hev on tour // day four + day five + day six

Sorry for leaving this one day more than I’d originally said, I had the best intentions of blogging yesterday morning however time ran away from me.

At least this one is going to be jam packed with action! Here we go, let’s break this down into days…

day four //

As you may recall from day three, day four was the first non-football day. 

I had a lie in in the morning, we’d had a late night the night before with getting back from Rotterdam around midnight.

After finally making it downstairs to the communal area of the hostel, I set up to do some work and ordered a cup of tea. This was served in a glass glass which was very strange and we also had to ask for milk.

We also ate lunch at the hostel before me and Deb went for a walk along the canal, heading towards Domtower - the tallest vantage point in Utrecht with just the 465 steps to the top!

You had to buy tickets to go to the top with a guide, so with some time before our slot we went for a walk along the canal and found a really cool comic book shop. I could quite happily have blown the rest of my trip’s budget in this shop yet restrained myself to some Star Wars book marks.

There was also this entire shop dedicated to board games, like floor to ceiling packed with every kind of board game possible. Even a dodgy looking one called Secret Hitler and another about Exploding Kittens.

We headed back to the tourist information to meet our guide and began the climb to the top of the tower. On paper 465 steps looks hard and in reality it is brutal, especially as the further towards the top you get the steps get steeper and narrower. My legs were burning even with a couple of brief stops along the way to see different things in the tower.

Half way up we bumped in Lisa, one of The Gang that follows England everywhere - you bump into people in the strangest of places. 

At one point we were in the bell tower where the bells were made of [Lucy] Bronze [Bronze, Bronze] and the guide asked for a volunteer to hit the bell with a hammer looking object. With no one else stepping forward I took my chance, quite like Katniss at the reaping, and tamely whacked the bell with the hammer thing, the guide told me I could hit it harder, which I did but that still wasn’t hard enough for him and he told me to hit it again. So I hit it a third time, which I still don’t think was hard enough but I think he was bored of my weak efforts at that point so we gave up. In hindsight I should have waited for a stronger person to have a go.

Once we made it to the top after many, many, many more steps the view was amazing - you could see all the way to Amsterdam! I love going to tall buildings when travelling because I think it’s boss being able to see the city mapped out below, here you could see all the winding streets and canals. You could even see the football stadium!

If you can believe it the walk down was somehow worse than the walk up, there was no stopping on the way down so it was just 465 steep stairs to the bottom of the tower. 

We needed a swift beer after the climb so we went back to the canal and after Deb almost fell in a familiar face went past on a pedalo - Izzy Christiansen! Izzy looked extremely confused when I first shouted her but seemed to realise on her way back that we were English so we had a little chat and she pedalled on her way back down the canal.

It was almost time for the 6 o’clock kick off so we met back up with Ley and Oonagh to watch that in the fanzone while we ate dinner, then walked to an Irish bar about five minutes away to watch the France v Iceland game. Here I consumed a few beers and when we went back to the fanzone there was multiple groups of England and Scotland supporters, we met up with The Gang and on the next table I found my new best friends - Scots! I taught them the Caroline Weir song, we had a group singalong and I ended up back in the hostel covered in the Euros bunting. Don’t drink kids, things escalate.

day five //

Feeling the effects of the night before but it was nothing a bowl full of the cheesiest nachos I’ve ever seen in my life couldn’t fix.

The fanzone was now full of Scotland supporters, the tartan army out in force with only a few English dotted around. 

I've never really felt an affinity with the England team, something I documented while out in Canada a couple of years ago (because I felt very patriotic at England v Colombia). It's weird how England just don't excite me and I can't really describe it well, I can go crazy when the Netherlands score, or Italy score. When Liverpool score, well all bets are off. But England it feels like a, 'that's nice' rather than a 'LET'S GO ABSOLUTELY MENTAL AND FALL OVER THE CHAIRS'. 

Don't get me wrong I like England, I like the girls that play for England and I do genuinely want them to win the tournament, it would be fantastic and I would love it. 

With that cleared up I really wanted Scotland to do well, they've been battered by injuries to big name players in the lead up to this, their first major tournament. Liverpool's Caroline Weir also plays for Scotland and I want her to do well in this tournament. 

