Feb 2008

It´s difficult for someone of my generation to comprehend or even begin to imagine the news of the 1958 Munich Air Disaster filtering through to the people of Manchester and the supporters of Manchester United Football Club. I´m used to disasters being relayed, reported and confirmed within minutes of them happening on satellite TV, the internet and through mobile phones. Back in 1958 it would have been word of mouth, with reality only hitting home when it was in the black and white print of the newspapers.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster that claimed the lives of seven United players, with Duncan Edwards, a player Bobby Robson still claims to have been the best he has ever seen, dying 15 days later. The aircraft carrying the United team crashed on a snowy runway on it´s third attempt to take off, on the way back from a European tie. Matt Busby´s team was destroyed and it must have seemed that the future of the club was in doubt.

Things move on though, all too quickly sometimes. United played on, youth players and reserves were promoted to the first team. Amazingly, United won their first match after the crash, a young team inspired and moved by the passionate support defeated Sheffield Wednesday 3-0. It was to be the only league match United would win for the rest of the season, their league challenge faltering. They did reach the final of the FA Cup though, only to lose 2-0 to Bolton Wanderers.

Matt Busby was weakened by the crash, spending 3 months in hospital, but Busby vowed to bounce back and bring the European Cup to Manchester.

Things move on, but some things are never forgotten. On a balmy May night in 1968 at Wembley, 10 years after he lay among the snow on a Munich runway, Matt Busby lifted the European Cup for Manchester United. United defeated Euseubio´s Benfica 4-1. Bobby Charlton, who had been in the crash back in 58 scored two goals, with George Best and a young Brian Kidd bagging the other two.

It´s quite a story and there are many chapters still to be written about Manchester United Football Club, but you can be sure that 1958 will never be forgotten. Printed below is a poem written by a United supporter in the aftermath of the disaster.

Lyric by Eric Winter

One cold and bitter Thursday in Munich, Germany,
Eight great football stalwarts conceded victory,
Eight men will never play again who met destruction there,
The Flowers of English football, the Flowers of Manchester.

Matt Busby's boys were flying home, returning from Belgrade,
This great United family, all masters of their trade,
The pilot of the aircraft, the skipper Captain Thain,
Three times they tried to take off and twice turned back again.

The third time down the runway disaster followed close,
There was slush upon that runaway and the aircraft never rose,
It ploughed into the marshy ground, it broke, it overturned,
And eight of the team were killed as the blazing wreckage burned.

Roger Byrne and Tommy Taylor who were capped for England's side.
And Ireland's Billy Whelan and England's Geoff Bent died,
Mark Jones and Eddie Colman, and David Pegg also
They all lost their lives as it ploughed on through the snow.

Big Duncan he went too, with an injury to his brain.
And Ireland's brave Jack Blanchflower will never play again,
The great Matt Busby lay there, the father of his team,
Three long months passed by before he saw his team again.

The trainer, coach and secretary, and a member of the crew,
Also eight sporting journalists who with United flew,
and one of them Big Swifty, who we will ne'er forget,
the finest English 'keeper that ever graced the net.

Oh, England's finest football team its record truly great,
its proud successes mocked by a cruel turn of fate.
Eight men will never play again, who met destruction there,
the Flowers of English football, the Flowers of Manchester.

Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand
Just like that river twisting through a dusty land
And when she shines she really shows you all she can
Oh Rio, Rio dance across the Rio Grande

Rio by Duran Duran

Hello from Rio De Janeiro. We only arrived on January 31st but we have already been up to loads, so let me laucnh straight into an update for you.

Thursday January 31st
We flew out of Santiago at 1.30pm and landed in Rio at 7.30pm local time. We are staying at the beautiful Casa Aurea Hostel in the funky district of Santa Teresa. It is by far the best hostel we have stayed in, a converted mansion run by a Swiss guy. There is a good crowd of people staying here, it is social but far enough away from the madness to get a decent nights sleep.

We got picked up from the airport and checked in, dumped our bags and jumped in a taxi into Central Rio to meet our friend Fraser who is out on a two week holiday. We arrived at Fraser´s hotel at 10pm and he was waiting in reception. It was great to see a familiar face. We have been very lucky to have been visited by Lynn´s folks, Fraser and our friend Craig who is coming to Peru. We have also stayed with Ken and Gwen and various family members in Oz and NZ, so we have never been lonely.

