Sixty days, ten countries, 17 games, one... heck of a time

Early May 2011 I was back home, Thessaloniki, where I convinced myself that my moral obligation as an only child, was to quit traveling and spend more time with my rapidly aging parents. I had already spent something more than two years on the road, two YEARS, even though my original plan back in mid April 2009, when I left Greece, was to... study Spanish in Guatemala, have fun in 3-4 Spanish speaking countries, and be back in four months. FOUR months, not TWENTY-four...

Soon, I got myself a little job in a sports website, or, to be more exact, “little” in paying, but “BIG” in how many hours per day I got to work. Mind you, I'm talking about seven days a week, seven, days, a, week, absolutely no days-off...

Before April 2009 I was used to having a PROPER job, a relatively well-paid one, I used to rent my own little apartment, have a nice car, and spend money practically on anything I wanted. Two -traveling- years later, what I made could hardly be called “pocket money”, I hardly moved the car simply because I couldn't afford it (the gas price in Greece had skyrocketed), I had to count the last euro cent I spent, and worst of all, I had to stay with my parents, which I found humiliating, totally demoralizing, despite the fact that my parents are two angels, and did their best to make my stay at home as comfortable as possible...

Mid August I hit rock bottom, you know, the point that you are so depressed that you can't find it in you even to get out of bed in the morning, half because you didn't get enough sleep (spinning around in bed the whole night), and half because you simply have no interest in living the next 24 hours... To make matters worse, Greece was already in deep s***, unemployment was breaking record after record after record, and the overall atmosphere was ages of light beyond “gloomy”...

That's when it “hit” me. I HAD TO do something to bring me back from the world of the living dead, I had to do something to make me HAPPY, and nothing made me happier than traveling, wandering aimlessly around new places, hearing new languages, seeing new faces. If I could do that, mix it with football, and make some money out of it, there was not much more I could ask for...

Euro 2012 qualifiers, Romania-France, first game ever played at Bucharest's impressive newly built National Arena

In a couple of hours I had come up with a rough itinerary, which, starting on the 1st of September and going all the way to the end of October, would find me watching football games in almost a dozen eastern and central European countries. Losing no time, I shared the idea with my back then boss. He didn't exactly love it, he preferred me staying put and working ten hours per day, seven days a week, but I would hear none of that, I had made up my mind. Before hanging up, he had agreed to keep paying me while I would be on the road, sending him pieces from every city I'd be visiting. I was over the freaking moon!!

September 1st I hit the road. Two months later, returning home, I had lived, simply put, two of the most exciting months of my life, two for my “Months' Hall of Fame”, having lived dozens of moments that make life worth living...

The... controversial “Żyleta” stand of Legia Warsaw, just before kick-off of their Europa League game against Hapoel Tel Aviv (hence the “Jihad” banner)

Thessaloniki, Sofia, Bucharest, Cluj, Chisinau, Kyiv, Lviv, Warsaw, Lodz, Prague, Berlin, (back to) Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Belgrade, Thessaloniki. Sixty days, ten countries, 17 games, anything from... Euro 2012 qualifiers (Bulgaria-England, Romania-France, Czech Republic-Spain), to... Moldovan championship, from Europa League to Germany's second category, and from huge derbies (Dynamo Kyiv-Shakhtar Donetsk, Ferencvaros-Ujpest, Legia-Wisla), to Ukrainian and Serbian Cup. Bliss...

Ferencváros fans and players go crazy after their third goal against bitter rivals Újpest

Truth be told, the money I made wasn't even enough to cover all my expenses, FEW expenses (staying at hostel dorms, taking cheap buses/trains, choosing my meals carefully based on their cost, using my international Press card to get accreditation from every single club to watch their home games), but... really, I couldn't care less. Those two months I won back my thirst for life, and that's something you can't put a price on...

A little bonus to my... football tour, my first ever hockey game, watching Sparta Praha at home

50 to 67

50 Galatasaray-Liverpool 3-0, Istanbul, Turkey, 2011, July 28
51 Bulgaria-England 0-3, Sofia, Bulgaria, 2011, September 2
52 Romania-France 0-0, Bucharest, Romania, 2011, September 6
53 Rapid Bucharest-Brasov 1-1, Bucharest, Romania, 2011, September 10
54 Steaua Bucharest-Schalke 0-0, Cluj, Romania, 2011, September 15
55 Zimbru-Rapid 0-0, Chisinau, Moldova, 2011, September 17
56 Arsenal Kyiv-Oleksandria 5-0, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2011, September 21
57 Dynamo Kyiv-Shakhtar Donetsk 0-0, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2011, September 24
58 Legia Warsaw-Hapoel Tel Aviv 3-2, Warsaw, Poland, 2011, September 29
59 Legia Warsaw-Wisla Krakow 2-0, Warsaw, Poland, 2011, October 2
60 Czech Republic-Spain 0-2, Prague, Czech Republic, 2011, October 7
61 Union Berlin-Karlsruhe 2-0, Berlin, Germany, 2011, October 15
62 Bohemians-Dukla Praha 0-0, Prague, Czech Republic, 2011, October 16
63 Viktoria Zizkov-Slavia Praha 1-0, Prague, Czech Republic, 2011, October 17
64 Slovan Bratislava-Paris Saint Germain 0-0, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2011, October 20
65 Ferencvaros-Ujpest 3-0, Budapest, Hungary, 2011, October 22
66 Partizan-Metalac 3-1, Belgrade, Serbia, 2011, October 26
67 Partizan-Smederevo 3-1, Belgrade, Serbia, 2011, October 29