Vienna - Austria - 2005
The last game of the 2006 world cup qualifying campaign for Norn Iron was away to Austria. Yet again we departed from Dublin airport heading for Vienna. Once we arrived we followed our ‘away trip procedure’ of getting to our accommodation which was called ‘The Do Step Inn’ (how we chuckled) and then on to the city centre in search of a local.
We had it on good authority that the place for members of the GAWA to obtain refreshments was an Irish pub operating under the name of ‘Billy Bones’. After several pints we were all feeling pretty merry and a sing-song ensued. Everyone was well mannered and a great night was had by all. The following day we decided to pay this place another visit, since we had such a good time the night before, and were a little shocked to find the following notice attached to the front door:
So, now we were in search of a new drinking establishment and discovered a nice little spot called ‘The George and Dragon’ which became the local for quite a few other GAWA troops.
Match day arrived with all fans seeming to congregate at ‘The George and Dragon’ which was handy for us as we were now relatively familiar with the place. This was the first trip that we brought the now famous ‘Buckfast Loyal’ banner which was hung just opposite the ‘The George and Dragon’.
As larger numbers gathered the local police took the wise and welcomed decision to close the street off, this led to a real street party feel with locals and tourists stopping to take pictures of the many banners and flags decked around the street and to watch the loyal GAWA soldiers rattle out our favourite tunes at full voice, and Turk played a few tunes on a set of bagpipes a fellow GAWA member brought.
As the clock ticked away it was time to head to the stadium via the underground tube system. Watching between 1500 and 1700 GAWA troops all march off together was an amazing sight to behold and I don’t think Vienna has ever witness anything like it. We got to the stadium and enjoyed another great performance from the men in green (match report below).
After the match we stumbled across a wee gem of a bar called Morgans. For anyone who was there, they will agree a mighty night was had by all. Thanks to Christian the bar man and his assistant ‘Shifty’ for keeping the drink flowing.
Time to head back to Ulster again after an extremely successful trip and a great campaign unaware of were our next venture would be.
