. I won't make any predictions, but I will state one certainty. The game won't be that one-sided again."

woops!