Cardiff Dragons!!!

On Thursday the 3rd I started a trip which I had never expected to be so good. As I told you on a previous entry, I went to Brno, in the Czech Republic, to play the Winckelmann Cup, a football tournament for archaeologists and people related to this profession. I went along with another six colleagues: Markus and Anna from Germany (although she is half Scottish), Joe and Gary from England, Mike from Scotland and Sergio from Portugal. Markus was the person who organised this as he has participated many other times and had some friends who were going to play under the name of Cardiff Dragons (he spent there some years). We put all our stuff, tents and a football in the van and got ready for the exciting adventure.

The first day we drove first up to Dover to get on the ferry to Dunquerke. After that we head to Germany, where we spent the first night at Markus' place. There is nothing much to say about the first day except that we drove across 5 different countries: England, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The van was a kind of bus-of-fun where the music and the laughters were really loud.

The second day we drove across Germany and got to the Czech Republic in the afternoon. The first thing we did was to stop and pay the tax to run on the Czech motorways (you pay it apart and stick it on the windscreen, don't have to stop and pay to a guy in a lodge every now and then). It was surprising to see how everybody had the lights on (even though it was still the afternoon) and they drove very respectfully within the speed limit (not like in Germany!). The country is not huge but Brno is quite far to the East so it still took a long time to get there. Once next to the place we saw it from the motorway but couldn't find it when we went out of the road. We were driving along a dodgy small road until we arrived to a very humble house in the middle of the country where a farmer-looking man indicated us very kindly the shortest way to get to our destination: Podoli. We saw the man pointing at a silty country trail, with two lines of silt and some grass in the middle. We had no choice but to follow that "road" and so we did. Despite the sat-nav getting totally crazy trying to find a proper road, we finally managed to get to the place thanks to the smoke coming out from the bonfires they were lighting to roast the meat for the dinner. Who cares about the modern technology of a sat-nav when you have smoke to follow? The old methods still work!

Once in the place we put up the tents and were introduced to the rest of the Dragons: Nick and Ian from England, Martin from Germany and Nao from Japan (who not only was one of the best girls in the tournament but probably one of the best players!). Also another German guy called David played with us as well as with his own team (once there everybody plays with other teams). Then, the event started... There were 34 teams from 10 different countries: Germany (most of them), Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Italy and Wales. Four football pitches, hundreds of tents around, music, BBQ's, lots of people, lots of beer, lots of fun, all you need was there! I was introduced to the Italian team, friends of Markus, and spent most of the night chatting with them. They were called the Maradonas Neapolis. I met some people who could speak Spanish although everybody was fluent in English so there were no communication problems. I had learnt some words in Czech and was very happy to speak them while the Czech people got surprised at me and taught me some new ones. That night finished late and it was easy to sleep due to the tiredness (and the drunkenness...)

The third day we woke up fairly early in the morning, when the camp came back slowly to life. The breakfast was being served and the people were getting ready for the competition. I thought I didn't care much about football but once you're there, God... you want to win!! The Dragons played quite well the first games although I didn't play the first and then played only a few minutes of the second. However, we won both so I was happy although it was very frustrating not to be able to play football and contribute with my bit. Markus, Martin, Ian, David, Nick, Sergio, Nao and Mike (goalkeeper) were the best players of our team and they played really good football. But unfortunately Ian was injured and he couldn't play his best later. We started well but we lost a crucial game and got eliminated so the rest of the games were to qualify from the 9th to the 16th position. They were funny games actually as nobody took them too serious and I could play more. Many people cheered us because, as Markus told us, everybody likes our team since we are the only British team (any of us from Cardiff, by the way).

After the games we had the dinner in the evening and then there was more party. I think I spoke to everybody and everybody was speaking to me, asking when we will see a team from Spain. Being part of the Cardiff Dragons was very cool and a great pride! They just like you for that reason and all the people were very nice and friendly, chatty, funny... They even played some music in Spanish! I was chatting a long time with a Slovakian guy and also with another half Hungarian guy who could speak Spanish, very nice. I spent some time drinking and laughing with my team and listening other teams singing funny songs against others (Markus translated the funniest for us because most of them sang in German). I slept very well that night too due to the tiredness (and the drunkenness again... hehe).

The fourth day was the last day there. We woke up fairly early and played some more games. They weren't that organised as those of the day before because they weren't that important. Other players played with us because Ian was injured, Nick wasn't feeling very good and Martin and Nao helped other teams which were playing important games. We played against a very nice team composed mostly by girls from Jena University and that was a really funny game. We had to kick some penalties at the end and one of the girls took out her T-shirt and kicked just on her bikini in order to make nervous to our poor Mike! Silly things like this made the last games of the tournament really pleasant to play although there was nothing important to fight for.

After our games we had a shower and packed all our stuff up, put it in the van and got ready to leave as soon as the final was finished. We couldn't miss the final, not only because it is always an interesting game but also because we had friends in both teams. Nao and Martin were playing with Berlin and the other team was that one of our Italian friends: Maradonas Neapolis. The game was very intense and both teams played a good football. The result was poor though: 1-0. But Maradonas won!! I must admit that I liked both teams but preferred the Italians to win as I always have a friendly feeling for Italy after the time I have spent there. And most of the people there were cheering them as they were, along with us, the other only team not from central Europe. I hardly could congratulate them after the game as we had to leave in a rush: we still had a long journey ahead.

We spent the rest of the day just driving back to Markus' place where his parents were extremely kind and they were waiting for us with a delicious dinner we really needed after those hard days. That night I slept very well due to the tiredness only. The day after, Markus stayed at his place, we dropped Anna the night before so the rest of us kept driving to the UK, relaxed but still laughing, remembering the good moment we had in Brno. The trip from Dunkerque to Dover was horrible for me and I got very sick in the ferry. Fortunately the guys drove most of the time and I had to drive just the last hour or so up to Oxford. Once at home, looking backwards, all the anecdotes that happened during those 5 days looked actually like if they had happened in two weeks because they were so many...

Well, the thing didn't end there. We had an epilogue. The Saturday after it was the summer party of the company (we celebrated the 35th anniversary) and there was a small football tournament for teams within the company. I think any of us hesitated one second when we saw the chance to be a Cardiff Dragon again! In fact, at that stage we would have looked for excuses to play every week if possible, hahaha. The party was ok and we didn't play bad but we hadn't some of best players. Well, perhaps we weren't a great team but we were a TEAM.

Go to the site, to the classroom, to the laboratory, to the faculty, to the department... and get some friends to make a team. The Cardiff Dragons hope to meet you in the Winckelmann Cup 2009 in Bamberg (Germany)!!