After the heroics of the day before, mood was good in the camp.
I went to bed first last night, I have this thing of hitting the wall, and rather force myself to carry on, my thought process is “if I end my day here, I’ve had a good one”. This can sometimes be seen as a sign of weakness to some of my friends.
I woke up in need of orange juice so I head to the hostel bar where I could also obtain breakfast. BBC Radio Five Live team were still in the building and I was asked to do another interview about my views of yesterday’s game, and the proceedings around it. Twas good fun.
We had another day in Lille, so the plan was to have a mooch and go to the “Free Zoo”. Now, I was a little excited by the prospect of a zoo, but a free one as well! My word!
I didn’t get to go to the free zoo.
“Why?” Do you ask? Because it was raining. Not that a light drizzle would put me off, but it lashed it down. I said in a previously edition that it was like being in a different country from coming from the south to the north of France. The tropical conditions of Marseille and Montpellier then turned to what easily could’ve been mistaken for a rainy Tuesday evening in Barnsley at around January time.
So what does one do when the “Free Zoo” is not an option and mooching seems improbable? Well you simply find a bar!
I wouldn’t like to say we were “forced” into drinking on this day, but options became somewhat limited. The rain was so bad we even encountered a power cut in the restaurant where we had lunch.
We had one task to do and that was a Trigg booked twice at the same hostel (one booking each for both nights we were there) so we have to check in and check out.
Like the day before we had to put our luggage in cupboard until our rooms were ready. The receptionist (bless her) thought it was hilarious that we identified the “Luggage Room” as a cupboard. She was in stitches. She said “It’s funny because a cupboard is small”. We did raise an eyebrow each between us, but at least we were bringing some joy to the locals. Trigg who initiated the “cupboard” comment, left the hostel identifying himself as a “Walking, breathing – banter merchant”.
No, I have no idea what that is either…
The streets were empty, due to the rain being that bad.
As previously noted drinks are not cheap in France. Period. Most people have a system when buying drinks, such as a whip system or rounds. We do the latter. The failure of the rounds system, however is that sometimes one person could spend more than the other, it’s a game of chance.
Anyway once before we did round during an England away game in Ireland (dubbed by the media as the worst England game in history), I ended up buying a 28 euro round in Temple Bar, which was at least 8 euro higher than the next highest round. And because I moaned about it, my mates had been winding me up about it since.
So throughout our time in a bar where we spent most of our evening, they were warning me that the round was 32 euros (highly believable in Lille but it still was the most expensive round). So as far as I was concerned, Coatesy, Nick and Trigg all bought a round each.
I did wonder why we stayed so long in there, because surely we could find some place cheaper.
I walked up to the bar fully prepared to pay the 32 euros. And I took out my credit care (don’t do this, upon reflection it will cost you extra), and the lady behind the bar took it and used it with contactless – to which the limit was 30 euros).
Rather confused I gave a look with a raised eyebrow, she gave me the receipt and I gazed at it. And low and behold… 17 euros and 60 cents.
My mates are hilarious!
Sometimes.