I made more Scottish friends, seen my friends from the night before - looking a bit worse for wear - and took a photo with a couple and their flag emblazoned with the EU symbol.

Then I met up with Hannah, Hayley and Keila and we played football tennis with some Scots in the next football pitch to us, before playing pole football - basically you try to knock each others pole over with the football.

That was fun but sweaty in the sunshine and for the rest of the day we parked ourselves in the shade, counting down the hours until we could head to the stadium. I also met up with Leigh Moore to collect my Creative Players Lionesses t shirt, which is really cool - photo further down this blog!

Before going to the game my accent got me into a bit of bother in McDonalds, first they couldn't give me six chicken nuggets only nine and then they gave me a side salad instead of fries. When I told them I didn't want the side salad, the woman asked me why did I ask them for it then. It was all very confusing.

Me, Hannah, Hayley and Keila walked to the stadium and they had their faces painted with the England flag so were getting a lot of 'good luck' shouts from the Dutch! The Scotland bus also drove past us so we gave that a big cheer.

We arrived at the stadium just as the England team bus arrived and headed in to watch the match, I sat over with Ley, Oonagh and Deb for the game and also made friends with two girls who sat next to me - who for the life of me I can't remember the names of, so if you read this blog by chance send me a message!

England won 6-0, we'll go into more detail on that over on @LFCladiesfans. England looked good, Scotland not so much. Jodie Taylor was boss and scored a hat trick.

After the match we went back to the square, Oonagh accidentally (I think) swilled me with a beer so I had to go and get changed. This was our last night in Utrecht before heading to Rotterdam once more the next day.

day six //

I HAD HAD THE WORST NIGHTS SLEEP. It was so hot and hot and hot in the hostel that I probably slept about half an hour in total it was horrible.

We had to check out of the hostel around 11am and following that hung around in the bar as I had some blogging to catch up on. I also went to Subway and had spicy cheese on my sandwich which was different.

The trip to Rotterdam on the train was nice and relaxing, I listened to the new Paramore album which is an absolute belter.

There's not too much to report on the day time here, we got to Rotterdam and I bought a box of Women's Euros stickers and yet I am still missing just THREE to complete the album. Including a Caroline Weir so if you have her on spare hit me up.

Once I'd stuck my stickers into my book we went to dinner at this chicken restaurant, I had Japanese chicken with sweet chili sauce and fries and it was sweeeeet.

When we got to the game they were proper patting you down with full on body searches, the woman had a right good feel. She also told me that because I was a child she wouldn't confiscate my fidget spinner and I wasn't going to argue with that. I'll leave it behind for the next game.

The game once more, WAS BOSS. Shanice was boss again and Sari Van Veenendaal was immense in goal for the Dutch. Again, stay tuned to @LFCladiesfans for more on the game.

Afterwards we hung back to see Shanice and Mandy and that was also boss. I'm made up I'm seeing most of my favourite footballers on this trip, I have two more games left on this initial part (Italy v Germany & Scotland v Portugal) and then the final, so I just have to see Amanda DaCosta now and then I've seen everyone play that I wanted to! 

//

There we go, we’re all caught up now. I’m writing this on the train to Tilburg because I’m Italian again today, they play Germany at 8:45pm Dutch time.

hev on tour // day three

Speeding through the days now, this is the tale of day three, written on day four - a day without football! Well, football in person anyhow. We're going to find a bar to watch France vs Iceland tonight.

I have had a soft spot for Italy ever since Liverpool played Brescia in the Champions League a couple of years ago. I took an interest in the league and became a fan of a number of the players. So when they qualified for the Euros they were one of the teams I wanted to come and watch.

The Italian league has grown and improved since Liverpool played Brescia, I wrote an article on the players strike at the time and will have a more football-focused blog up over on @LFCladiesfans.

Italy were playing in Rotterdam which is half an hour away from Utrecht on the train, so we were able to get there pretty easily from our base here.

For lunch before we headed out, I sampled the chicken nuggets and chips from McDonalds. This blog is bringing you all the important information from the Netherlands so with that in mind, I had to sample the local cuisine.