We headed down to Copacabana Beach and had a good few beers catching up on all the news and gossip from back home. There were a few colourful local characters hanging around and some of them were hanging out of their tight tops! Boob jobs must be big business in Brazil! We had a fairly quiet night ahead of the carnival, back in bed before 2am.

Friday February 1st
We slept late and got up at 11.30am to be met by a lovely continental breakfast. We had fruit, nice cheese, ham and rolls, orange juice and tea. Lynn phoned her friend Pheona through Skype, a brilliant invention. After that we headed into town to meet Fraser, lifted some cash ahead of carnival and went back to Copacabana for some food. We admired some Brazilians playing football and marvelled at Sugar Loaf Mountain in the distance.

At dusk we jumped a cab back to Santa Teresa for a couple of beers and headed to the Bloco (street party). The place was jumping. Everyone was dancing, singing, banging beats on percussion and drums, wearing colourful clothes, singing, smiling, drinking and dancing some more. It died down and we went to our hostel for a couple of beers before going back out to another street party with a full on samba band and singers. It was jumping and great fun. Everyone seemed so happy and the streets were jam packed with people having a great time.

This was the night before carnival officially started so it left us eager to see the official start on Saturday. With this in mind we called it a night at 2am. Fraser got a cab to his hotel and we walked back through the crowds to our hostel and feel asleep to the sound of samba drums playing in the distance.

Saturday February 2nd
We woke to the sound of samba drums playing in the distance and dozed until 11am. By 12pm we were out back on the streets of Santa Teresa with me sporting an orange wig and sparkly red tie and Lynn wearing a tiara. The sun was out in force, people were firing water pistols at each other, everyone was wearing something crazy, people were out in their gardens with hoses and firing them at people on the street to help cool us down from the dancing. The samba drums played their tunes, people sang, danced, partied and generally looked incredibly happy. You can´t help but smile at it all. Carnival had officially started.

We spent a couple of hours dancing and wandering through the crowds. People of all ages and backgrounds, nationalities and race, coming together to dance and sing. You can´t beat it. We went back to our hostel as we had booked tickets for the Vasco da Gama v Botafogo football game at the world famous Maracana Stadium. We were going with 4 Aussies and booked tickets through a company called www.bealocal.com

The cost for transport and tickets was a little over 20 quid, well worth it. The bus picked us up an hour late at 5pm and we wound our way through the carnival traffic, making it to the ground at 5.45pm. The game was due to kick off at 6pm and Vasco took to the field on time but Botafogo didn´t come out until 6.15pm. Typical South Americans, never on time. The ground was only half full but the fans were in full voice. I should add that half full in the Maracana is still 50,000 people. We were in with the Vasco fans and I sat next to a nice young Brazilian guy who spoke English. My lucky day. We had a good chat about football, hooligans (we were near the hooligan section), Scotland and Zico!

Botafogo took the lead with a ripping shot from around 30 yards. It was an open game with lots of skill on display, some tough tackles, and some great noise and colour from the fans. Botofogo scored a second and looked to be in charge of the game.

It all changed after half-time, Vasco looked a different team and scored from a corner. Shortly after that Botafogo were reduced to ten men after a needless chop on the halfway line. It was a red card tackle! Vasco equalised and looked to be heading to victory until with ten minutes to go they gave away a penalty and had a man sent off. This sparked riots among the Vasco fans and we were lucky to be up in the top half of the stand. The penalty was scored and the game finished 3-2. 5 goals, 2 red cards, a mini riot and outrageous skill and tackles. Just your normal Brazilian game then!

After the game we got dropped off at Frasers hotel, after a bit of a roundabout route. There was a massive street party on just across the road and we grabbed some beers from a stall and joined in. Floats, samba bands and dancers were parading down the street prior to going to the sambadome.

We got chatting to one of the samba schools directors and I told him I was Scottish. He shouted over a dancer who was dressed as a caveman/warrior and said Éscocia´. He immediately took my beer off me, handed me his hat, arm tassles and loin cloth and ushered me into the samba school to take his place. I left him standing in his blue y-fronts with Lynn and Fraser as I danced with the band and dancers.

