Bydgoszcz 2005 - A Ringside Perspective

[Rico 210]

a big firework failed to go off properly creating a smog of black smoke

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was a smoke bomb Hazzman - there were quite a few let off last year, worst of which was just before the final. Was glad that this year there weren't half as many as they are a pain in the butt (and one of the reasons for 2 of our travelling companions not going back this year).

 

My epilogue is nearing completion and will be with you soon.

 

Rico

[Rico 210]

Ok here's part 1 - up to going to Chesterfields on the Saturday night.

 

4.30 am 25 August Alarm goes off. It’s time to start getting ready for the big one ! Bydgoszcz comes round but once a year and it’s time. After a quick shower it’s an hours drive to Luton airport to meet up with HenryW who has flown down the night before from Edinburgh. Checked in and enjoyed a hearty breakfast after going through security at the airport (glad the staff were still half asleep and undercharged us both). Our flight to Gdansk on Wizzair is ready to go, but somethings missing !! I’m stone cold sober and it’s the third time in a month that I’ve managed to fly without being squiffy – anyone who knows me will know that’s a bit of an achievement on my part. Pretty non-descript flight on the pink and purple plane and we arrive at Lech Walesa airport in Gdansk. Not the busiest airport in the world, however it was quite pleasant – was surprised at the distance we had to walk from the plane unescorted effectively.

 

After what seemed like an eternity, our bags eventually arrived and after a quick smoke we embarked on our taxi trip into the lovely city of Gdansk – well so we intended. The taxi driver had accepted our instruction of going to Gdasnk Glowny, but then started enquiring as to our onward destination. After a bit of thought (our plans had changed a couple of times in the run-up to the trip) I realised Torun was our destination for Thursday evening and he suggested a price of 300zl (just over £50). Given we’d have been waiting for well over an hour in Gdansk for the train we reckoned that it wouldn’t be a bad move to take him up on his offer as we’d get a bit more time to explore Torun as he reckoned he could do the trip quicker than the train as well. So, we arrived in Torun at 1400 as opposed to around 1600 and we checked in to our accommodation just off the main square and were getting ready to go wandering into town when I discovered the tv channel were halfway through showing a rerun of the Polish Championship meeting run the previous week at Tarnow. I wanted to see Kolodziej doing his stuff and his race to beat Gollob, where he came from a mile back was quite remarkable.

 

Anyway, we went out a wandering in Torun and found it to be a lovely place, not quite the size of town square that my favourites of Wroclaw and Krakow have, but it was very pleasant nonetheless. A quick check of my e-mail showed that the Pod Orlem had confirmed our altered requirements and no longer did I have the prospect of sharing a double bed with HenryW looming – we had secured a twin room. A meal in the Sphinx in the evening was followed by a few drinks in a Russian themed cellar bar on the square. It was quiet at first, but the locals came out to play eventually and we had ringside seats for the shenanigans on the dance floor. We didn’t want to have too late a night, given the prospects of the next few days, so we retired around 1.30am, just in time to avoid the rain which had started to fall as we walked back to the hotel.

 

So Friday arrived and Bydgoszcz beckoned. A short taxi journey to the train station and the tickets were purchased. We were very surprised that our train was late, something we have rarely experienced in Poland (they might be slow, but the trains are usually on time). Not only was it late, but the train was absolutely rammed full as people were heading up to either Gdansk for the Jean-Michelle Jarre concert or to the seaside. We were stuck in the corridor for the hour journey to Bydgoszcz and it was a bit of a pain as people seemed to be constantly moving around on the train, but it passed quite quickly. A quick taxi trip to the Pod Orlem and we were welcomed at reception with “you’ve stayed here before”. For the last 5 years, I replied. Clearly a good answer as we were given the keys to one of the very few rooms with a balcony that allows a good view over the street, Gdanska, below.

