Four days, three countries, three meetings, two magnificent stadiums, one tired person

Sorry for the delay in writing but no chance of using the internet since last Thursday. Thursday night was Ipswich vs Lakeside and the meeting looked doubtful before the start due to forecast rain. It drizzled on and off but nothing heavy and we got the meeting in. It was ruined as a contest before it started as Jarek Hampel missed his plane from Poland and Ipswich had to use a PL six pointer. With Ipswich already using R/R they basically had no chance. Lakeside were impressive with Shields and Jonsson doing what was expected of them and Kling looking more than useful and it was never really in doubt.

Friday was just a boring travelling day to get to Prague. Lovely city Prague and the trams rolling down the middle of many of the city streets made me feel like I was back in Melbourne (except the trams were going the wrong way). Met Ron (my travelling partner for the next two weeks) at our hotel. Saturday was the big GP day. Went for a walk round the old part of town in the morning and I swear I've seen half the buildings in Prague in TV documentaries about WW2. A few of the old buildings looked exactly like the Gestapo headquarters from Hogans Heroes (a US TV comedy set in WW2 for those that don't know). Beautiful city with history and culture oozing out of just about every pore. We went on a boat ride on the river in the centre of Prague, very relaxing way to spend an hour. Had goulash & dumplings for late lunch then off to the track we went. Ron had bought two Australian flags with him and we both had one each draped around us. Got in and strangely enough ended up in the hospitality area. Met a lovely couple from Indianerna (sp?) in Sweden, a guy from Brisbane wearing a Rugby Union shirt, and a couple from Leicester who used to go to Leicester speedway and with who I could commiserate over losing Blackbird Road. Had a nice bit of banter with a few Polish fans, the language barrier didn't stop them saying things about our flags and where we came from. Then off to our seats. Wow, what a stadium. Never seen anything like it, superb set up and we had good seats on turn one about six rows from the front. Wonderful atmosphere certainly very much enhanced by the passionate, noisy, and friendly Poles coupled with lots of flag waving Danes. The Danes flags got a major work out because their favourite son Nicki Pedersen won the GP impressively. The racing wasn't great but never mind, we left feeling we had been to and witnessed something special.

Sunday was off to Leszno day. To keep the story short it was a long, long day. Left Prague soon after 9 am and hit Leszno after 4 pm. Driving on the right of the road, the car being manual, the gearstick, indicator & rear vision mirror all on the side I'm not used to, poor road signage, poor roads before we left Czech, about 1,000 (at least it seemed like 1,000) small villages I had to slow down for, taking one or two unscheduled detours, and stalling more than once contributed to me feeling mentally shattered by the time we got to Leszno. I think Ron was feeling rather drained after navigating all day too. We were cheered up when we found out that what we thought was an afternoon meeting turned out to start at 7:30 pm so we had hit the jackpot. Found a bank with cash and returned to the stadium. Got in and this time double wow, the best stadium I've ever seen, even better than Prague. Superb facilities, great viewing and Poles only too happy to help us out. Rezsnow (sp?) were the visitors and Leszno took them apart. Again the meeting suffered by Rezsnow being a rider short (Povazhny) and Leszno made them pay. Having said that the Leszno team with Adams, Hampel, Shields and Kasprak in it would take a power of beating no matter who they rode against. At various stages we waved the flags for the Aussies and got the thumbs up from both Leigh Adams and Cam Woodward (good lads those two, they must be Victorian) but nothing from Adam Shields (hmmmm ... a NSW'er, say no more). Not a Four"N'Twenty in sight so we had spicy sausages with bread to eat. The day still hadn't finished as we still had an hour to go to Poznan where we were staying. That was a good road though so that part was easy. Found the hotel easily too so that was a real bonus after the day we had had. Was just about to go to bed and turned on the TV to find speedway on !! Watched it and talked and ended up falling asleep after 2 am.

The next day and a half can be explained easily.

Monday - slept very late, went for a walk & sightseeing, had a meal, came back to hotel, crashed.
Tuesday - slept not quite so late, went for a walk & sightseeing, had a meal, came back to the hotel and got on the internet which is where I am now.

Due out at 3 am in the morning for the drive back to Prague (because we have to get the car back there). Looking at taking the major freeway into Germany and then south to Prague rather than the way we came and hopefully it will be far less stressful. Fly out of Prague around lunchtime. Tomorrow night finds us at Perry Barr in Birmingham for more speedway and looks like being another long day. Not sure when the next edition of this will be, hopefully Thursday or Friday we will be able to find a place to use the internet. It will be great to get back to where they speak English !!