Some of us from FeltZ booked the trip to Wales just a few hours after SK Brann drew Carmarthen Town. We also advertised quite early about it at various websites and in different environments that if some one else was going to Wales as well, and if they were travelling the same route as us, then they could contact us so we could buy BritRail Consecutive Passes together. In all there were 11 of us travelling together from London Thursday morning, but only eight of us travelled on common rail pass. But we saved about 25 quid (each) that way, something that turned up to be a good thing later on the trip.
Day 2 – Thursday the 19th of July 2007
The journey from Paddington to Carmarthen through Swansea went very well. With good humour, great travelling companion, good seats and few other fellow passengers, the four hours just flew away. It actually felt like we were surfing on a big wave all the way to Carmarthen. Maybe we were closer to the truth about just that, that we actually knew.
When we arrived the railway station in Carmarthen, Les from Hartlepool were waiting for us. He’d driven about 312 miles from Hartlepool to watch the game and since he already had been two hours in Carmarthen, he showed us the way to the hotel. The hotel was only a 6-7 minutes walk away and after a pint in the pub at the hotel, we all checked in at the hotel. The time was already 3pm, so after we got rid of our luggage, we decided that it was now time to explore the town and the pubs.
As more and more pubs were done, more and more Brann fans turned up. Amongst them Oddemann (as we meet on the train between Swansea and Carmarthen), an English Brann fan living in Newport, two “Bergensere” (name of people from Bergen) that had driven from Newcastle (and that was returning straight after the match), some SAS (Norwegian airline) employers at a free journey, Mobli (nickname at Bataljonen message board) and “T&T” spending their SAS bonus points.
Half an hour before kick-off the majority wanted to attend the ground, but a few of us found out that we would reach one more pub before we headed for the away section at Richmond Park. One pint of lager later the last four of us finally decided to walk to the ground and tuned the GPS into block E, row 9. We had our FeltZ-flag with us in a back sack and just before we should walk through the gate Kjellmo gave the back sack to Strilen, and after buying pins, scarves and matchday programmes (all for only £10) we were ready to pass the ordinary security control. Of course the black bag attracted much of the attention, but what the hell? All that was in it was the flag anyway. Well, at least that was what Strilen though. So when the copper started to look into in, Strilen gladly helped the police to look into all the different rooms in the bag. Even the one that contended a small bottle of wine, taken with us from the plane! But as usual, with his diplomatic and objective manner, he managed to convince the copper that he actually didn’t know anything about the bottle, so Strilen also were permitted to get in.
When we came in we hang the flag up, before we started to sing our national Bergen anthem, “Nystemten”. There were about 30 of us and as the goals just ran in, the atmosphere just became better and better (strange, isn’t it), with good variation of the chants. After a while some of us started a tribute to the Carmarthen goalie and “There’s only one Neil Thomas” resounded many, many times from the away section. And when the Carmarthen fans left the game, many of them stopped where we were standing and applauded us. So, this had been a great, great trip so far. Before the game, some Carmarthen Town representatives invited us into the club house after the game, and most of us did so when the referee was blowing the game off. That turned up to be the perfect ending of the day, with something good to eat, good drinks and many friendly people to talk to.
Day 3 – Friday the 20th of July 2007
We woke up quite early this morning, so after a decent English breakfast and a quick packing of our suit cases, it was time to settle of for the train direction towards London and Gatwick airport. There was about 14 of us that should travel with SAS from Gatwick 8.35pm, and our train should depart Carmarthen 10.30am, so we should have plenty of time. First change was in Swansea and everything went as we planned, until we came to Bridgend, one stop before Cardiff. Because of flooding towards Cardiff, everyone had to jump of the train, and after a while they told us that they would come up with buses for us to Cardiff. But the locals (called Welsh) told us that it could take hours before the buses came, so we found out that the best thing to do would be to take taxis to Cardiff. It was some mess when we arrived Cardiff, but after a while the train to London came into the station and again we were heading towards London and Gatwick on a train. Some of us had been in Bristol earlier on, but never to Bristol Parkway station. But guess if we have been there now? When we came to Bristol Parkway, the train stopped again and after sitting at the train at the station for about one and a half hour, we were told to leave the train. It now turned up to be huge problems with flooding between Bristol and London, so though we only should to Reading to change there for Gatwick, there were no chance for us to get there, neither by train nor car.