 

Having settled in to what would be our room for the next 3 nights we then grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Hammarabi restaurant just up from the hotel, then walked back to the station to welcome Tommy from Zielona Gora of his train. Another quick taxi ride back to the hotel (in which the taxi driver pointed out the hotel the Scottish football team had been dancing on the tables in after a friendly match with Poland a few years back), Tommy dropped his bag off on the floor (to which he would become acquainted over the next couple of nights) and then we got back into the taxi to take us along to practice at the stadium. Practice isn’t the most exciting of times, but it was a chance for us to meet up with our Bydgoszcz Net Fans chums who we had such great times with in Wroclaw at the SWC. Most of the usual faces were there and it was great to meet up with them. Practice out the way it was time for one or two beers on the river beside the arena where the ‘Party’ would be held. I say ‘party’ as that’s what it’s called, but it’s not really my idea of a party. Must have been around 4000 fans in the arena and the riders were all introduced (after some indoor cycle speedway racing !!) and gave a bit of an interview. It was confirmed that Bydgoszcz have been signed up to do another GP next year and that was the highlight of the ‘party’ for me. Next year I think I’m going to give this particular event a miss.

 

Back to the hotel for a quick freshen up and we arrange to meet Mateusz, Mama etc before heading off to the Brda for the StartTart’s birthday bash. Food is probably in order as we haven’t eaten since around 1400hrs and there is the likelihood (well certainty in fact) of a big session ahead, so we grab a quick pancake styled bit of tucker (sorry can’t recall it’s Polish name). Very tasty and very reasonably priced. Eventually (after receiving a few cajoling messages from those already there) we made it to the Brda hotel shortly after 10pm to be met by the Start Tart, her friend Steph from Poole, Papa B and his friend Scott from Coventry. Also there was a friend of Tommy’s and some more Bydgoszcz fans. The night started quite quietly but livened up as the beer flowed and a great time was had by all. An invading VERY drunken Swedish fan managed to collapse on the floor beside a very respectable looking family. I went over to check on his wellbeing and eventually got into conversation with the interrupted family, who turned out to be Tone Deaf. The look of shock on the face of his wife when she discovered I was a fellow Scot was quite funny. Not sure on the sequence of events that went on from there as things start to get a little hazy but the rough goings on for the rest of the night were eating of some lovely birthday cake, chatting to Marvyn Cox for a bit, Chris Morton and his entourage appearing, buying a copy of Chris Morton’s book in exchange for some Zloty, drinking more and more alcohol, Mateusz behaving impeccably well, a Swede feeling the need to woo some toots, watching the barman getting more and more tired and then we finally left around 6am to go back to our hotel. It should really be pointed out that Papa B did in fact disappear around 1am and it is now legend that he was outstayed by a 7 year old who must have been in the bar till after 2am !!

 

A bit of rest and a rude awakening with a hangover around midday was what happened next. I think we all were in need of some sustenance so a trip to our traditional pre-meeting pizza house was in order. No sooner was that consumed than we were in a café off the main square and I managed a quick beer, before we all agreed that perhaps some more rest time to prepare for the evening ahead was in order. I didn’t personally feel too tired at this point but after half an hour or so of watching tv my eyes were shut. Next thing I knew it was around 530pm and we were running late for getting to the stadium. We made it there by 6pm and Mateusz had done a fantastic job in preserving us some seats as well as sorting out Tone Deaf and his family with some seats. Nice one MK !! The meeting itself I thought was pretty good, some of the racing (heats 6, 9 and semi-final 1 particularly superb, but there was certainly some good action to keep us interested). After my poor showing at the SWC where I missed a large section of the meeting chatting and drinking outside the stadium there wasn’t much chance of a repeat here as it was pretty much sardine-like on the back straight and I wouldn’t have fancied making it back in. I was proud of my hero Tomek winning his fourth Bydgoszcz GP in a row, amazed at the transformation of Richardson after his 2nd ride and disappointed that Pepe didn’t make the final (sorry again LW). But at the end of the day it was another great show put on by the Bydgoszcz club, which I am sure was well received by 99.9% of people.

