Day 229 5th March
Fes
Day off with the bike locked safely in the hostel.
I was up at 5.30 drinking tea on the terrace watching the sunrise. I had a good brekkie of bread and honey with fresh orange at 8.30 . Then I pottered around on the internet for a couple of hours before meeting Fabian of Munich who wanted to go to the footy too. So we arranged to meet at 1pm and get a taxi.
So I went for a walk around a souk and saw how the locals shop in a packed fruit market. I ate sardines and chips with bread and a fritter in the medina and then met Fabian and we got a taxi to the stadium. We walked into the press entrance and could see the players warming up on the pitch, but after asking realised the gates weren’t open yet so we went for a drink at cafe Estonia. I asked where to buy tickets and was told it was free entry. So we walked in and joined a hundred or so in the ground which holds 45000.
Lining up at the start
There was nowhere to buy refreshments so I was glad I brought water from the cafe. The game itself was a pretty awful standard but comical at times. Just after kick off another one or two hundred turned up, mostly kids but there was enough security for a full stadium.
45000 seater stadium – 200 crowd
Waf led 1-0 at half time and I found a samosa seller for sweet rice samosa. The riot police were called in when a few kids started a skirmish in the stand and Fabian and I talked about trouble at games. The second half started in typical O’s fashion with Waf conceding two very sloppy goals which livened the crowd up if nothing else. And when they equalised with 5 minutes left they went crazy. At the end the ref had to be escorted from the pitch as fans and the opposition bench tried to attack him. To be fair he could easily have given 2 or 3 penalties for the home side.
We left the stadium and the small crowd were escorted back into town by Black Marias and scooters which seemed OTT. We walked a couple of miles and then got a much cheaper taxi back. Then we had tagine for dinner and I went for a walk and a coffee to watch Athletico Madrid beat Malaga before an early night back at the hostel.