Футбольный! Football with London's Russian fans

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Oh, those Russians...
The internet wasn't much help in finding London's Russian community - there isn't one, it seems. Lots of Russians live around Kensington and Knightbridge, so I decided to go to a Kensington bar in which a colleague had spied Russian fans last week.
On my way, I saw a woman and girl with a Russian flag. The woman had Russian flags painted on her nails. Brilliant! I, er, followed them for a while, hoping they'd lead to a bar with lots of fans. But, no, they went home.
Then, I saw a girl with a big blue foam hand. Could she be Russian? No, it turned out to be a Wimbledon accessory.
So, I headed to the bar, and found some Spanish, some not-bothered-folk, and 3 Russian blokes. Hurrah for them, my three Russian fans. They didn't have flags, but they did stand for the national anthem.
Russian football fans, London
But then Russia lost.
And, that is that. My odyssey to watch Euro 2008 with foreign fans is complete. I've seen lots along the way - passionate Austrians, nonchalant Swiss, fatalistic Romanians, chatty Greeks, unadorned Turks and patriotic Germans.
But, best of all, they were all Londoners.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dalston baby! Full of Russian bars.

Boz said...

Noooooo! I've only just (ace)discovered you were doing this ad it is by far the Best Blogging Project of 2008! genius idea.

Loving the Fit player watch..