 

Back to the hotel for a quick drink and change before the traditional evening in Chesterfields. We managed to convince Tommy of Bert Harkins legendary status in Scottish speedway and Bert kindly allowed us a photograph or two of him and Tommy. We arrived in Chesterfields remarkably sober as we hadn’t drank hardly any alcohol during the course of the day, however that situation was about to change as the party in Chesterfields took off.

 

more to follow once my fingers have recovered.

 

Rico

Edited September 5, 2005 by Rico

[Mateusz 0]

I have really enjoyed reading your story, looking forward to the rest

 

We were stuck in the corridor for the hour journey to Bydgoszcz and it was a bit of a pain as people seemed to be constantly moving around on the train, but it passed quite quickly.

LOL... Just like our trips to Wroclaw to GPs or SWC... Always only 5 carriages and something like the whole city going don't know where

 

Tommy dropped his bag off on the floor (to which he would become acquainted over the next couple of nights)

The Wroclaw's variant!

 

chatting to Marvyn Cox for a bit

I can only admit that his German is much better than mine

 

Mateusz behaving impeccably well

I always behave! (remember that Kitten)

 

We made it there by 6pm and Mateusz had done a fantastic job in preserving us some seats as well as sorting out Tone Deaf and his family with some seats. Nice one MK !!

After all those beers you had bought me, it was my moral obligation to save for you the best possible seats.

Edited September 3, 2005 by Mateusz

[ZKZ Kitten 0]

Tommy dropped his bag off on the floor (to which he would become acquainted over the next couple of nights)

 

Like I said it's already a tradition - Zielona Góra fans sleeping on the floors of the most expensive hotels in town

 

I always behave!  (remember that Kitten)

 

that's my saying - copy cat

[tone deaf 51]

An invading VERY drunken Swedish fan managed to collapse on the floor beside a very respectable looking family. I went over to check on his wellbeing and eventually got into conversation with the interrupted family, who turned out to be Tone Deaf. The look of shock on the face of his wife when she discovered I was a fellow Scot was quite funny.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Its nice of you to say we looked respectable, we obviously hadn't had enough to drink! Whoever that 25 stone Swede was he did a good job of breaking the ice so I guess we should thank him, otherwise we'd never have got chatting & would have ended up sitting on the second row at the GP with a view of nothing much apart from the fence.

 

It was great to meet everyone, shame that we didn't really think we'd get away with taking a 7 year old to Chesterfields, even though she might have outlasted a few people there!

[Hazzman 72]

Chris Morton and his entourage appearing, buying a copy of Chris Morton’s book in exchange for some Zloty,

 

Rico 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

We seen Chris Morton and his army of friends, the first thing my Uncle said 'Was shall I ask him for his book'. But he was about to eat so we lefted it.

 

The planning as already began for next year, numbers our swelling after finding out how cheap it was. Plus with the added extra of regular plane flights to Bydgoszcz, Gdansk and Poznan. It seems my brother may go. With small cost it now means hopefully pulling in another Gp in Central Europe.

[Subedei 0]

The planning as already began for next year, numbers our swelling after finding out how cheap it was.

 

I notice Jason Crump saying it would be cheaper for the riders if "we just gave Tomasz [Gollob] 25 points and forget about this [bydgoszcz] event.

[Rico 210]

Thanks for the positive feedback from the story so far - here's the rest.

 

So having arrived in Chesterfields we found ourselves in the company of the

diehards Papa Bazarou (well he was considered hardcore until the events of

the previous night) and the StartTart as well as TST's friend Steph. Papa

B's friend Scott had apparently gone back to his room after the meeting and

collapsed with exhaustion after the GP. Scott, 2 unimpressive displays out

of 2 for you - report card states 'must try harder'

 

What seemed like the whole of the Bydgoszcz Net Fans group had converged on

Chesterfields although the lack of a table appeared to be playing on their

minds and they didn't appear too settled. Some beers were ordered and we

carried on chatting and drinking for a bit, then a pretty young girl started

dishing out some promotional cards for a cider drink. You either won a free

bottle or got 2 for the price of 1, so on top of the rounds of beer I

attempted to squeeze in a few bottles of cider. TST I think at this point

thought she spotted a weakness in my game and openly challenged me to a

drinking contest. After her exploits of drinking past breakfast the previous

night I thought I might be in trouble but not one to shirk a challenge I

afforded her the opportunity. I know it's not big and it's not clever (and

don't do this at home kids) but that's kind of the way the night ended

going.