I was with them for almost an hour. We had a warm up and then stood around for ages before we got to the section near the judges and then the full samba drums kicked in and we were off. I got a few strange looks and laughs from the crowd as I was the only white guy among the dancers, with a bit of a beer belly! It was a great feeling and I was soooooooo pleased to have taken part. Lynn and Fraser walked along the side drinking beer with their new Brazilian friend and ended up buying him 3 beers. He was in no ruch to take his place back.

After my dancing stint came to an end we hung around and watched some amazing dancers, costumes and floats. The effort put in by the Brazilians, some who are very poor, is nothing short of incredible. Kids, Mums, Dads, Grans and Grandads all take part, you can´t really get a babysitter during carnival!

We got home at 3am, exhausted and elated and looking forward to more.

Who knows what I will have to tell you when I next write!

Love
Murray and Lynn
xxx

We had a quiet end to the month of January. We were quite tired from a number of overnight buses and we also wanted to chill out before the Rio Carnival. So you may want to skip this section of the blog and move on to the Rio section!

Saturday January 26th
The day started early as we had a bus at 7am. The bus crossed the border back into Chile and we reached our destination around 2pm. We discovered that there was a beer festival on, good timing. The sun was shining so we checked into the Buenos Aires Hostel, ditched our bags and headed for a few beers and hotdogs. The local brewery Kunstmann put on a massive beer festival every year and have loads of German dancing, drinking games etc.

When we arrived the main tent wasn´t open so we had a couple of beers and German hotdogs sitting in the sunshine. We then wandered back into town and booked an overnight bus to Santiago for the night of the 28th. We returned to the beer festival at night and watched a load of Chileans act like Germans complete with traditional costumes and dancing games. If you´ve ever seen National Lampoons European Vacation, it was a bit like that!

Sunday January 27th - My 32nd Birthday
We didn´t make breakfast as we woke up at 11am. We obviously needed the rest after our early morning bus and beer festivities the day before. We had a very relaxing day strolling around a park, by the river and around a market. We booked flights from Lima to Cusco for our Inca Trail hike in March and got a good deal of $211 for the three of us (our friend Craig is coming out for that).

We phoned our folks and had a very quiet night in, deciding to save my birthday celebrations until Rio. We watched the Jack Black movie ´School Of Rock´ and had an early night.

Monday January 28th
Overnight buses are, in theory, a good idea. You sleep through the night and wake up in a new town or City. However you have to spend a day waiting for the bus and when you arrive you tend to be pretty tired after a broken sleep. Valdivia is a pretty riverside town on the West Coast of Chile, but there isn´t a great deal to do in it. We did go on a short boat cruise in the afternoon, but we spent the rest of the day killing time until the bus left at 10pm.

Tuesday 29th January
The bus arrived in Santiago at 8am. It was our most luxurious bus yet with loads of leg room, seats that reclined to almost 180 degrees, a waiter serving snacks and drinks and the usual dodgy film. We headed back to the Bella Vista Hostel, where we stayed when we first arrived in Chile. We slept for a while and had a late lunch. I treated myself to a lovely swordfish steak and Lynn had a massive steak sandwich. We wandered round the shops and Lynn bought a nice dress for the carnival and I got a new shirt. At night we had some drinks in the funky Bella Vista Social Club and then pizza and a bottle of wine.

Wednesday 30th January
We woke at 11am but we hadn´t slept well as some people had been out clubbing and woke us up coming back into the hostel. After breakfast we headed back up to the outdoor pool on the hillside above Bella Vista and had a pleasant afternoon sunbathing, snoozing and swimming.

At night the Manchester United v Portsmouth game was on ESPN. The hostel has a brilliant lounge with widescreen TV, so I plonked myself down in front of that and watched Cristiano Ronaldo continue is amazing streak of form with two brilliant goals, the second being a screamer of a free-kick. In this form Ronaldo could win the Champions League for United. Portsmouth were dire and United should have scored a lot more.

We had an early night and dreamt of the carnival, football and samba dancing.