A quick scout of the menu showed that instead of cheese bites, the Dutch have shrimp bites with chili sauce (my mac autocorrected chili to child and this is why proofreading is important). Not a big seafood fan if I'm being honest so I steered away from that and went for the tried and trusted 6-nugget meal.

One of the best things about this country is their insistence on serving every portion of fries with some variety of mayonnaise. Maccies is no different! With my fries I was given some sort of garlic mayo which was nice. My nuggets were also nice, it may be the holiday feeling but I'd say they were nicer than the English nuggets, so that's another tick in the Dutch vs English column.

That's probably enough on McDonalds for now, stay tuned for later on though when I have a KFC.

When we arrived in Rotterdam there was this MASSIVE poster of Mandy van den Berg (der der der, der der der), the picture above doesn't actually do it's size any justice it was like extra extra extra extra large.

This city was a lot quieter than the day before in Utrecht, the fanzone was right outside the station but was just setting up for the day + the Netherlands don't play there till Thursday so it will likely be a lot busier then.

Even so, I had a dance with the tournament mascot Kicky and a few people wanted pictures of me in my Italian get up, probably because I was the only Italian fan strolling around.

We got the tram to the stadium and the conductor terrored me for being excited about seeing a windmill out of the window. He'd understand if his usual commute was the 15 through Tuebrook though.

Again the stadium was so much quieter than the day before, the final crowd figure was a disappointing 669! We watched both teams arrived, sat and ate ice pops with a couple of the volunteers before heading inside.

Of course we were sat in the Italian section and they handed us flags as we came in to wave which was exciting. The match was a bit of a weird one, of course I'll go into more detail on that over on my football blog but in the first half Russia had two chances and scored both. While Italy seemed to have all the possession but were unable to turn this into goals, plus the Russian 'keeper played a blinder.

My favourite Italian player Elena Linari started and in the second half Cristina Girelli came from the bench, Martina Rosucci was amongst the substitutes but didn't come on. Rosucci though hasn't played for months since doing her ACL - I think just before Christmas if my memory serves me right - so it was great just to see her amongst the squad.

As the match drew to a close, my phone erupted with people messaging me to say I'd been on television celebrating the Italian goal. I've never felt (or looked) more European.

After the game the Italians all signed my flag, I even made friends with Daniela Sabatino who had put two fingers up to my Liverpool scarf a few years ago, but was pulling a few of her team mates over to make sure they signed my flag. So I think we are best friends now.

I'm seeing Italy again on Friday I can't wait.

P.S I promised a review of my KFC, but then I thought I don't want to end up like that guy on YouTube so I'll just tell you I had spicy chicken and chips with sweet chili (not child) sauce.

Like I said today is a non-football day so I'll likely just tag day four on with day five (ENGLAND) so you don't get bored and stop reading.

Ciao. xo

ALL MY PICS SO FAR

bonus dancing with Kicky

hev on tour // day two

If you cast your minds back to the original, some might say classic, 'Hev on Tour' in Canada two years ago, you may remember the day we peaked.

It took a while for the peak to come, and when it came it was good. Well anyway, I'm telling you know that this new, improved, much more orange series has peaked early. But then I'm getting ahead of myself so I'll rewind slightly and go back to yesterday morning.

Having slept in and missed breakfast, not that I'm a big breakfast eater in the first place but that's not what you're here for, we ate lunch on the square that had become a sea of orange overnight. A stage had also sprung up, face painting, photos booths, coca cola stands. It was boss.

The streets surrounding the square were just full of people wearing orange, with the occasional Norwegian strolling through - and a table of Germans next to us! The atmosphere was electric and continued to build and build.

I had my face painted (see exhibit A above), collected even more freebies - I now have a zillion wall charts - took photos with everyone (see exhibit B below) and everything. Won a pair of coca cola sunglasses, joined in with the group dances, had a sing song.

Being mistook for being Dutch also started to become a running theme for the day, although I have no idea why everyone kept speaking Dutch to me. LOOK AT ME.

Oh, wait...

While in the fanzone we also spotted Liverpool's Casey Stoney and Siobhan Chamberlain checking out the pre-match activities & couldn't resist getting a quick pic!

So the fanzone was boss, proper boss.