 

The club itself had its usual array of quite stunning eye candy (not that Mateusz noticed any of this as we covered his eyes up a lot), as what I assume are the best of the locals (someone tell me where there is any better than this, if it does exist) were very much out to impress - and impress they did. There were a few group photos taken on the night with the Bydgoszcz crew and the night was just basically one of chat amongst ourselves and a few others, Gary from Rye House being one I recall and a chap called Jonny, whom TST had introduced us to on the Friday night, made a sharp exit from proceedings shortly after we arrived. A few of the Bydgoszcz chaps made a reasonably early getaway - Mama and Mateusz and the diehards were left to slug out the rest of the evening.

 

I think most of us were dragged onto the dance floor at one point or another - personally I was dragged by a young man from Torun (Apator wibr....) who I had been goading most of the day with one of my favourite songs, as well as Wolfik, Arturo's girlfriend. All good clean fun, but a chance to see the locals shake their thang at close range. The music itself was a bit of everything really and I'm sure I have vague recollections of even hearing a bit of Shakin' Stevens at one point.

 

The drink was very free-flowing as the wee hours got not so wee. At around 4am vodka was introduced to an already potent cocktail I was carrying around with me and it didn't go down very well at all and I had to make a quick trip to the toilet to sort myself out - I thought I'd better put this in before TST starts shouting it from the rooftops. Feeling much better for this we carried on pretty much until the club closed, probably just after 5 and then the 4 remaining Brits and Tommy wandered back to the main square where I knew there was a 24 hours shop that could assist in the quest for some much needed food. HenryW, Tommy and I hadn't eaten since 2pm and all we had that day was the very tasty pizza. I think I had myself some crisps and some kielbasa (sausage) to help kill the hunger, but details at this particular stage of the evening are a little hazy.

 

We were awoken around midday the following day with Tommy chatting on his mobile, arranging for himself to be picked up from the hotel. We said our farewells and it was a bit sad as we won't meet again till next year - thanks for being such good fun though Tommy - it was brilliant.

 

We had arranged to meet Papa B, Scott and a few others on the Sunday afternoon. Very clear instructions had been given to Arturo to round up his troops for the afternoon, however a text message from Mateusz clearly showed that Arturo had been a little worse than worse for wear the night before. Mateusz showed promptly after being given instructions as to our whereabouts and impressively stuck straight into a pint of dark beer while the rest of us started proceedings on some soft drinks. It wasn't long before the piwo was being ordered for the rest of us but the pace of drinking was definitely slow, even by continental street café standards. There was some sort of music festival going on in the main square and we were subjected to a fair bit of the warming up for this. Food was required and sadly it was at this point that we said our farewells to Mateusz as the 4 remaining wandered off to the Sphinx. Nothing of note occurred, however it should be pointed out that Papa B really did eat a lot, going for a starter as well as one of the biggest plates of meat available there.

 

Another beer on the boat and that was it for Scott and Papa B. They had to catch the train to Gdansk at 0644 so were excused their early departure. HenryW and I agreed that a little bit of rest-time before perhaps venturing out later was in order. I don't think we went back out till around 10pm, by which time the Harmonic festival had thankfully died down. We were both pretty tired after a hectic few days and it was around 1230am that we wandered back to the hotel after a few drinks in the town. The nightclub opposite our hotel was blaring out some tunes but by this time I think we were a bit partied out.

