Day Out

	Police & Prostitutes

When Wales played in Ukraine recently, Raynor Lewis made the trip. He recorded his East European adventures in an extensive travelogue. This is Part 4 of the tale (Click here for part one, here for part two and here for part three)

The entry fee for today's Under-21 match was the extremely exorbitant price of 1 whatever (fourteen pence). The ground was oval shaped and reminiscent of a Roman Ampitheatre. To the left is a small 'grandstand', while the rest is just a terraced seating area, with no roof over any part of the ground. Dinamo Kyiv use this stadium for their league games, and European games against smaller clubs such as Barry Town. All the seats were a light blue in colour, apart from one end, which had the word Kyiv in white seats, and the opposite end, which had 1927 in white seats. I was impressed that Kyiv should want to celebrate Cardiff City's FA Cup win, and in blue and white as well! I assume that Dinamo Kyiv was formed in 1927, and I'm sure the huge 'Clwb 1927 Dinas Caerdydd' flag in our end completely confused the locals. The Welsh fans numbered about 50, and were congregated in a sector opposite the 'grand stand'. 

To our right, and about two sectors away, was a group of about 150 Ukrainians with a number of flags, which I took to be neo-Nazi. The symbols weren't swastikas, but appeared similar. There was a huge police presence, and our sector was completely surrounded by them. On the running track below us, parked to our left, was a large green water cannon. It continued to rain very heavily, and the pitch cut up pretty badly. The lads played pretty well in atrocious conditions, and came close to scoring a couple of times. Their goal came from a penalty, which from where we were standing, appeared to be a harsh decision. At half time a number of the Welsh fans left, having been soaked through to the skin. One, who shall remain nameless, was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and a tee shirt. He returned a short while later, having been rescued by a Ukrainian who gave him a plastic see-through rain mac.

The end of the game couldn't come soon enough, and when it did, we all tried to leave as quickly as possible. No such luck! The police would not allow us to leave. We were held in the ground for about 10 minutes after the game, but this appears to have been for our own safety, rather than to stop us causing any problems. We were escorted from the ground, stopping at every set of steps to ensure the Ukrainians were not there to ambush us. As we exited the gates to the stadium, we were stopped again at the top of a set of stairs while the police dispersed some Ukrainian stragglers. As we waited at the top of the stairs, the sound of the water cannon gunning its engine could be heard from inside the stadium. It began to come out behind us, and came to a halt. As it sat in the entrance to the stadium with its engine idling, I shouted, 'Everybody put their hands up!' and then mimicked the sound of a machine gun. This brought a wry smile from the police officer with the most stars on his shoulder. Eventually, we were escorted to the main road, and as most of the Welsh fans agreed to return to O'Brien's to watch the Greece game, Danny and I, together with the lad in shorts and tee- shirt, jumped into a taxi and returned to our hotel. 

The night was still young, so a quick wash and change into dry clothes preceded our visit to the JOSS pub. It's called an English pub, but it doesn't resemble any pubs I've been to in London. I suppose the life-sized dummy of a Beefeater gave it that quintessential English feeling. I felt like stuffing his pike right up his...

Anyway, the waitresses were there as usual with their short skirts, with slits in the side. Time for some scoff, an order of four turkey sandwiches, washed down with several beers, followed by yet another steak and chips. Welsh fans were few and far between to start with, but eventually, as the other games finished across Europe, they began to return in dribs and drabs. The bar was filling gradually and I noticed four unattached females, scantily dressed, sitting in a group as they had been the night before. None of them had drinks, and it suddenly dawned on me that they were the hotel's prostitutes. Now I know what the prostitutes in Kings Cross look like (not because I've partaken of their wares, but because you can't miss them), and let me tell you, the girls at this hotel would have looked more at home on the catwalk in Paris. Every so often, they would stand up, walk through the bar and out into the foyer, then ten minutes later they would walk back in, and sit down again. They never drank alcohol and literally sat there waiting for a customer. Occasionally a well-dressed man would approach one of them and they would disappear through a door at the back of the bar, which led onto the second floor, and the lifts to all the floors above! Sometimes the girls would approach some of the customers in the bar, and I understand that for six hours with two of these girls, there was a charge of US $100.

At midnight Danny and I decided that we would try out the nightclub. I was wearing a Wales top, but Danny, now with his luggage found, was wearing an adidas top. We approached the two (grim faced!) goons on the door, but were beaten to them by a local. He was thoroughly searched, and as they swept him with the hand-held metal detector, it bleeped. This happened three more times; all the time we stood in line patiently. Eventually he was allowed through and I approached the bouncers. Now bearing in mind I had been standing there for ten minutes in their full view, one of them looked at me and said, 'No sports top'. I asked if it would be OK to change my top, and they agreed. Danny asked if he was alright as he was, and they said yes. I rushed to my room and changed into a tee-shirt, carefully ensuring there was no badge or sports logo on it. I got back to where Danny was waiting, and breezed through the security check. Danny stepped forward, and was told, 'No sports top.' We just looked at each other, shook our heads and returned to the bar. There we stayed until the small hours, drinking and eating, spending very little money. It was probably only about 4am when we returned to our room, but I was ready to push a few zeds out by now.