They were doing a walk from there to the stadium but also had a free bus running from the station so we headed up there to hop on the bus.

Once we arrived at the stadium, the first stop was the fan shop where I bought some merch - a tournament top, scarf and programme - and then went round to wait to welcome the buses.

While we were waiting for the teams to arrive, I spied OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST and LIVERPOOL FAN Sam Quek, who is over here with Channel 4. I called her over for a selfie and then some other Brits behind also wanted a pic with her, all the Dutch were just looking on confused!

The buses arrived, Norway receiving a warm welcome but nothing compared to the reception for Dutch team; Shanice van de Sanden came off the bus ramping up the crowd.

Inside the stadium each section was split with flags representing the colours of the nations competing, we were in the Portugal part so had green flags to wave!

The opening ceremony was some guy who had been in the fanzone walking round trying and failing to get a Mexican wave going and a girl singing a song about fire.

This is where we peak.

The game was BOSS. Shanice van de Sanden was just on fire from the opening minute, that now-familiar bursting pace almost teeing the Netherlands up for a goal within 60 seconds!

There were chances at each end in the first half, both 'keepers with decent saves - there'll be more on the game itself over on @LFCladiesfans later this evening/ tomorrow.

So the game reached the hour mark goalless, the minutes started creeping by and then, THEN. A cross is floated in, van de Sanden goes for it with her head AND SCORES. Oh my god I went mental. Like, the most mental I've celebrated since the Reds won the league the second time. It was insane, the crowd went absolutely wild. It was the highlight of my life, bar none. My voice went, my hands were shaking.

After the game the Netherlands did a lap of honour and we had a sing song to all the mental Dutch dance songs and sang for Mandy and Shanice.

Then I got a selfie with almost the whole Dutch team and ADA HEGERBERG (!) and Emilie Haavi because Boston.

So that was that. Day two and I want to live in this orange bubble forever.

P.S Don't try limited edition Heineken H41, it tastes not nice.

ALL MY PICS SO FAR - mum & dad click this link

hev on tour // day one

THE RETURN NO ONE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR.

Hev on tour is back, making an almighty comeback for the UEFA Women's Championships in the Netherlands.

// day one

That's me, on a bike.

I could hardly sleep on Friday night, the night before travelling I can never sleep and with having to be up for 3:30am sleep was impossible.

I tried but at best probably got around an hour of sleep in total before the alarm was blaring and it was time to head to the airport.

Our Jan dropped me off, we left in plenty of time yet of course she panicked every time we hit a red light. Despite there being no traffic on the road whatsoever she took each red light as if I was going to miss my flight.

To no one's surprise, I made my flight. In plenty of time in fact, with absolutely no queues at the airport - a first - and meeting Ley and Oonagh for breakfast at Frankie & Benny's!

I've never flown to Amsterdam before and all my emails from Easyjet were on about it being a 90-minute flight, so I'd downloaded a couple of TV shows to watch. I'm not kidding, we got up in the air, I took my laptop out, pressed play and no more than five minutes later we were about to land. It took 45-minutes in total from Liverpool to Amsterdam.

So we landed in Amsterdam, met Deb and collected my luggage - which I had a brief panic about as I couldn't remember what it looked like.

Within no time at all we were on the train to Utrecht - our first stop on our European adventure. On this first part of my trip I'll be taking in six group games of the championships, before flying back out in August for the final.

Upon arrival in Utrecht, there was a stall set up with all kinds of Euros freebies so of course I picked up one of everything, and then we headed to our hotel.

Our hotel by the way.. well hostel.. is right on the square where the fanzone is. I mean right on it, overlooking it, just have to cross a small road and you're there on the square. Couldn't be better placed.

We had a quick bite to eat before we could check in, I ate nachos that were deceivingly spicy, drank a few beers and then basically slept for about three hours to catch up on sleep.

When I woke up I had a craving for Chinese food so Ley and Oonagh kindly googled a few places, and we went to the closest one - which, was amazing. Good decision by me, I must say.

Still pretty tired we found a local gay bar, drank a few more beers - I made friends outside from Paris and Brussels who were very amused by my accent - had a little dance, it felt like Popworld and then called it a night.