 

1000am breakfast was delivered to the room and after tucking into that and getting ourselves ready we headed off to the station to catch the train to Gdansk. I got the tickets and both HenryW and I agreed that our train appeared to be going from platform 4 as there appeared to be 2 trains showing for Gdynia, one from platform 3 and one from 4 (which had via Gdansk next to it on the board). So off we trooped to platform 4, seeing the huge train on platform 3. There were a few other people on platform 3 and we sat waiting for our train to appear. Why at this point we didn't check if the train on platform 3 was going to Gdansk I have no idea, however around 20 minutes after the train on platform 3 had gone we gave up waiting on platform 4 and conceded that there must have been a mistake on the departures board. So we had another 2 hours to wait for the next train and it was cutting it fine to make it to the airport if we were held up in the taxi to the airport or the train itself was running late. Thankfully the train ran to time and the taxi journey was pretty easy and we made it to the airport about 1/2 an hour prior to the last check-in time.

 

So that was the end of another trip to Poland - it had been a great month, having spent 13 nights in the country over the 2 trips, including the SWC trip. All being well I certainly plan to go back again for more of the same next year to Bydgoszcz for the Polish GP and the European GP, assuming it is in Poland again.

 

Big thanks to HenryW for being a great travelling companion as usual, Mateusz for the Pepe caps and tickets as well as being a super host, Tommy for being great company, the Bydgoszcz Net fans for also being so hospitable to us and the rest of the peeps we met on the trip, who all contributed to us having a great time.

 

Hopefully we can return some of the hospitality afforded by the very friendly Poles in Cardiff next year - Tommy, there is a job waiting for you in the pits.

 

Rico

[Mateusz 0]

Our SGP/SWC meetings season is over now. But it was a really big one - Wroclaw GP, SWC (definitely my best speedway trip ever - especially for one reason ) and Bydgoszcz GP...

Now we can only wait for BSI schedules for next year and as Rico said - if all being well - plan trips for 2006. What is sure now - next year I'll visit Britain and probably (if I get a summer job) stay there for a longer time than just the Cardiff GP

Rico, do you know anything about limits of alcohol that could be taken in a luggage while travelling by a plane?

 

PS

In November RyanAir start with their Bydgoszcz-London regular cheap flights

[Hazzman 72]

PS

In November RyanAir start with their Bydgoszcz-London regular cheap flights   

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yep it means there is a good possibility of going the derby against Torun.

[TheStartTart 0]

The drink was very free-flowing as the wee hours got not so wee. At around 4am vodka was introduced to an already potent cocktail I was carrying around with me and it didn't go down very well at all and I had to make a quick trip to the toilet to sort myself out - I thought I'd better put this in before TST starts shouting it from the rooftops.

 

Rico 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

My lips are sealed Rico, your secret is safe with me, and it was sausage and crisps you ate, but I think one of the sausages did a trip to the floor !!!

 

TST

[Rico 210]

Rico, do you know anything about limits of alcohol that could be taken in a luggage while travelling by a plane? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try here.

 

Rico

[tommy 0]

Just back from a tough weekend in Gdansk (in recovery mode).

 

 

Had an awesome weekend in Bydzia! Definitely worth the trip, lots of drinking and big laughs...big,big thanx to Rico and HenryW for being gracious hosts and good company, B.Net Fans, TST and her friend, PapaB, and all the other folks (can't remember all names, sorry) that made for a great weekend.

 

 

Hopefully we can return some of the hospitality afforded by the very friendly Poles in Cardiff next year - Tommy, there is a job waiting for you in the pits.

 

 

Rico, can you hold a pint in your hand while u re-fueling a bike?? ?

Edited September 6, 2005 by tommy

[Rico 210]

Rico, can you hold a pint in your hand while u re-fueling a bike?? ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tommy,

 

You may well be surprised at the professionalism we display during our duties at Cardiff.

 

However you won't be surprised by our unprofessionalism off duty .

 

Rico

[Mateusz 0]

Try here.

 

Rico 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks - very useful. It says 10 litres of spirits - not bad then It means 20 Zubrówka vodkas - Rico, get ready lol