We tried to get some advice from the staff at the station, but they were more up to telling us what we couldn’t do, instead of telling us what we could do. When then decided to get towards the other railway station in Bristol, Bristol Temple Meads. Not so far away from that one, Strilen knew about a pub called “King’s Head”, and nearly all of us were agree to visit it so we could have a small rest and one pint (it was actually the only one we had that day). One of the lads decided to go solo, so therefore he cut and ran off to Bristol Airport and then try to go through Amsterdam. But the rest of us meant that it was too risky and that it would be too expensive, so we kept us to plan A (or is it plan B now?). When we came to ”King’s Head” we all realized that we would never reach the flight back to Bergen that night, so just now it was good that we were a place were we could calm down and relax a bit, so we could come up with a new plan.
First we called Norwegian. The cheapest we could get away with were £216 next morning 9.25am from Stansted, but the problem were still that we didn’t know yet if we would manage to get to London this evening. We then called SAS and asked if they could help us next day or the day after. We also informed them that we all had tickets for the Friday night flight and that none of us would reach it, so we were hoping that they had some understanding and they therefore could help us on a cheap and effective way. But no way, £325 per person was their best offer. We then decided to see if we could manage to get to London this evening, so we could be ready to go by Norwegian the next morning.
When we came to Bristol Temple Meads they told us that we could travel through Salisbury to London Waterloo. So at that moment we understood that we would reach the flight from Stansted the next morning, so we started to call back home to Bergen to get some one to help us buying tickets on internet. You see, it’s not that easy to do this by phone from a noise, overcrowded station. But after a bit backwards and forwards, some raised voices and some laughter and smiles, we all booked new tickets, from £158 to £250.
And now we want to send a greeting to SAS. Thanks a lot for the bad service you gave twelve, stranded costumers, that because of flooding they haven’t seen like in UK for 60 years, never managed to reach the flight. Thanks for showing us such bad will and understanding for our situation. It’s really good to know that you will stand behind us next time.
Though we now thought everything was over, it was definitively not over. First the train from Bristol to Salisbury was chock-a-block, so they had to put on extra carriages. But we still couldn’t get into it. The next train was also chock-a-block and also this time they had to put on extra carriages. But this time we made it. When we came to Salisbury about one and a half hour later, we just missed the next train to London. Then they told us to go over to platform 2, just for sending us back to platform 4 where we original were standing. At last the train to London Waterloo came, but then we started to get problem reaching the last train from London Liverpool Street to Stansted airport. The last train to Stansted departed 11.25pm and we would maybe miss it just with a few seconds. But, but…as some of us always say; “It will always sort out, some way, for good lads”. And so it did this time too. We arrived London Waterloo about 11pm. Got a taxi 11.05pm. Arrived Liverpool Street station 11.21pm. Were on the platform 11.22pm. That means, only those of us that caught the first taxi. But the others came 11.23pm, so then we all got it sorted out.
The train to Stansted took about 45 minutes and then, at last, there where time to get something to eat. Actually, we hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast. We then ended the long, long day with a short taxi trip to the hotel we had booked a few hours before. That is, one of us stayed at the airport to sleep over there. We have later on seen on other websites that he claimed to be volunteer for that, cause he meant that he was the ninth wheel on the wagon. But the truth is that he early on told us that he didn’t wanted to spend money at a hotel room, cause he meant it would be to expensive. It was his own choice and he actually insisted on it. When we came to the hotel we had a drink before we went to bed about 2am. At that time we had been on the move for about 16 hours, so we had no problem to fell asleep.
Day 4 – Saturday the 21st of July 2007
The next day everything went as we planned and we landed in Bergen about 13 hours delayed. Fun enough, when we landed we got a phone from the guy that went from Bristol through Amsterdam to Bergen. He had landed just half an hour before us. Additional his luggage had gone missing from Amsterdam.
We at OGB Travel (Old Grumpy Bastards Travel) want to thank all of you travelling with us. Luckily most of us had good patience and took it easy, we kept the humour up and took it all very nice. Without all that the trip would become hard. Very hard. So again, thanks for choosing OGB Travel and welcome back another time.
And remember, Carmarthen were fantastic great anyway.
PS. We just have to say that we actually didn’t see anything of the flooding the whole trip. We just heard about it. But after what we have seen on the news later on, we actually believe that it is true….
PS!PS! You may see all the pictures from the trip by clicking here.
